Poodle Walks

February 19, 2012

beyond Kings Head

Late this afternoon the poodles and I went to explore a location we had discovered around Xmas time. It is around from Kings Head and it is as far as you can go along the seashore before the cliffs plunge into the southern ocean.

It’s a bit of a hike to get there, especially with large format equipment in the summer heat. I’d taken some pictures with the Rolleiflex SL66 around New Year and I was looking at it today to see whether it would be worthwhile to lug the 5×4 gear around.

The mood or atmosphere of the location is that of the romantic (German) sublime—it is all twisted, contorted rocks and wild crashing seas. Awesome wild nature. I need dark clouds not bright blue sky plus a low tide and a couple of hours with soft light. It was overcast tonight with a bit of rain so we will see what tomorrow morning brings.

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February 18, 2012

architectural photography

The insurance company has come good with the money to replace my stolen digital Sony DSC R1. Soon I will have another digital camera, either a Sony Nex-7 or a Fuji X-Pro1. I have chosen these two cameras because they have adaptors that allow me to use my Leica M lenses with them. It’s a stop gap until I can afford a Leica M9. Whenever that is.

It is unlikely that either of the above digital cameras will arrive in Adelaide before I leave for a phototrip to Tasmania in early March. So I will be shooting film only on that trip. But I cannot wait to start using digital again. I miss the convenience of digital and I’m not really enthused with scanning negatives.

This picture was taken on a photowalk one Sunday afternoon through the grounds of the University of South Australia’s City West campus. This is the southern or Fenn Place end of the Hawk Building.

This is one of the more interesting contemporary buildings in Adelaide. It was designed by John Wardle Architects (in association with Hassell Architects) and the southern end is an explosion of different forms that include sky bridges.

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February 17, 2012

isolation

My exploratory wanderings in the CBD of Adelaide with a small digital camera are currently on hold, due to both the hot summer weather and not having replaced my stolen digital camera. This makes me uneasey in the sense of being disquiet—I should be walking the streets exploring, not stuck in front of a computer screen.

The picture below was snapped on a daily walk without the poodles at the beginning of summer in 2011:

I’m struck by how isolating the new apartments are. Each is contained within itself, so any contact or connecting with others comes digitally: with the mobile phone or email using mobile broadband. In this world of networked mobility people now walk the city streets looking at the pulsating screens of their smart phone, and they are only vaguely aware of what is around them. It appears that the virtual world is more important than the real world.

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February 13, 2012

Wirranendi Park project

As mentioned before one of our favourite evening walks is Wirranendi Park. This part of the Adelaide parklands is adjacent to the West Terrace Cemetery and is undergoing bush restoration.

Morton Bay Fig — Adelaide, Wirranendi Park , film , Rolleiflex SL66

This is an earlier photo from the Wirranendi project. It is underexposed compared to this latter image. I’d forgotten to change the film speed on the light meter when I switched film backs on the Rolleiflex SL66. Silly me.

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February 3, 2012

give way

Urban renewal in Adelaide grounded to a halt with the global financial crisis in 2008. The money from the banks dried up and the commercial and apartment building boom just collapsed. In the language of the real estate industry the property market–residential and commercial– was subdued. This stasis lasted several years–apart from new car parks being built everywhere.

The urban renewal situation has slowly improved. Most of the buildings currently being built in the CBD are primarily high rise apartments. This building is an exception –it is a specially designed building for the Australian Tax Office.

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January 29, 2012

roadside vegetation revisited

The dry heat gave way to muggy heat with some cloud cover. Ut was still hot–around 36 degrees– but the cloud cover the morning provided me with an opportunity to do some photography.

I was unsure how long the cloud cover would last this morning so I played it safe: I returned to the shade of the unsealed back country roads and explored the roadside vegetation with a 5×4 Linhof. It was the first time I had used the camera this year.

This picture was from an earlier shoot–when I was exploring how the Rolleiflex 6008 operated in the field. What is noticeable with this region is the destruction and loss of native habitat for farming. Approximately 13% of the original native vegetation remains. Biodiversity is in decline due to threats from invasive species and landscape fragmentation.

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January 26, 2012

urban renewal

It has been far too hot, bright and sunny to do any photography or extensive poodlewalks in the CBD of Adelaide. We’ve stayed indoors during the day, thankful for the air-conditioning. In the later afternoon we walk in the shade in the Adelaide parklands and try to avoid the afternoon sun as much as possible. High summer in Adelaide is living with rolling heat waves.

This architectural picture of the Catherine Helen Spence Building at the University of South Australia is from an afternoon walk taken before the current heatwave began:

CHSpence Building — Catherine Helen Spence Building

Adelaide’s modernist commercial architecture is second rate. They look cliched and dull containers for office workers.The best that can be said for them is that they have been build economically.It is only with postmodernism that the building become interesting as buildings. Most of the buildings in the city west campus of the University of South Australia were designed by John Wardle Architects.

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January 21, 2012

roadside vegetation

During the Xmas break at Victor Harbor I did some photographic studies of the road side vegetation on the back roads. These arose from searching for a place with some shade to walk the dogs away from the intense heat in the late afternoon. I just started looking at the shapes of the vegetation whilst walking down the dusty unsealed road. I was seeking new content–souping up my creativity or design juices.

The country side is basically all farmland—cattle and sheep– and what remained of the native vegetation was a strip along side the road. Even then a lot of that roadside vegetation had been cleared , and what remains is gradually degenerating.

January 12, 2012

urban texture + pathos

Just before the Xmas break I wandered the streets of the CBD with a medium format camera–the Rolleiflex 6006 and a wide angle lens. It was a dull and grey Sunday morning and I was looking for urban architectural texture with a slightly grungy feel.

FrenchSt Adelaide_ — French St, Adelaide CBD

I was searching for urban subject matter that would be suitable for a 5×7 shoot; one that referred back to the pictures of shop fronts in Rundle Street in Adelaide that were taken by the nineteenth century urban photographers. These early pictures (1860s-1870s) were known as carte de visite views due to their small size and they functioned like today’s business cards.

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January 8, 2012

Xmas holiday comes to a close

The Xmas holiday at Victor Harbor is now over. We return to Adelaide and the routines of work this afternoon. The two weeks have given me the space and the time to find my photographic stride, to explore some new ideas and to wait for the suitable weather conditions for photography.

We’ve never spent two weeks at a time in Victor Harbor—its always been either 2 days on the weekend or the 4 days over the Easterbreak. Those two weeks gave me time to find new photographic locations, namely roadside vegetation and the rocks and foreshore around from Kings Head.