a tree study

This was one of the last images I made on a poodle walk before the digital SONY NEX-7 went into the camera shop to have its sensor cleaned. The sensor had become really dirty on the road trips to the Coorong and to Wallaroos and the camera’s cleaning mechanism was up to the task. I needed the sensor to be cleaned for the road trip along the Mallee Highway next week.

tree study
tree study

I see the same objects every day, in slightly different light and from slightly different angles on specific poodle walks. This is what contributes to my overall impression and memories of the object: it isn’t a single encounter but a series of experiences. So I select the most suitable–in this case 5×7 format, late afternoon light, and some cloud— rather than going in the composite direction.

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early morning

I have been away on a couple of photo trips without the standard poodles. The last one to the Yorke Peninsula was based on camping out, rather than renting a cabin or house, which is quite expensive. I would like to take one of the poodles with me on these road trips but I’m still finding my feet camping. It’s over 25 years since I last camped.

In between the trips we have gone on our usual poodle walks along the coast and the back country roads in the early morning and in the late afternoon. One in the early morning light:

coastal grasses
coastal grasses

The long summer holiday season has gone and the recreational crowds have vanished. The weather may be cooler and the winds stronger, but we pretty much have the beaches to ourselves once again.
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After Easter

The Easter crowds from Adelaide have come and gone from the southern coast of Fleurieu Peninsula.

It is now possible to return to walking the foreshore and exploring the beaches instead of walking back country roads to avoid the holiday crowd making the most of their playtime. There seems to be a lot more people playing along the southern Fleurieu Peninsula coast than there used to be. A lot more cars are cruising around exploring the coast.

quartz, Deps Beach
quartz, Deps Beach

Summer is over and we are now in autumn. The light has shifted, daylight saving finishes this weekend, and the photographs that I had scoped and lined up are no longer possibly because the early morning sun has shifted much further to the west. Continue reading “After Easter”

at Currency Creek

We all went for a walk at Currency Creek on the previous long weekend–Adelaide Cup Day. I hadn’t been there for ages–several years in fact. The photography that I did then was rather disappointing, and I hadn’t been all that keen on returning. This was a family outing:

Currency Creek
Currency Creek

On previous visits we have had the place to ourselves. Not this time. It was packed. People were camping in the picnic ground that is opposite the historic Kingsbrook estate. There are now a lot more people touring around and visiting the Fleurieu Peninsula these days.

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Mad March 2016

If it is autumn on the southern coast of the Fleurieu Peninsula, then it is still summer in Adelaide. So I discovered when I walked the city taking in the various Magic Object visual art exhibitions in this years Adelaide Festival of Arts whilst I waited for the Subaru Outback to be serviced.

I was more than happy to return to the cooler temperatures of the coast after spending several hours walking the city in the 36 degrees heat with its high humidity, due to a low-intensity heatwave that has hovered over south-eastern Australia for the past week. We have early autumn temperatures in the mid-to-high 20s on the coast.

Rosetta Head
Rosetta Head

It’s Mad March in the Adelaide with Festival, the open access Fringe and Womadelaide.

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walking in the Coorong

On our return trip to Adelaide from Melbourne via the Great Ocean Road we tacked on a couple of days onto the return journey so that we could stay at Salt Creek in the Coorong. I wanted to go photographing, and to scope the area for the Edgelands project. This stopover was after we had spent a few days in exploring in the Otways.

Whilst at Salt Creek Ari and I walked in, and explored, the nearby edgelands on an overcast day for a future large format photoshoot:

Coorong
Coorong

I had to admit it, but I got completely lost whilst wandering around scoping for some large format photography, and I had to rely on Ari to get me back to the car. I would have remained disorientated without Ari as I had just wandering around completely absorbed in photographing without giving much though to the fact that I was actually “bushwalking”, and that I hadn’t taken any precautions.
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walking along the Old Ocean Road

When we stayed in some cottages for a couple of days near to Johanna Beach on our way back to Adelaide from Melbourne, Ari and I walked along the Old Ocean Road in the Otway Forest. This was a back country road with very little traffic, and so it was ideal for meandering along carrying a digital camera, the baby Linhof, Gitzo tripod, 6×9 film backs and light meter in the late afternoon.

Linhof, Ottawa's forest
Linhof, Ottawa’s forest

As the Old Ocean road was situated within the Otway Ranges but outside the Great Otway National Park, it was okay for Ari to accompany me on the photowalk. This section of the road was about 8 kilometres but we only walked a couple of kilometres before I used up the colour and black film.
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a touch of autumn

There was a touch of autumn in the air this morning.

It had rained overnight and the clouds were still hanging around the coast at dawn when we started the poodlewalk. I wanted the walk over early because I hoped the clouds would slowly disappear, and I would be able to make a large format photograph of the roadside vegetation landscape at 7.30 am. This had been previously scoped. The gear was in the boot of the car. I just needed the sun to shine at 7.30am.

coastal path, sunrise
coastal path, sunrise

The sun did emerge from the clouds as we were walking along the beach, so I took a snap or two, and we quickly finished the walk. I drove over to the site on the country road, but I found that, by the time we got there, more clouds had come across the land from the sea. The sun that I needed at 7.30 am to highlight the roadside vegetation wasn’t going to happen that morning. It became more and more cloudy. I gave up on the photoshoot.
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grumble, grumble

People have been having lots of fun along the southern coast of the Fleurieu Peninsula on their summer holidays. This part of the coast has remained as Adelaide’s main summer playground. However, we can’t wait for Australia Day to come and go since that means that the summer holiday crowds will start returning to Adelaide for work and school.

Since Xmas, the region has been full off people, cars, boats and the rubbish of takeaway food dumped where it is eaten. The anti-biking crowd have broken glass all over bike paths up to Rosetta Head, the wooden barriers to prevent the cars going onto nature reserves have been smashed, and there is human shit along the base of cliffs bordering the beaches west of Rosetta Head.

This was one morning when I did the cliff-top walk rather than walking the Heysen Trail. It was very humid that morning and it looked like it would rain:

storm, Petrel Cove
storm, Petrel Cove

However, the clouds quickly disappeared and the humidity, intense sun and the stillness meant that it was unpleasantly hot on the beach. The morning walk was cut short and we returned to the house and to air-conditioning.
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