daily walks Archives - Page 18 of 40

October 6, 2014

at Regency Park

Ari and I walked around Regency Park in Adelaide last Friday whilst Suzanne and Maleko were at puppy pre-school. I was looking for material for October’s architectural theme for my 1picady2014 project. It was around 6pm, the sun was just going down, and we had an hour or so to fill in. I didn’t have the lightweight Linhof tripod that I’d acquired for the digital camera on me. So I gave up on the idea of returning to the Dry Creek Area which I had initially planned to revisit.

So we just ambled around this industrial/warehouse area. It was pretty quiet. Most of the warehouses had closed and the workers had gone. There was just a couple of workers relaxing at Nippys.

The odd semi-trailer rolled through the area and one went into Nippy’s. The wife of a Muslim couple was learning to drive a car and the ute crowd were using the ATM to get money for their Friday night’s fun. Apart from that it was very quiet. It was quite suitable for some large format photography.

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October 1, 2014

on Dog Beach

A car trip from Adelaide CBD to Mt Barker for the poodles to be clipped and groomed, a quick walk in Kuitpo Forest afterwards, then onto Victor Harbor for a couple of days. The evening walk with Ari and Maleko was along the beach west of Petrel Cove. A cold south westerly was blowing. It was cloudy. Rain was coming.

Despite it being the first week of the school holidays there was no one around on Dog Beach. The families were all hanging out at the Woolworth’s mall in town.

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September 27, 2014

at Henley Beach

Ari and I went to Henley Beach to help Gilbert Roe hang his ‘Time & Tide’ exhibition at the Swedish Tarts cafe. The images were made with a flat bed scanner and could be considered to be the digital equivalent of the 20th century photogram.

After hanging the exhibition I walked back to the car to pick up Ari, then we walked to Hendley Square to share a glass of wine, then Ari and I walked back to the car. It was just after sunset and I saw this building on Seaview Rd on the way back to the car:

A gentle south west wind was blowing and people were strolling along the esplanade and the beach enjoying the softness of the dusk.

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September 22, 2014

starting out in the city

Yesterday evening’s poodlewalk was Maleko’s first walk in the city. We had just returned from a week of walking and playing on the beaches in and around Victor Harbor in the morning and evening.

We walked along Sturt St to Whitmore Square, then back along Wright Street to the townhouse. Maleko was a little unsure of himself, as there was so many strange happenings and sounds on the city streets compared to the coastal quietness of Encounter Bay in the early morning.

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September 18, 2014

at Petrel Cove

It was just a trip to Petrel Cove this afternoon. Maleko was tired from an earlier afternoon walk around the Inman River and Kent Reserve and he didn’t want to walk that far. So Petrel Cove it was.

We mostly hung out on the beach on the Rosetta Head side of the cove. We wanted to sit in the sun and avoid the cold south easterly wind that cut through our clothes. It had been raining all morning at Encounter Bay so the sun was more than welcome.

I realised that the photography done whilst on poodle walks has a conceptual emphasis on the exploration and development of ideas surrounding those moments and aspects in everyday life that are often deemed as just normal, ordinary, perhaps even non-essential, but are in fact potentially worthy and notable and should not simply be overlooked.

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September 14, 2014

limited walks

The nature of our poodlewalks has changed with the arrival of Maleko, a 8 week old blue standard poodle pup, last Friday. We cannot walk far, and we more or less hang around on the beach at Encounter Bay, in the morning.

Or rather, Suzanne walks Ari in the morning whilst I hang out on the beach with Maleko, so that he becomes at ease with, and confident in, this coastal environment.

The photography is circumscribed until Maleko can walk a greater distance. Or we carry him some of the way, which is what we did yesterday afternoon when we all went to hang out at Petrel Cove:

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September 7, 2014

a festive Adelaide

Ari and I wandered around the CBD of Adelaide late this afternoon. It was a glorious spring day.

The city had a festive air, due to the AFL result of clash between Port Power and Richmond at the renovated Adelaide Oval. Port Adelaide won. The crowds were walking through the city after the game to the various forms of transport. The Richmond fans, who had travelled over from Melbourne— bussed, trucked, hitched, trained, planed and biked in numbers—were very subdued.

I was on the lookout for opportunities for street photography for the 1picady2014 project after I’d spent all day in front of the screen of a Mac desktop editing a text for my Edgeland exhibition at Manning Clark House in Canberra in November. It was a relief to be able to leave the office and wander the city.

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September 4, 2014

Adelaide: street photography

I’ve been doing some street photography in Adelaide these last few days whilst we are on our poodlewalks. The reason for the change is that the September theme for the 1picady2014 project is street photography. It’s not a style of photography that I usually do so I am being pushed into new territory.

I find it hard to do, especially when Ari is with me. It also takes a lot of time to find a suitable location and the right urban light. I’m not even sure what street photography means these days.

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August 27, 2014

Adelaide's City South precinct

Australia is commonly seen as the one country that managed to avoid the global financial crisis (GFC) in 2007-8. But the effects of the GFC can be seen in Adelaide as you walk around the city and see the numerous holes in the ground in the CBD.

These are the traces of developments –urban renewal–that came crashing to a halt because the finance from the banks for development dried up post GFC. 6 years on and most of the CBD’s holes in the ground remain. Maybe the holes in the ground keep changing hands as they are bought and sold, plans are drawn up, approval is granted, but then fail to get off the ground because it is difficult to get the necessary finance.

Most of the development that is taking place is apartments with only the odd office building being constructed. In the above case in King William St in the City South precinct the proposed 28 storey development is called VUE on King William designed by Woods Bagot and developed by the Asian Pacific Group.

It is heralded as a new residential benchmark in Adelaide and it is designed to attract empty nesters planning to move into the city from the suburbs and young professionals. The finance will come if 70% of the building is sold pre-plan. So we will see what happens.

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August 23, 2014

where to next for Adelaide?

As Ari and I walk around Adelaide’s CBD I am acutely aware that Adelaide, and South Australia, is in a slump due to the decline of manufacturing and the end of car manufacturing in particular. The old industrial age is coming to an end. So what replaces it? What are the new drivers of economic growth. What can Adelaide do to reinvent itself, and prevent itself from becoming a rust bucket state? There doesn’t seem to many realistic options.

Many in government circles say mining. Or defence? Or high tech manufacturing. Or bioscience. Or education. Or agriculture. Rarely do they say the creative economy. The latter is a joke to Treasury and Big Business still beholden to their resource based and industrial cargo cults and frozen in the resource-trade mindset. The creative economy is art and design and that’s not business or the economy.

What they don’t seem to get is that the current derelict industrial complexes and buildings could be filled with hip restaurants, shops, design studios and galleries created by innovative locals and frequented by design-savvy tourists.

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