Posted on

Spring has arrived

The  noticeably warmer days during  this last week in August suggest that spring is  arriving.  The sun  now rises before 6.45am and it sets just before 6pm. It is also warmer  and have started going on the early morning and late afternoon poodlewalks without a coat.   I am also  now able to enjoy breakfast on the balcony in the early morning sun.  I am sure that the wet weather weather will soon return.

Surprisingly,  my poodlewalk photography   during  the  cusp of spring/winter in 2018,  when the light becomes special,   is becoming  darker:

granite, am

The reason is not  just the low light capabilities of the Sony digital camera. I spend a lot of time being in the  coastal space  of the southern Fleurieu Peninsula,  but  as  I am isolated  in Adelaide with this kind of photography,   I have  been searching to find   what other artists representing coastal Australia in their work  have been doing.   I notice that some  work in the dark mode with their explorations of   impending storm clouds towering over the land or the wild stormy seas.

The dark mode appeals, and   I have started looking at  group exhibitions to  find a visual  affinity with the ways that some  artists have approached   representing the  ocean, waves,  rocks and sky. Continue reading “Spring has arrived”

Posted on

revisiting the American River photos

I have  finally started adding some  images to the  skeleton galleries  of this low -fi website–eg., it is the  portrait and the road trip galleries that I have been working on.  The additions are  adding some  flesh to the skeleton, as it were.

In going back through my 2018  digital archives on the hard drive of the  2017 iMac  I  came across the images  that I had made whilst  on  my  brief holiday  at  American River on Kangaroo Island in South Australia.

seascape, American River

The images that caught my eye were the ones I made on an early morning autumn walk along the shoreline of the estuary on my  last day of the  brief  holiday. I had never done this on previous visits,   as I had though that this part of the estuary at American River  was more or less inaccessible. Continue reading “revisiting the American River photos”

Posted on

King-tides

The recent king-tides along the coast of the southern Fleurieu Peninsula  made it difficult for us  to walk  amongst the coastal rocks  both in the early morning and the late afternoon on  many occasions. We stayed on the clifftop heritage trail and looked down on the wild seas crashing over the rocks  we would usually walk amongst.

Kayla and  I  were able to venture  to walk along the  littoral zone one morning between my return from  photographing in Melbourne  for the SALA exhibition   and before I left to go on the  photocamp at Balranald  for the Mallee Routes project.

quartz+granite, am

It was one of those infrequent lovely winter mornings— cloud,  sunshine  and very  little wind–that allowed time for wander around, look at  how things had changed due to the king tides and  to do some photography.    Continue reading “King-tides”

Posted on

at Kuitpo Forest Reserve

We usually visit the  Kuitpo Forest Reserve for the afternoon  poodlewalk when we are on our return journey  to Encounter Bay after  the poodles have spent the day at  the  Mt Barker dog groomers. These  occasions are once every six weeks–poodles are high maintenance— and we when we are walking in the forest we routinely avoid walking in  the pinus radiata  plantation areas .

We prefer   to  wander  within the small sparse areas of eucalyptus in the forest reserve:

Kuitpo Forest

All goes smoothly on the walk, if we  avoid the campers, the campsite foreplaces   and the various kangaroos in this part of Kuitpo Forest.

I usually walk around with a digital camera. The light in the forest after  4pm during the winter is often too low  to be able to use  hand held film cameras:

Kuitpo Forest

And during summer months  the light at 4pm is very bright and contrasty. The gates are closed around 4pm during the fire season  to prevent any camping.

So winter is the time for photography Kuitpo Forest Reserve as the sun in the late afternoon is low enough to gently lighten up the trees.

 

Posted on

winter’s wild-seas

I spent the last few days taking advantage of the sunny mornings before I left  for Alpana Station near   Blinman, to go on  a 13 day   camel trek in the Northern Flinders Ranges in South Australia with Suzanne and some of  her Heysen Trail friends.

seaweed+sand

This fine weather did not last  for long. The weather turned story,  and I ended up  exploring the wild-seas amongst the coastal granite rocks  between Petrel Cove and Kings Beach. Continue reading “winter’s wild-seas”

Posted on

foam

The severe storm that swept across  South Australia in early May,  produced  lots of sea foam amongst the granite rocks along  the coast.  These wintery conditions, which started as I was returning on the ferry from  my brief holiday at American River,     forced me to  postpone, and then cut short,  my photo-camp  at Lake Boga for the Mallee Routes project.

I had to wait for the severity of the storm to ease before we were able to walk  amongst  the coastal rocks. It was wet, the south westerly wind was gale like,  and the waves were huge as they rolled into the shore.

foam, Petrel Cove

I was able  to spend a few days on our  morning and afternoon  poodlewalks with Kayla and Maleko  photographing the ephemeral foam amongst the granite rocks.  It seems to come with winter.  Continue reading “foam”

Posted on

A foggy photowalk

We had a  foggy photowalk when  Heather Petty stayed with us at Encounter Bay over the weekend.  She arrived late Friday afternoon  and  returned to Adelaide  on Sunday afternoon. Encounter Bay provides  a  relaxing time away  from her work and daily routines in Adelaide. It’s time out so, to speak.

We went on a couple of  photowalks together  with the poodles along the coast over the weekend.   She joined us on the Friday afternoon,  as we slowly made our way  along the granite rocks towards Deps Beach  from Kings Beach Rd, where I had parked the Forester.

It was an enjoyable   photowalk as there  was little wind, the temperature was  pleasant and the  autumn light was soft:

seascape

The   Sunday  morning walk was notable  for its dense,  foggy conditions, which are rather unusual on the coast of the southern Fleurieu Peninsula.  The fog is  quite different to the more normal  misty, autumn mornings. 

Fog, Petty, Kayla

The tide was also very low that morning,  and so  we were able to venture amongst the rocks that would  usually  be inaccessible because of the waves sweeping across the rocks.   Kayla did her standing guard thing whilst we photographed.  Continue reading “A foggy photowalk”

Posted on

standing-guard

Our  two standard silver poodles–Maleko and Kayla–are standing-guard whilst I am absorbed in  photographing some   abstractions amongst the granite rocks within the littoral zone.  Some people were walking along the nearby clifftop path–the Heritage Trail—  in the late afternoon.

Maleko + Kayla

It is school holidays in South Australia and people are everywhere along the coast. They are walking, photographing, fishing, playing and just  hanging about on, and around,  the  local beaches.  Hence the poodles standing-guard. This activity is usually in the late  afternoon, as the early mornings around  sunrise are quiet,  with  only the locals out walking.  Continue reading “standing-guard”

Posted on

along the Heritage-Trail

These clouds and early morning light  are   what I saw on early on  Friday  morning   when  Kayla and I were walking along the Heritage-Trail  through a familiar coastal landscape.   It was so very still that morning.

These are the  kind of conditions that  indicate that a dramatic change in the weather  is about  to happen; usually, they mean that the hot weather is coming to an end,  and  a  big  storm will be sweeping into the coast of the  Fleurieu Peninsula  from the south west.

am, Dep’s Beach

It was the morning  of  the 13th April, which is when  the cold front  with its  wild winds and  driving rain,  hit the southern coast of the Fleurieu Peninsula in the late afternoon.

I was taking advantage of the lull before the storm  to walk   to a specific site  amongst the granite rocks around the point from Dep’s  Beach; a site that  I had selected for a large format photo session.   Continue reading “along the Heritage-Trail”

Posted on

bush-fires in April

We now have  bush-fires  in the Inman Valley,  or more specifically,  in the hills east of Yankalilla  in the southern Fleurieu Peninsula of South Australia.   As mentioned in an earlier post    there has been little to no rainful  in South Australia  this year, so  the land   is very dry; dry  to the point of being parched. Bush fires make the permanent impermanent. and evoke a pathos or heartbreaking.

We have experienced  some  sustained heat during these last few days in April, (Sunday 8th—Tuesday 10th inclusive): the  temperatures have been around 34 degrees C on the coast  along with the   hot and dry  northwesterly winds. These bush fire conditions are  unusual  for this time of  the year,  as these  are summer temperatures and conditions.

gull + granite

In these conditions  Kayla and I  need to start  walking in the morning before sunrise. We try   to take advantage of the early morning cloud cover that sits along the coast,. Cloud cover is important  as it gives me greater leeway to photograph the ephemeral and  the melancholy of the fleeting moment.   Continue reading “bush-fires in April”