A lo fi visual diary
We returned to Redbanks, the cliffs on the Kangaroo Island side of Backstairs Passage, tonight for a 5×4 shoot along the cliffs. Though it was a 5×4 shoot we turned it into a bit of a picnic–wine and nibbles—whilst I waited for the light to soften.
It was very pleasant watching the dolphins cruise by, waiting for the light and soaking up the moment, knowing that the heat will return tomorrow.
On our early morning along the beach at Encounter Bay, Victor Harbor at 6am there was a hot and strong north wind, heavy cloud cover, and spots of rain. It was around 22-28 degrees. Ari walked in the sea to keep cool.
A cool change was on the way. It looked to be a storm coming in from the south west. Maybe even thunderstorms. Despite the wind gusts of 50 kph people were launching boats to go fishing on the southern ocean. Crazy.
I just couldn’t resist. I was seduced by the light.
Sunday had been overcast, still and cold at Victor Harbor and on the evening walk around Petrel Cove the sun came out briefly. It illuminated the rocks at the base of Rosetta Head just before it sunk behind the hills. So I took a quick snap:
It is one of those “Kodak moments”–those most intensely personal moments of our lives that needed to be recorded for memory? Those times when you reached for a camera to stop life for a second, to grab a memory. Remember those when film was king and Kodak was dominant?
Analogue photography then became a piece of nostalgia with digital.Nostalgia turned into something old-fashioned. Old-fashioned became unfashionable. The unfashionable has become hip.
I scanned the remaining 5×4 negatives from the Queenstown, Tasmania trip last night. They look good, given the wet conditions I was working under.
The weather at Victor Harbor this weekend has been stormy with lots of rain and wind from the south west. Ari and I got drenched on both the walks yesterday afternoon and early this morning due to heavy rain squalls.
There has been little photography even though I carried the Sony NEX-7 with me. The weather was too wild to return to my favourite location at the base of the Newland Clifs on the Heysen Trail to explore the photographic possibilities with the 5×4 Linhof.
On Saturday it was overcast with passing rain squalls so we went for a drive to Zeehan in the afternoon. I wanted to to photograph the ruins of the old smelter using the 5×4 Linhof. I’d scoped this on my last visit to Queenstown a year ago.
I stuck closely to what I’d scoped last year as time was short—the squalls returned just as I was finishing the planned pictures of ‘ruins as history’. After looking at the digital images I took whilst on location this time, I can see that I need to return to the site to take more. There was more here than I’d realized.
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.
I went photographing yesterday afternoon with Stuart Murdoch. The rain and heavy cloud cover cleared whilst I was travelling on the Frankston train into the CBD, and the bright sunshine put paid to the 5×4 car park rooftops scenario I had planned.
So we decided to explore around North Melbourne and Sunshine. We initially explored the areas along Railway Canal or the Moonee Ponds Creek in North Melbourne that I’d started to explore on an earlier trip.
Luckily for me Stuart knew the area quite well as he had photographed in and around there about a decade ago. There is a bike path under the City Link overpass that provides walking access to the area under the Bolt Bridge over pass. The area has everything—nature, concrete architecture, industry, rubbish–and it is fertile ground for an Australian topographics style of photography.
I’m down at Victor Harbor this weekend going through some of my photos of the region. I reckon that I have enough images on the computer’s hard disc to begin to do something with them. I’m thinking about publishing them as an organized body of work.
I’ve finally taken the plunge and decided to begin work on a DIY book of photos and text of the Fleurieu Peninsula. I’ve started by using the Posterous Spaces publishing platform to kick things off.
I had a successful day with the Cambo 5×7 monorail view camera in the city today. The architectural shoot was planned for yesterday but the rains came in.I was able to take 3 pictures before the light faded because of the heavy cloud cover.
I wasn’t able to do one picture from the rooftop of an old car park in Franklin St that I had planned. 3 out of 4 is pretty good for me, with large format urban photography.