2 still life images

One  early morning poodlewalk  along the coastal rocks west of Petrel Cove last week  with Kayla was very enjoyable and relaxing.  The light was soft, there was little wind, and the light cloud cover meant that there was  soft early morning light  for an hour or so after sunrise. We were fortunate as  the early mornings of late have been sunny, bright  with blue sky.

These conditions  allowed me to spend a   a bit of time doing some  photography amongst the seaweed, quartz and granite:

Cuttlefish still life

We have been having this part of the coast to ourselves in the last week or so.  The only person I saw was Allan, who we see regularly. He does a  daily walk from his home in Encounter Bay along the Heritage Trail to Kings Beach Rd, then walks back. Our paths often cross.  Continue reading “2 still life images”

water flows

When I have been doing   the evening poodlewalks with Maleko  I’ve sometimes  included sitting  quietly on a rock to  watch the sea water  flowing amongst the coastal granite. Maleko either sits with me,  or  he looks for any golf balls buried amongst the rocks in the littoral zone.

Occasionally,  I    try and make a still photograph of a particular moment of the rapid movement of the  waves surging amongst  the rocks:

flowing sea, Dep’s Beach

The reason that  I don’t  bother to photograph the water, is that it  is usually difficult to make the composition,  and to get the lighting right.  The sea water moves so very quickly through and over the granite rocks–too quickly  for me  to  compose the picture whilst ensuring  that my feet don’t  become wet from a rogue wave. Continue reading “water flows”

recovered archives

I have been going through my old archives from a PC that died many years ago.  The images had  been backed up on Lacie hard disc which also  crashed,  and they were eventually recovered by a  tech specialist.   The 13,000 images are all jumbled up, there are many repetitions, others are jpegs,  whilst large numbers  are corrupted and so useless.

This is one rescued image from along the coast west of Petrel Cove, and it was made around 2008 when Suzanne and I were coming down to Encounter Bay for the weekends. We  were living in Adelaide’s CBD then, and  we were both working full time.

lichen + granite

My reason for returning to these archives is to see the  images that I have made around the River Murray since 2008.  I wanted to see the relevance  of these archival images for the proposed Our Waters  project with Lars Heldmann.   Continue reading “recovered archives”

seaweed, quartz + granite

Prior to my solo  Balranald photo trip  for the Mallee Routes project the morning  poodlewalks with Kayla  had started to shift from exclusively walking amongst the seaweed and granite  rocks the foreshore  below  the Heritage Trail  to walking along the back country roads.

One   reason for the change in emphasis  is that sun is  too bright  early in the morning  for photography,  so the coastal walks with now  take  place with Maleko in the later afternoon. This is when the coastal rocks are in open shadow and the contrast is softer:

quartz + seaweed

However, it is hit and miss with   finding the  seaweed, bird wings, dead birds or fish for the  open air studio.   For a while it   has only been  the odd bit of ephemeral seaweed lying amongst the granite rocks that I can  use to construct  a still life.  Continue reading “seaweed, quartz + granite”

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”

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”

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”

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”

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”

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”