This picture was made as Kayla, Maleko and myself were returning from a long poodlewalk along the coastal rocks to the car parked at Kings Beach Rd in Waitpinga.
It was a quiet, peaceful moment: no wind, soft light, gentle seas after the sun had gone behind the hills.
The times that I have photographed along the coast with my film cameras have been few and far between. It's been nearly all digital photography this winter and spring--building up an archive of images for The Littoral Zone propject.
This was one of the few occasions with a medium format camera:
I am running my stock of film stock down before I order any more film from New York. All my 5x4 colour film has been used.
I am back to playing around with making still life photos in an open air studio situated amongst the coast rocks during our poodlewalks:
I have several locations along a particular walk, but this series depends on finding some good, fresh seaweed whilst on the walk. It doesn't happen often.
From a return visit to an old favourite coastal location to check it out--a rocky outcrop at the base of the Newland Head cliffs in Waitpinga.
I remembered the strangeness of the site and I wanted to check it for The Littoral Zone project. Mind you that was in the winter the last time I was there. What of the early spring? Would the strangeness still be there?
The soft light after the sun has gone behind the cliffs is the best time. The colours in the detail are what caught my eye this time.
I have been playing around with photographing seascapes with a digital camera whilst I am on the poodle walks without much success. Most of the images I have scoped have been bland and boring.
I have been scoping them in order to photograph the seascapes with a large format camera on a tripod from the top of the cliffs.
This was made whilst we were starting out an afternoon poodle walk. You can see our Subaru Forester parked on Kings Beach Road.
The storm from the south west came in that night and it has battered the coast for the following 4 days.
Whilst on my poodlewalks I sometimes set up an open air studio amongst the coastal granite, and I then play around with bits of seaweed and flotsam to construct a simple still life.
This is a recent example of such staging:
On this occasion I was attracted by the colours and the texture of the seaweed. The image worked better with the seaweed wet rather than dry.
If the image works then I reshoot with my film cameras. This rarely happens. One occasion when it did.
Now that Ari no longer with us we are now able to go on longer walks that allowed us to explore our locality.
Yesterday afternoon we all went exploring along Tugwell Rd in Waitpinga. The country was farmland and we just walked along Tugwell Road.
I was scoping for possible photographs with the film cameras. This is one possibility.
I was so pleased with myself for this section of the recent Hopetoun phototrip for the Mallee Routes project. I had timed the photoshoot at Murtoa, in the Wimmera Mallee perfectly.
The light was right. So were the clouds. The Cambo 5x7 monorail was set up properly. I took a behind the camera snap with the Sony NEX-7 to record the moment, then loaded the double dark film holders.
The spring in the camera back broke as I was loading the double dark film holders. I took some photos but there was no pressure holding the film holder tight against the camera body. So there would be light leaks everywhere.
