Encounter Studio: experiments + journeys

brief notes on experimental photographic journeys

Quartz, Newland Heads

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. 

seascapes

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. 

before the storm

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.  

an open air studio

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.  

Tugwell Rd, Waitpinga

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. 

Mallee Routes Murtoa photoshoot

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.

Southern Alps

This picture was made whilst flying across the southern alps in the South Island.   I was on an  early morning flight heading  towards the west coast of New Zealand : 

This picture is  a few minutes latter than the ones in this post.  

I was enroute from Christchurch  to Adelaide.  

coastal granite

Thanks to Madeline taking Ari for a walk this afternoon  I was able to walk along the foreshore rocks with Kayla and Maleko this Sunday.

There were  heaps of people  walking along the cliff top path, which is part of the Heysen Trail,  in the afternoon sunshine--with children, in groups, with their dogs.  They were still walking at 5pm. 

I suddenly realised that it was a long weekend--Queens birthday weekend.  People had come down the southern Fleurieu Peninsula coast for the weekend.   

behind the camera

Whilst Suzanne is in Cuba and Mexico  for 4 weeks I have been minding the standard  poodles at Encounter Bay and trying to make a few photos whilst I am on the daily poodle walks.

The photos are for the Fleurieuscapes book  that I am slowly working on.  Slowly because I am not  sure where I am going with this body of work about the Fleurieu Peninsula, or what I am trying to do with it. It is about the specifics of the place whilst avoiding the sublime, the picturesque and the beautiful as much as possible.