An experiment using double exposure to layer the photo and to make the ordinary seem a bit strange through imperfections.
edgelands #3: landfill
I have an ongoing photographic interest in edgelands. Edgelands are usually understood as the banal hinterlands that exists between urban and rural environments, and they disrupt and challenge the common notion of beauty in the landscape.
The picture below is a recent (2024) attempt at an interpretation of edgelands in Waitpinga. This earlier attempt (in 2022) was centred around the early morning light and it adopts a pictureesque approach. The more recent interpretation below is bleaker.
The more recent interpretation builds on earlier work here (in 2020) and here (in 2019). It is the bleak interpretation that is more fitting to this particular edgeland, rather than the earlier picturesque approach. It fits with the aesthetic experience of being in (walking in) a degraded landscape.They are very modest compared to the work of Naoya Hatekeyama.
light #6
The image below is a continuation of the little experiment that I'd started a couple of years ago to try and photograph light itself. Light is the subject.
This is late afternoon light in the Redwoods near Beech Forest in the Otways in Victoria in March 2024. I was concerned with the intensity of the light.
I experimented whilst walking amongst the Californian Redwoods that afternoon, but I wasn't really happy with the results of light falling on the trunks of the Redwoods. I needed to de-literalized’ the images much more.
seascape #4: fog
I've started experimenting with digital black and white whilst making some seascapse with the 5x4 Linof Technika IV and colour sheet film. The weather condition chosen was the mist and fog hanging around Encounter Bay on the southern Fleurieu Peninsula over the Xmas/New Year period (2023-24).
I've never had much success with digital black and white conversions from a colour digital file using the Sony A7 R111--- the results have always been disappointing, as the images have looked bland and muddy. The recent seascapes and fog offered me an opportunity to experiment to see if I could create something better. The above 'behind the camera' image is an example of this experiment.
returning to Copeville
Now that Suzanne's broken fibula is healing and she is able to walk one of standard poodles I am able to start to plan a photo trip to the Murray Mallee in South Australia. I will take Maleko with me.
I plan to pick up where I left off prior to the Covid pandemic, which was in 2019. This was the Claypans and the nearby Copeville and Galga area that were on the old Waikerie railway line, which was a branch line from Karoonda. The railway was constructed around 1914 and was closed in the 1990s.
I will start by returning to this site and this photo:
It will be a large format photo trip and my initial camp will be in the quarry near Copeville, as it was on the previous trip. Things have changed in the meantime. The Copeville silo was painted by Jarrod Loxton in 2022 as part of the South Australia silo art trail.
seascape #3
The picture below (from early January 2023) comes from my decision to explore and experiment with a different approach to the seascape project that I have been engaged in over the last year. I am finding it an intriguing project.
The exploration involved searching for different locations from the Rosetta Head one that I had previously been using. What I was looking for was a site that would enable me to get closer to the sea , as well as provide protection from any surging rogue waves. I was wary as I'd been previously caught with expensive consequences for the photography gear.
Spring Mount Conservation Park: on location
Last Sunday (26th March) was overcast and raining. These are good conditions for returning to the Spring Mount Conservation Park in the southern part of the Fleurieu Peninsula of South Australia to make some large format photographs of the bushland. I did return, and my objective was to photograph the bushland in black and white. I have learned that monochrome works better representing this old growth stringy bark bushland than colour film.
The photo making needed to be after the rain had eased and before the cloud cover cleared and the sun came out. The location chosen was along Strangeways Rd, which I had identified the day before whilst I was on an afternoon poodlewalk with Maleko. There was no low cloud or mist between the trees that morning but it was gloomy -- suitably so - and, luckily, there was little wind.
I had about 45 minutes to an hour in the mid-morning to use the 5x4 Sinar F1 view camera. I was able to make 2 exposures before the sun came out and changed the atmosphere.
Like the Gitzo tripod I was using, the entry level, Sinar is around 50 years old, as it was probably made sometime in the 1970s. It is a lightweight, modular, view camera and very easy to use in the field; or either the right angle viewer or the binocular reflex magnifier on the back of the camera. I don't have either of the latter. I just use a simple dark cloth, which is a hassle to use when the wind is blowing. I didn't have time to put the Sinar pan tilt/head on the tripod.
light #5
Continuing the light series/project. This is Light #3 for contrast.
The photo was made on a spring morning in October 2022 looking across Encounter Bay from Rosetta Head at Victor Harbor.
There was heavy seafog that morning. These are infrequent as they only happen a couple of times during the year.
seascape #2
A couple of days before, and between Xmas and New Year 2022, have been conducive for seascapes and photographing light.
An example of a seascape from Rosetta Head at Victor Habor in the early morning:
light #4
The fourth in the series of photographing light per se which broadens the terrain beyond photojournalism, documentary and landscape.
This is looking east over Encounter Bay from the shoreline of a small beach in front of Whalers resort complex.