I've started  doing some large format architectural photography whilst I'm in Adelaide.  

I revisited the MLC  building   on the north western side of Victoria Square this morning with the Cambo 5x7 monorail. I'd been at that location  a fortnight ago,  but I'd screwed the photo shoot up,  as I'd neglected to take off the yellow filter off the  Schneider-Kreuznach  Symmar 210mm lens that I use with my  black and white film.   

I'd seen  the yellow filter, and even though the 5x7 sheet film holders  were loaded with Kodak Portra 160 ASA colour film,  I didn't change it  to a UV filter.   I had  a brain snap, even though I had't used black and film in that camera for  zones. 

The 12 storey MLC building was constructed  in 1957.  It was designed  by Melbourne architects, Bates Smart and McCutcheon and is an example of  early modernist   architecture  in Adelaide.   The building is now heritage listed.

I was finally able to do an 8x10 black and white (Ilford FP4 Plus)  shoot of some  rocks just west of Petrel Cove this morning.  I needed  a certain set of conditions: overcast skies,   a light southerly  wind,  and a low tide. It came together this morning after I'd walked Ari along the cliff tops.  

We  walked  back to the car, I picked up the large format gear and carried it---camera, tripod, computer bag with dark slides and other accessories ---down to the rocks between the cliffs and the sea.  Ari stood guard whilst I set up the Cambo and took the photo of a simplified shape of granite rock.   

Although  a flatbed, folding field  camera  would make carrying the gear  a lot easier---  the  8x10 Cambo  monorail is awkward and heavy to lug any distance  from the car, and  I was struggling this morning, I'm happy to work within the limitations  the  heavy monorail imposes on me. 

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I returned to the estuary of the  mouth  of the Hindmarsh River  in Victor Harbor when I was there on the  weekend. 

This was at  the same time as  Peter Eastway  was running his  Fleurieu Peninsula  landscape (digital) photography workshop at Whalers Inn Resort in association with Ron Langman  Their  landscape locations (at dawn and dusk) were Petrel Cove and the coastal rocks around Port Elliot.  Eastway, is a magazine editor who  runs the Better Photography magazine,  as well as running landscape photography workshops around Australia and overseas photography trips/tours.    

Digital technology  makes these workshops  viable  because you can upload  the digital files to the computer after the dusk/dawn photoshoot, quickly process them, and  then discuss them in a workshop the next day. They are popular because you can have fun, enjoy good food and wine,  and socialise with other members of the group.  

I  returned to the Hindmarsh River estuary because I  had to give  up the previous black and white photo shoot  up a couple of weeks ago as  it started raining just as I was photographing the melaleucas. I was lucky this time. Sunday  morning was over overcast,  the light was soft,  the  cloud cover started clearing  slowly,  and the sun came out up just as I'd finished the photoshoot. 

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I have done little large format photography since I been at Victor Harbor these last ten days or so. The winter weather has been very stormy and there  have been few  opportunities  for slow photography. One location that I had in mind was Cape Jervis and the weather  was  finally okay to make the trip:

It  was a winter photoshoot for the Fleurieu Four Seasons Prize for Landscape Photography but I had another project in mind as well as I'd submitted a pitch for the Pitcher This in the Shimmer Photography Festival 2014.  Pitcher This  is a live crowd-funded event open to all artists with a project or idea that is photography based. Each pitcher has 5 minutes to present and the crowd votes. 

I had in mind a people,  place,  space project--ie.,   the landscape of  the Fleurieu Peninsula  is an environment that has been modified, cultivated, enhanced, or exploited through human activity. 

In this post on his Tumblr blog Stuart Murdoch  gives an indication of how I've been working  for my 4 photo submission to the Fleurieu Four Seasons Prize for Landscape Photography. Just as he  drives around  the region between the western rim of Melbourne and Ballarat I've been driving around the western  Fleurieu Peninsula.

Yesterday we wandered along some back country roads on our way to Cape Jervis  to see if a winter shoot was possible.   

 Unlike Stu Art   I mostly scope with a digital camera, check the images on the computer,  then return to specific locations with my film camera. 

I've been exploring the Hindmarsh River estuary at Victor Harbor, South Australia. I'd initially scoped  the malaleucas with a digital camera--the Sony NEX-7, handheld:

It's  a low light camera on a tripod situation. 

I returned  for a more considered photo with a medium format camera--Rolleiflex SL66--- using black and white film  and a wide angle lens.  

Now I'm trying to make a 8x10 photo   using the Cambo monorail and black and white film.  I've been waiting for the mouth of the river to open in winter, then for the winter rains to ease so that the swamp-land dries out. It's been  been very wet this winter. I was wanting an overcast day with little wind. 

That was today. I started  the photoshoot with the Cambo around lunchtime,  but the rains returned before I'd really got started.  So I have to wait for the rains to ease, the ground to dry out, and an overcast day.  

I've been working on an 8x10 black and white interpretation of this picture that I took the other morning whilst walking with Ari:

I missed the light at my first attempt this morning. The Cambo and Linhof  tripod were playing up and  the early morning sunlight was momentary because of the cloud cover. 

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I've been waiting some time to remake this roadside vegetation picture: 

I'd casually snapped in one morning last year on a poodle walk along Baum Rd. I was attracted by the light. 

 I'd been back to reshoot it with a large format camera since but the light and the grass wasn't right. It was all too green. I had to wait for the grass alongside the road to die. I'd gone back earlier in the week. The  winter grass was dead  but it was overcast and there was  no early morning sunlight. The scene looked drab and dull.  

I went back this morning with Ari  as there was some  light early morning  cloud and the promise of lots of sunlight. We did a poodlewalk along Baum road,  then came back to the trees to watch  how  the sunlight lit up the scene. 7.30 am was around the right time. 

If there is sunlight tomorrow morning I will be back with the 8x10 Cambo. 

I have been playing around with this image.

I initially saw it on an early morning  poodle walk with Ari and I snapped it with the  iPhone. It looked  as if it were taken during the moonlight. As this was a part of our regular walk I  then took some snaps with the digital Sony. They looked okay  so I returned  this morning and made a couple of pictures with the Rollei SL66 before walking Ari. 

I  made some  pictures in the Adelaide Botanic Gardens  using tranny film (Fuji Velvia)  earlier in the year.  It  was part of the Atkins Technicolour's  2014  Summer School Film Challenge.  I was only able to attend the film challenge workshop due to other commitments.  

It was a 40-45 degree day  in high summer and we were  to make our  photos between 9.30am --12.30 pm.  The roll was processed  by Atkins and we then selected one picture from the shoot.  This was then  scanned by Atkins, lightly post-processed by the photographer, then printed by Atkins for an upcoming exhibition.  

My pictures  of bamboo strands in the Botanic Gardens was hit and miss,  and  some of the pictures were badly underexposed. I've just scanned  the two rolls  that I exposed  back then.  I've  quickly converted one of the badly underexposed  pictures  to black and white using Silver Efex Pro 2 to see  if it is possible to  save them:

This  picture  of leaf litter was next to  a strand of bamboo  under some trees that  provided some deep,  open shade and this allowed me   to avoid the summer glare.  I gathered bits and pieces of leaf litter and  some colourful flowers to form a "still life".   

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