A sub-theme of heat has emerged in the ongoing, low key  Roadside project.

According to the Bureau of Meteorology (BOM) , 2024 was Adelaide’s driest year since 2006, with the city receiving nearly 200 millimetres below the average rainfall.  Heat refers to   the extreme dryness of the landscape  in southern South Australia,  during  the  heatwave of the late summer/early autumn. This   dryness can be seen in the dusty paddocks and the  dead grass along the side of the road. It is the  dead grass that I've been  noticing  during my  afternoon poodlewalks with Maya on   Waitpinga's backcountry roads in the southern Fleurieu Peninsula.  

There has been no rain for months and none is forecast by   BOM for some time.  Only more  extreme temperatures  with the increased risk for bushfires.  People on water tanks in the Adelaide Hills and Yankalilla have run out of water and they are now relying on water cartage. This  is such a contrast to the  sub-tropical cyclones (eg., Cyclone Alfred) and the floods in north-eastern NSW and south-eastern Queensland, due to the  ocean and atmosphere being demonstrably warmer than even just a few years ago. The climate is changing because it is warming.

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The photo was made just after sunrise  during  the recent,  intense stormy conditions on the weekend in the last week of winter. It was Sunday morning  and I sat on a rock at the top of Rosetta Head looking over Encounter Bay  waiting  for the clouds  to cover the early morning sun. 

The north westerly wind on the weekend was  gale force. It was gusting  around 80-125 kph and   the temperatures were 10-15 degrees above  normal in South Australia.   The wild winds  caused a lot of damage in Victoria and extensive flooding along the Derwent River in Tasmania. The latter had been in drought during the autumn and winter of 2024. It appears that the weather is becoming increasingly volatile and turning  quickly from one extreme to another.

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 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.

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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. 

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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.  

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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. 

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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. 

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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. 

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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. 

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.