I have been struggling with a bursitis shoulder over the Xmas break  and, as a result,  the photography  has been minimal. It has been limited to what I could do on the morning and evening poodlewalks along the coast. I avoided walking in the bush due to the brown snakes. As I could only carry and use light weight  cameras, the  photography has consisted mostly  of macro with  some  scoping for large format photosessions in the future.  

This macro of quartz on the side of a granite outcrop, which  was made  with my  old  Sony NEX-7, an old Lecia Summicron 35mm lens and  a  Voigtlander VM/E Close Focus Adaptor, raises a question:  could I make a 5 x4 version using a telephoto lens?

I am asking this because over the Xmas break I have been looking at some of  the seaweed photos made by Peter Dombrovskis, which are in the  Dombrovskis: Journeys into the Wild, exhibition at  the National Library of Australia (NLA). The kelp photos are stunning. Likewise the granite  the  sandstone and the quartz studies. These are wide angle views,  close ups and low-contrast light.  This collection is  wilderness imagery with a sense of sublime terror with its roots in  the nineteenth century. This body of work is definitely not nostalgic kitsch, an idealising  falsehood, or an eco-porn generating desire for touristic or vicarious consumption.   Nor is it premised on an equivalency between visible and unseen worlds.

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My frustration from the rushed Talem Bend photo session has mounted,  due to  the very gusty  northerly and south-westerly winds and continual rain  over the last 4 days. The frustration comes from these weather condition  making it impractical to make a  return trip to Talem Bend at the base of the Mallee Highway. It's 90 minutes drive time each way. 

Suzanne  suggested that  I make things a bit easier  for myself in using the 8x10 Cambo by starting to photograph around my local area.  I took her advice and I was lucky to squeeze a photo session of roadside vegetation in Waitpinga in one morning after a   poodlewalk with Kayla. This  just before  it started to rain. 

I realized afterwards that concentrating on  pictures of roadside vegetation was far  too limited,  and that  really  I needed to broaden my local  image making  to include the roads I travelled along by making them  more central to the photography.   Here was a good model.    

I decided to start this exploration off  by beginning with the roads that I usually  walk down whilst on the  poodlewalks. I needed to start with what I was familiar with.  The connection between walking and still photography  is crucial,  as it is on these walks that  I  see the possible subject matter. 

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On the last couple of coastal poodle walks I've started scoping subject matter  for the 5x4 Sinar F2 and black and white film.  I haven't been using this monorail much since I decided to use it for black and white photography.  

I took the Sinar  with me on the  recent photo trip  to the Mallee Highway,  and  I did find some suitable subject matter. However,  the weather was too bright and sunny on the last day for the planned  photoshoot at Torrita. 

This is one possibility along the coast that I  did come across:  

This location is fairly easy to access with a monorail--it's a short walk along the coastal path to the rocks.  I just need an overcast day for the photoshoot with no rain.   

We are slowly adjusting to  the shift to Victor Harbor and sorting through---chipping away at --- the mess of reducing two households into one. Most of the boxes have been emptied and the records,  books, furniture  and clothes given way. 

Setting up Encounter Studio is on hold until the inducted air-conditioning  is put in, hopefully  next week. Until then,  I am working on  the Edgelands book amongst a heap of photographic stuff and books piled up  around me. 

The large format  photography hasn't  happened yet, which frustrates me, because I have been walking a young poodle pup.  But I've started scoping  some coastal landscape work around Victor Harbor  now that we are in autumn:

This  picture in the early morning light was scoped for a 5x4 colour picture last week when I was on a poodlewalk with Ari and  Kayla. The next small step is to load up the sheet film holders so that I am ready for action.

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The shift from living in the Sturt St apartment  in Adelaide's  CBD to  the house at Victor Harbor  is currently under way.  The townhouse will go on the market in mid-January. 

All the computers, scanners   and camera equipment now reside at Encounter Studio.   This  means that Encounter Studio will  eventually become the centre of my photography,  rather than what I do when I'm here at Encounter Bay for a few days every second weekend.  What will become secondary will be the urban photography,  as that now requires travelling up to the CBD or to Melbourne.

There has been little large format photography done because the shift taking place is teaching up my time and energy.   But  there is this possibility  for an 8x10 shoot that I came across  when I was looking through the 2014 digital archives just before  the Xmas break for what I'd scoped with the digital camera for  large format  photography. 

I went back and had a look over Xmas after walking the dogs at Kings Beach in the afternoon,  but  a quick glance indicated that the tree had been cut down.  I'll have to check the location more thoroughly. If  the  pine tree has  gone, then that is the end of that possibility for an 8x10.   

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I have found another possibility image for the proposed Victor Harbor exhibition. 

This is the scoping study made with a handheld digital camera --Sony NEX-7---earlier in the week whilst I was on a poodlewalk:

It is a section of a rock face at Kings Head, near Victor Harbor.

 I'll make a  medium format black and white photo this afternoon and then a colour one in 5x4 tomorrow.  There is no way that I can easily get the 8x10 Cambo monorail down to that location. 

Whilst we have been down at Victor Harbor  for a couple of days I've been exploring  a new location for large format photography--the estuary of the Hindmarsh River.  The specific spot I've been scoping  is  the area of the Swamp Paperbark Trees (Melaleuca halmaturorum) with its  minimal  understorey of herbs.

The site is  easy to access with  the 8x10 Cambo monorail,  and the Swamp Paperbark would be a suitable  subject for black and white. I have photographed  these before  but never in terms of black and white.