at West Terrace Cemetery

Yesterdays poodlewalk was in West Terrace Cemetery.

I was on my way back to the city after picking up the repacked batteries for the Rolleiflex 6006 in Thebarton. It’s a bulky 1990s system, but a good one that I used regularly. However, without the batteries the electronic cameras become expensive doorstops. This system had been out of action for six months because I could find anyone to repack the batteries properly.

The battery pack is an old fashioned one, and over time it holds less and less charge. The previous attempt to repack them in Adelaide was a failure, as the person doing it didn’t know what they were doing. The batteries, though new, could not recharge, and I was faced with sending things back to Rollei, if I couldn’t find anyone else in Adelaide to repack them.

damaged statue

Rain was threatening and the cemetery was on the way home. We walked around the Catholic section. The damage was fairly extensive, much more so than I remember.

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walking with Theen Moy

Ari and I went on a poodlewalk with Theen Moy this morning. This is the first time that someone has accompanied Ari and I on one of our poodle walks and Ari and Theen got on well together. It had rained solidly during the night, but the morning was overcast, was no wind. The showers didn’t eventuate and the light was soft.

Currie St

Theen’s free time was between 8-10am and the 2 hours allowed us to slowly wander the CBD. Theen wanted to explore the city away from the market precinct so we walked from Grote Street up to Hindley Street then back before Theen went off to work. It was the morning peak hour.

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yet another ‘from a car park’ photo

I keep on taking photos of the Adelaide skyline from within car parks. But I’m not really sure why I’m doing this or the reason behind it apart from it being part of a poodlewalk and that few photographers are exploring Adelaide’s skylines.

These kind of pictures assume a view from nowhere —a God’s eye view that trades on 19th century photography’s claim that because its imagery was produced by a mechanical process therefore photography was inherently more truthful than painting or drawing.

car park

This photography’s objectivity, which depends on the assumption of an external framework for understanding that transcends limited viewpoints, biased arguments or individual preferences; an Archimedean point from which an externally verifiable reality may be viewed. What is eliminated is the human subjectivity of being in the world–our experience of that world which shapes how we view it.

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eucalyptus leaves abstract

Before the rains came I took a number of photos of some eucalyptus leaves in the Adelaide parklands whilst on a poodlewalk. A branch had fallen onto the ground and the leaves had dried out. Over a couple of days I made a variety of photos in differnt lighting situations with different camera.

I initially used the iPhone to see what the leaves would look like as an abstract photo. Then I returned with a digital camera and then two film cameras. I wanted to see the differences between them. The picture below is the digital version made in flatish light. There was no sun that afternoon. The cloud cover didn’t break up.

eucalyptus leaves

I have yet to scan the film negatives. I’ll do that this afternoon. I reckon I only used the Leica M rangefinder in the end because of the low light.

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whilst sheltering from the rain

Its been raining fairly consistently in Adelaide all week. We’ve been caught a number of times by the showers on our poodlewalks. We would shelter under the trees until the showers pass, then continue the walk. On one occasion, whilst we were waiting under a pine tree, I noticed the patterns of the bark.

I then took some photos in the form of abstractions of the bark:

pine bark

I then started noticing, and checking out, the bark of the various pine trees in the parklands after that. Very few had interesting or forms. The trunks of eucaplypts are more varied and interesting.

only a moment

This morning Ari and I went to Kings Beach, Victor Harbor on our early morning poodle walk. The weather looked promising–overcast and still after the overnight rain. I carried my medium camera and tripod down to the beach along with a special poncho to provide me and the gear with protection from the passing showers. It was 7.15 am and the surfers were already riding the rolling waves off Kings Head. The tide had just turned and it was going out. It looked good.

I started scouting around amongst the rocks with my digital camera for some subject matter from where I’d left off the last time we were down here:

seaweed+rock

Suddenly, the the soft early morning light went. I’[d taken a couple of pictures. The cloud cover disappeared it was all blue sky and bright sunshine. Just like that. The photo shoot was all over. I’d completely misread the conditions. There was nothing else to do but walk back along the cliffs to the car.

returning to Mt Barker

Whilst the poodles were being clipped and groomed I spent a couple of hours walking around Mt Barker in the early morning taking photos. I Prior to that I walked along the creek that feed into the Laratinga Wetland. I never made it to the wetlands, as it became too hot to do any photography after 10 am.

creek, Mt Barker

I planned to do the wetlands in the afternoon when I picked the poodles up. It would be an afternoon poodle walk. We set out along the creek around 3pm, but it was too hot to continue walking in the sun. It was unpleasant in the full sun.

The current weather is very unseasonal for mid-autumn. The night temperatures are 22 degrees (C), there are bush fires in the Adelaide Hills, and there’s little rain. South Australia is becoming hotter and it is drying out.

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