Bridge Over a Watercolour Sea

Sometimes the shot just happens, all you have to do is release the shutter. This is one of a series I took on November 23^rd, 2012, from a train heading up the line from Cardiff to the village of Shifnal, during my last main UK trip. I think this is the Severn Estuary, though I confess my geographical sense is a bit turned around on this phase of the trip. No matter, the sun was at just the right angle and the waters were very calm, creating this amazing visual—like a watercolour painting. The overall toning is probably as much to do with some polarising effect of the train window as with the lighting angle, but the result is delightful.Minor adjustments to colour and contrast in Irfanview; and the frame was squared up with fine rotation. Fuji FinePix S5600. Image by Mike.

Architectural Geometry

The built environment is the antithesis of nature—it’s all straight lines, cardinal points, vanishing points, and how these things shift and interplay with the effects of perspective and parallax. Some photographers have turned the visual aspects of architecture into an descriptive artform, and there’s plenty in the world to work with. I took this p=shot on the 10^th of September, 2009, in the Festival Plaza area, behind Parliament House Adelaide, South Australia,. This area has been extensively redeveloped since, with whole new buildings occupying what used to be public space, so the available views have changed a lot. This is an interesting study in geometries, on a day when the lighting conditions were not generating harsh shadows. Minor adjustments to colour, contrast and sharpness in Irfanview; Fuji FinePix S5600. Image by Mike.

One Tree Among Many

One might think a forest is the best place to photograph trees en masse, but now and then individual trees standout from their fellows and beg to be the subject of an image. I took this frame on April 16^th 2019, at Belair National Park, above Adelaide South Australia, and this particular tree’s tall, spindly conformation suited the frame shape preset for the camera-phone I was using at that point. Just as a wide landscape suits a super-wide angle, this tree begged to fill such a frame turned vertically. The sun angle was friendly and this frame required almost no adjustment—merely a minute sharpening in Irfanview. Leagoo M-9. Image by Mike.

Giant Plane, Dense Crowd

I love airshows—so photogenic, so much to see, all manner of weather conditions and lighting angles. I’ve shot in everything from dust storms to overcast, and soaring temperatures too. But there’s nothing like the smell of burning kerosine when vintage planes are on the move! I took this shot at the RAAF Edinburgh Airshow on the 10^th of November 2019, my last airshow before the viral apocalypse took hold, and had the fun of airing two cameras on the day. The resolution is of course higher than the old S-5600, and the chip handles bight light very well, but I’m not sure this unit handles low light better than the older model. Here is a view from the stands across the apron to the RAAF C-17 Globemaster III transport plane, which I first photographed at Avalon Airshow in 1997. They’re gigantic and always very attractive for their dynamic appeal. The day was hot, dusty (very dusty) and quite taxing, but an unforgettable experience. Minor tweaks in Irfanview only. Fuji HS-10. Image by Mike.

Very Bloody Australian, Mate

Ever since Mad Max, a burned-out landscape under a blue sky, with a two-way blacktop highway running through it has been a symbol of Australia. Up the country, roads can be so quiet you can stretch out on the white line to get really low shots without any danger. In 2021 I photographed a number of locations way north of Adelaide, but due to a hard drive crash I lost my 2021 pictures—there were many lamentations, as you would imagine. On April 3^rd, 2023, that particular expedition was recreated—going back to the same spots and recapturing lost frames. For good measure, here are two from that day. It’s a highway juncture about 300kms north of Adelaide, up beyond Burra and Tarlee, where the land is wide and flat and, by April, burned as dry as it’ll ever be. Here some bright spark named the road “Worlds End Highway," which feels like it belongs in a Mad Max movie to start with. Those ridges in the background? The “Hallelujah Hills,” and that fits the picture too, along with the ruins of settler homesteads and the abandoned towns up there. It’s an interesting place to visit, for sure! No photographic cleverness here, it was all about the place. Minor adjustments to colour, contrast and sharpness in Irfanview; Fuji FinePix S5600. Image by Mike.

Vertiginous View

This is another frame from the set I took at York Minster, England, in November, 2011, on my fourth UK trip (I mistakenly quoted it as my third in a previous post). This was once the tallest building in Europe, some 800 years ago. Everything I said before applies, but this frame, with the skew-off in framing, creates a more vertiginous aspect. The sun came out—that’s the big thing, because so many of my UK trip photos are dominated by grey skies and racing clouds, which, though spectacular in their own right, can get a bit monotonous. Here is proof that blue skies do occur in the British Isles—just now and then! Fuji S5600. Image by Mike.

Hard, Grey and Cold

 

This image evokes thoughts of wind. It was blowing a gale when I was out on that day, and it was so cold. I took this frame on November 22^nd, 2012, close to the waterfront at Tiger Bay, Cardiff. I’m standing practically on top of the secret Torchwood base, here, sheltering under the overhang of the Millennium Centre, looking toward Roald Dahl Plass, beyond which is the bay. I was in town to see the Dr Who Experience (discontinued several years ago), and was glad I braved the weather for the chance to do the tour. No one was out and about—I seemed to have the place to myself, as presumably the locals know to stay indoors when the wind off the Atlantic comes in so strong, and only crazy tourists are abroad. The wan light and hard surfaces create a texture of such starkness: the image is engaging merely for its brutalism. Minor adjustments to colour and contrast in Irfanview; Fuji FinePix S5600. Image by Mike.

The Hidden Sun

There’s nothing so ephemeral as sun rays through cloud, shifting as the clouds move and the sun declines... They’re moments of time never to be recaptured, yet can be frozen in images (I almost typed ‘on film’) for posterity. I took a series of frames when nature made this show as heavy weather blew up over Hastings, on November 15^th, 2012. I was on my fifth UK trip, visiting towns in the south, and Hastings turned on some thick weather. The camera chip handled the contrast amazingly. While the pictures looking away from the sun were flat and soft, as is to be expected on such a grey day, when looking toward the spectacle over the Channel the sense of “light in the darkness” came through profoundly. Minor adjustments to colour and contrast in Irfanview; Fuji FinePix S5600. Image by Mike.

 

Fun with Low Light

This is another of the group I took when leaving England in 2010. This is at the very doors of the Heathrow Terminal, looking across the arrivals area, and just before they turned on the purple neon (find that in an older post). Notice the steel anti-ram-raider bollards—I think I rested the camera on top of one of them to stabilise it. In the previous frame a moving vehicle is blurred, telling you how long the shutter was open, while in this one nothing was moving, creating this beautifully textured, nuanced image. The only adjustment I made is a tiny touch of sharpening, otherwise this is exactly as the chip read the moment. This was November 16^th, 2010, and I was glad to be heading home, as I had been quite unwell on this expedition. Fuji FinePix S5600. Image by Mike.

 

The Tall Trees

These are Pinus radiata at Kuitpo Forest, south of Adelaide. Kuitpo is farmed timber, and these trees are probably the better part of a hundred years old. The symmetry of the straight trunks struck me with its hint of a vanishing point, while the sun through the pattern they create was irresistible lighting. A simple photo, taken on August 31^st, 2017, on an outing to the woods, but it’s engaging in the sense of ‘you had to be there.’ I can almost smell the pine needles and hear the wind in the tops. Minor adjustments to colour and sharpness in Irfanview; Fuji FinePix S5600. Image by Mike.

Full Moon Rising

A full moon rising over an Australian city, but the trees give it a bush feel. I took this pic from the upstairs balcony of our last house, on July 14^th 2011. A lot of water has gone under the bridge since then! It was nice to have an upstairs (it was nice to have a swimming pool...) and occasionally there were photo ops without leaving home. This is an interesting pic, not for the moon but foe the trees. The sun is just down and the evening light still enough to front-light the trunks, which gives a very pleasing effect, The moon is a burned out disc, which is to be expected at the kind of exposure needed to register the trees in detail. It must also have been a very still evening, because the lens would have been open a while, yet the leaves have not blurred. Minor adjustments to colour, contrast and sharpness in Irfanview; Fuji FinePix S5600. Image by Mike.

Surfing Weather

 

This is King’s Beach, west of Victor Harbor, South Australia. These heights are westward from The Bluff and Petrel Cove, looking toward Cape Jervis, and give a wonderful overview of one of South Australia’s best surfing beaches. The reach of the Southern Ocean throws excellent combers onto these shallows, racing in for hundreds of metres. Little wonder it’s a magnet for those with salt water in their veins. I took this frame as part of a set on April 7^th, 2018, on a long trip south, taking in many of our favourite spots. The weather was warm and clear, the way Australian summers linger (the weather often seems to break at Easter—no matter when Easter actually falls!) No special photographic technique here, this was all about framing the scene as a pleasing composition. Minor adjustments to colour and contrast in Irfanview; Fuji FinePix S5600. Image by Mike.