A Vista for Testing

A lot of water goes under the bridge as the years roll by, and photography punctuates those years with frozen moments. I remember this day—a road trip down south. It was the 29^th January, 2019 and I was taking my then-new smartphone for a test run as a camera. The first stop was Myponga Reservoir, and I rapidly discovered that the unit did not have enough DPI to stand much in the way of telephoto before pixelation occurred, which also seems to hold good for my current phone, which has vastly greater resolution. This pic was taken from the lookout on the ridge, one of a series over the dam and gorge. The chip and resolution did an overall good job, I thought, but the areas of greatest detail, such as the summer grasses, suffer most in reproduction, softening significantly. This phone was retired a few years ago. Minor adjustments to colour, contrast and sharpness in Irfanview; Leagoo M9. Image by Mike.

Bird and Sun

I’ve posted images from this shoot before, and I keep coming back to it, for the rare simplicity yet import of these shots. This was Brighton beach, South Australia, on November 21^st, 2007, and I had taken a walk with a lady friend to enjoy the sunset in the west and and moonrise, soon after, in the east. I took the camera along, as always, and the results were pretty unique for me, as I have rarely had the chance to do anything similar in all the years since. What makes this telephoto frame so interesting is the close alignment of the two signatory factors—the sun, distorting and disappearing through the clouds, and the seagull passing in a blur right next to it. Ephemeral moments—come and gone in a blink, they cannot be planed for, but the camera captures them. There’s real magic in that, and twenty years on it can still be appreciated and enjoyed. Minor adjustments to colour, contrast and sharpness in Irfanview; Fuji FinePix S5600. Image by Mike.

 

Any Night at an Airport

Simple but effective—the lens flare of the lighting tower is what makes the shot, plus the hard contrast between the background darkness and the illuminated areas of the apron. The ;lineup of the aircraft and the tower is appealing composition, and the scene was static, enabling a long exposure. This is Newcastle Airport in the November of 2007, as I began my homeward journey after my second UK excursion. I’ve posted some shots from this point before—taken through the terminal plate glass windows, juggling my own shadow against the glass and the camera often flat to the window to exclude reflections of the brightly lit interior. The old chip handled the low light nicely, and with the camera held rock-solid, there’s no motion blur. Minor adjustments to colour, contrast and sharpness in Irfanview; Fuji FinePix S5600. Image by Mike.

 

Panorama from Altitude

Here’s an interesting shot—one of the many that presented themselves as I kept my camera pointed out the window during approach to Newcastle Airport on my first UK trip. This was the 9^th of November, 2006, and I was about to reach my landfall in the north after changing planes in London. This is the Royal Quays Marina, on the north side of the River Tyne, and the morning sun was at just the right angle to illuminate things nicely. You can see how early it is from the length of the shadows. I was shooting telephoto, so altitude must still have been some thousands of feet. No cleverness here, just point and shoot. Minor adjustments to colour, contrast and sharpness in Irfanview; Fuji FinePix S5600. Image by Mike.

 

Flaps Down!

The last time I ran a frame from the approach to Singapore in November 2007 (my second UK trip) was October of ‘24, and there are still some great frames to consider. This is quite late in the approach to Changi Airport—the the flaps are fully deployed and the ground is not far away. It’s interesting how the eye cannot decide which focal point to go to—the sunset colours at top left, or the dirt and oil on the normally obscured portions of the flaps.. Looking at this picture, I can feel the motion of the plane like it was yesterday, am awaiting the sensation of main gear contact, then reverse thrust... Ah, those were the days! Minor adjustments to colour, contrast and sharpness in Irfanview; Fuji FinePix S5600. Image by Mike.

 

The Old and the New

Juxtaposing the old and the new is a favourite photographic theme of mine, and here is a gap of a thousand years: a modern roll-on-roll-off vehicle ferry heading south off the mouth of the River Tyne, in Northumberland, UK, framed over the stone ruins of Tynemouth Priority, which has occupied the headland, along with an associated castle, since the Middle Ages. I took this frame on November 15^th, 2010. The weather was being very fair that day, and I had an excellent visit, using the cross-river ferry service. Sixteen years—it seems like yesterday. Minor adjustments to colour, contrast and sharpness in Irfanview, squared up using fine rotation; Fuji FinePix S5600. Image by Mike.

 

A Harmony of Steel

I’ll always come back to vanishing point symmetry—it’s just so eye-catching, with its implications of motion and the third dimension. Here is a study of architectural relationships, a major railway station, one of the most fun places to capture this kind of image. It’s the Manchester Piccadilly Centre, photographed on November 19^th, 2006, and I believe it’s early in the morning—there are very few people about and the shadows are long. This would be my departure leg. I had one night in Blackpool, having come across the country on the Transpennine Express from the Yorkshire coast, and I was bound for London next day. I snapped this shot from high on one of the escalators, which I recall being exceptionally smooth, not jostling the shot at all. Minor adjustments to colour, contrast and sharpness in Irfanview; Fuji FinePix S5600. Image by Mike.

 

Lush at Altitude

Apologies for the dearth of posts in August! My laptop was in the shop for work, and with work being so pressing I completely forgot about the photo blog! Here’s a frame from May 8^th, 2011, taken at Loftier Botanic Gardens on a visit with friends. The park is just behind Mt Lofty in the Adelaide Hills and in fact runs up to the ridge line. These are lush, tropic plants that do well in the moisture available at altitude—there is a defile known as Fern Gully, and you can certainly see why! Nothing clever here, but the composition is pleasing, the light conditions excellent, and the exposure spot on. Minor adjustments to colour, contrast and sharpness in Irfanview; Fuji FinePix S5600. Image by Mike.

 

The Jungle in the City

Photography is notorious for deceiving the eye. This example of lush, tropical vegetation suggests a low latitude, something one would capture on expedition into the world’s wild places, and indeed it might be but for the wonder of botanical gardens. This image was captured on October 6^th, 2012, during a visit with friends to the tropical house of the Royal Botanical Gardens, Adelaide South Australia—and what a spectacular place it is, rising high in its modernistic architecture, creating an internal rainforest. Not to be confused with the old Victorian tropical house, whose glass architecture has long graced the gardens, this new structure is far larger and contains an ambitious display the equal of any in the world. No photographic cleverness here, just a simple frame and capture, with minor adjustments to colour, contrast and sharpness in Irfanview; Fuji FinePix S5600. Image by Mike.

 

When Water Holds the Sky

Reflections are always fun to work with, and still waters are that perfect mirror for the bright sky. Lakes are, by their nature, spectacular fodder for photographers interested in landscape studies. Lakes don’t have to be large to deliver the visual goods—this one is small indeed. Here a palm reflects among the lily pads at Himeji Gardens, on Adelaide’s South Terrace. The Japanese gardens, created to celebrate the city’s twin status with Himeji, are a haven of peace and always a delight to visit. I got this frame during a visit with friends on June 12^th, 2011—cool weather here in the south, when afternoon sun vied with dark clouds in the east. Minor adjustments to colour, contrast and sharpness in Irfanview; Fuji FinePix S5600. Image by Mike.

 

Australian Winter Sea

This frame was captured a few days over fourteen years ago, on July 7^th 2012, during a coastal walk with friends. This is essentially midwinter in Australia, cold and sharp, but one of those bright, clear days when the place looks and feels so different. The day I post this is very much the same, with bright sun inviting a walk momentarily. This view looks over the Gulf St Vincent, westward from the Adelaide foreshore, though I don’t recall exactly where on the coast we were at the time. A simple snap—but the horizon is level without fine rotation, something of a miracle for me in those days! Minor adjustments to colour, contrast and sharpness in Irfanview; Fuji FinePix S5600. Image by Mike.

 

Catching the Ephemeral

Nothing is more changeable than the sky, and and nothing more fleeting than rainbows. When they appear, you shoot, and sometimes the result is excellent. I grabbed this one from the Westfield mall at Marion, South Australia, on May 24^th, 2012. I was probably on my way home from the university, as I was at the bus stops serving the route, and living close by at the time. I often carried the camera for opportunistic shooting in those days, and got many interesting studies of the sky and buildings. This storm went through in the afternoon, leaving a strong rainbow to the east, and I was able to shoot a whole sequence. Here, the rush of traffic on Sturt Road creates the business of human occupation, while the rainbow is the hand of nature, oblivious of human doing—a dichotomy I always enjoy. This is perhaps the most careful framing of the effect in the shoot, with telephoto employed to compress the perspective between the foreground and the rainbow. Minor adjustments to colour, contrast and sharpness in Irfanview; Fuji FinePix S5600. Image by Mike.

The Grand Old Institution

 

This is the Natural History Museum, on Cromwell Rd. in London, which from the outside still looks much as it did when it opened in April, 1881. Brainchild of Sir Richard Owen, that “Count Dracula” of palaeontology, it has always been one of the leading institutions of its kind in the world. I photographed it on November 1^st, 2010, on my third UK trip; this was the second time I visited London’s South Kensington museum district, and it was also the last time I had the chance to do so. Distance and cost are relentless, after all. I was really under the weather on that trip, so was unable to appreciate the sights as they deserved—still, I brought home the pictures, and I have them to this day. This is a simple street snap, but at least I managed to hold the camera square! I remember the sun being so low in the sky, despite a late morning time, that most of the street was in deep shadow. Minor adjustments to colour, contrast and sharpness in Irfanview; Fuji FinePix S5600. Image by Mike.

Urban Jungle

This is the redeveloped east of London, after the old, blighted areas leftover from Victorian times were finally swept away. I took this photograph through a train window—the Docklands Light Railway—on my way to Greenwich, back in November, 2007, on my second England trip. It was early in the day, as I recall, and things were very quiet in the new residential areas that used to be London’s busy docks. Now they’re trendy marinas, and the old days of empire are a distant memory. Note a few reflection in the glass. The redevelopment of the East End was extensive, and what were the haunts of the poor in the days of Sherlock Holmes are now the home of the well-to-do. Nothing clever in this shot, just keeping it square (no fine rotation required) and managing the reflections to a minimum. Minor adjustments to colour, contrast and sharpness in Irfanview; Fuji FinePix S5600. Image by Mike.

 

Gold and Grey

Sometimes the image comes together with the right lighting angle and the right time of day, to make the most of a simple subject. This was taken through a train window (note the faint reflection of a vertical surface at the top of the frame) in November, 2007, on my second UK trip, in the Esk Valley, Yorkshire, as I was relocating from Whitby to Sunderland for the NEICN conference at the university. The hour was not late but the sun angle at that time of year certainly is, creating an evening feel, though there would be several hours of daylight remaining. The sun angle created a “golden hour” effect early in the day, and with the light falling on the autumn hillside the grey clouds beyond make for the perfect contrast. There seems little way to plan for such scenes when on the move—the opportunistic photographer just grabs them when they happen. Minor adjustments to colour, contrast and sharpness in Irfanview; Fuji FinePix S5600. Image by Mike.

 

Afternoon Light on Whitby Harbour

Nothing complex about this frame, just a plain view across the harbour of a seaside town in Yorkshire. What makes it interesting is the detail—of water, of craft, of the background houses, and the low sun behind the POV. That’s a scaled down replica of Cook’s Endeavour, historically tied to Whitby, where the young James Cook worked in the mid-1700s. The focus was good, I held the shot straight (no rotational correction was needed), and managed to catch the essence of the place, as it felt, on that evening—7^th of November, 2010. Minor adjustments to colour, contrast and sharpness in Irfanview; Fuji FinePix S5600. Image by Mike.

 

Servicing the Giant

A scene enacted countless times since the dawn of commercial aviation, ground crews prepare an airliner for its next flight. Machines have their own innate appeal, and when juxtaposed with the natural world are a poignant metaphor for humans cutting their own furrow alongside, or at right angles to, nature. I took this frame as part of a series at Singapore’s Changi International Airport in November 2011, on my way back from my fourth UK expedition. This was an equatorial evening, and home beckoned at the end of one more long leg in the air. The sun is not quite gone—there was some gold about sixty degrees of arc to the left, but “blue hour” was certainly arriving. This is the Qantas Airbus A-380 Reginald Ansett, named for one of Australia’s commercial aviation pioneers. The photo was taken through plate glass from the terminal, with the usual gymnastics to keep the interior lights from reflecting in the frame. Minor adjustments to colour, contrast and sharpness in Irfanview; Fuji FinePix S5600. Image by Mike.

 

The Appeal of the Machine

Aircraft have a beautiful symmetry created by their aerodynamics. They must flow through the air as the air flows over them, the very embodiment of the laws of fluid mechanics. Here is an A400M Atlas of the RAF, photographed at the RAAF Edinburgh airshow, 10th November, 2019, and the sheer size of the aircraft, dwarfing the personnel and spectators, is a delightful commentary on all things mechanical. Machines can be big, which frequently offers aesthetic appeal, and when matched to their symmetries and grace makes for a certain emotional appeal. The craft is like a great bird—serving the humans who created it, in a poetical sense. A simple photo, it exploits the size of the craft to frame the image, with the machine dwarfing the people below. You could read all sorts of romantic of psychological notions into such imagery, if you were inclined. I just think it’s a dynamic picture! Minor adjustments to colour, contrast and sharpness in Irfanview; Fuji FinePix S5600. Image by Mike.

 

Tree & Sea—Sunset Perspective

A simple telephoto shot, part of a long sequence documenting sunset on May 2^nd, 2022. Taken from the carpark on Range Road, above the Adelaide plain, the alignment of the sun with the trees and nearby power pylons created some interesting silhouettes. One would not think so many frames of essentially the dame material would create so many aesthetically different choices, but they do! I featured a frame from this shoot once before, quite a way back. Minor adjustments to colour, contrast and sharpness in Irfanview; Fuji FinePix S5600. Image by Mike.

 

Industry by the Sea

Here’s a simple but illustrative snap, taken on July 21^st, 2017. This is the Cape Jervis ferry terminal, looking across Backstairs Passage to Kangaroo Island, showing one of the big Sealink boats that provide the regular back-and-forth traffic between mainland South Australia and it’s offshore suburbs. I remember the day being bright and very windy—no wonder I needed to straighten up the image with fine rotation to a considerable degree: I was likely being seriously buffeted. The ship and the vehicles make a textured, mechanical panorama for the foreground, while the clear sky and wide horizon to the island create a natural backdrop—the juxtaposition of the built environment and the wild, the human-made and the natural. Minor adjustments to colour, contrast and sharpness in Irfanview; Fuji FinePix S5600. Image by Mike.