Edifice in Silhouette

 As around three weeks elapsed since the photo of the Tyne at sunset, I thought I'd post two in quick succession to make up. Here's an interesting play of light—a very simple shot, but there's always something that captures my eye when I can place a tall object between me and the sun and explore the optical effects. This is the Cape Jervis lighthouse, down at the tip of the Fleurieu Peninsula, on the passage across to Kangaroo Island, photographed on an expedition along the south coast on July 21^st, 2017. This image is not modified in any way. Fuji FinePix S5600, automatic. Image by Mike.

Morning Trade

An interesting exercise in holding the camera steady for opportunistic shooting: this is London's Paddington Station, about 6 in the morning of Sunday, October 31^st, 2010. I had just got off the Heathrow Express, after a 4.50 arrival from Australia via Singapore. It was much too early to be making my way to my hotel, so I killed time around the station, got a bite at a small cafe and just watched the morning traffic as daybreak unfolded. I have another frame showing a clock, snapped at 6.45. Here the place is floodlit but essentially deserted, and I was shooting hand-held. Normally I would look for something to support the camera on with light levels like these, but they were just on the balance point of being high enough, and I was far from well on the 2010 trip, so not being fancy. I held the camera quite appreciably steady, I think! There are nice symmetries in the architecture (by the great Brunel). The picture was squared up with fine rotation, colour and contrast were enhanced and there was some minor gamma correction and sharpening. Fuji FinePix S5600, automatic. Image by Mike.

River in the Sun

A simple but effective shot, looking into the late afternoon glare of a low sun on a wide sheet of water. This is the view from the north side of the River Tyne, at Tynemouth, in northeastern England. I visited Tynemouth Castle and Priory on the ancient and famous headland where three kings are said to be buried, including Malcolm IV of Scotland. This was the last full day in England of my 2010 trip, being Monday, November 15^th . The conference at the University of Sunderland concluded the previous day, and I took the Monday for a trip up the coast to Tyenmouth by bus, and a ferry ride across to the north. I walked around the castle and priory for hours, had very good fish and chips at a pub called The Turk's Head, on the highstreet opposite the castle frontage, then made my way back to my boarding house in Sunderland as evening gathered. This image is not modified in any way. Fuji FinePix S5600, automatic. Image by Mike.

Ghostly Exposures

 

I love doing long exposure night photography, and have captured city scenes in Adelaide, London, Sunderland and Whitby. The trick is supporting the camera solidly, usually just resting it on some surface, then opening the lens and seeing what you capture. If things are barely moving, the effect can be amazing, while the blur and streak effect of objects bright enough to register in motion is always artistic. I took this shot at the tram stop in Victoria Square, Adelaide, on July 3^rd, 2012, looking across to the state administration buildings and the Flinders University City campus. People are blurred, vehicles almost transaprent, while in the clear, cold evening the solidarity of the buildings and fixed lights registered beautifully. No processing was used at all. Fuji FinePix S5600, automatic. Image by Mike.

End of Day

When I was a mid I loved shooting sunsets—capturing those glorious, ephemeral colours in the western sky. I would snap away with a Kodak 126 Instamatic, and I did quite well, given what I had to work with. Half a century on I still can't get enough of sunsets, and from time to timer have the opportunity to record the process at some length. This is one of a long series of frames taken looking west over the Adelaide plain to the Gulf St Vincent from a vantage at the top of the ranges, at the top of Range Road, on May 2^nd 2022. This angle is close enough to exclude the silhouetted power pylons just off camera to the right, which, though visually interesting for their own sake, are not terribly aesthetically pleasing. This makes it a natural world image, subtracting the machine subtext of the towers. No image manipulation was done on this one. Fuji FinePix S5600, automatic. Image by Mike.

When Everything Holds Still...More or Less

 

Shooting after dark is a hit and miss affair with a camera that was never rated for it. These days digital ISO settings are into orbit and you can dial up undreamed-of sensitivites to capture scenes in effective darkness. But older and cheaper cameras are not so fancy, and when I visited England in 2010 I had never heard of such “virtual film speeds” as are now commonplace. I took a stroll around the Yorkshire seaside town of Whitby on the evening of Sunday, November 7^th, 2010, and got some interesting results. The Whitby lifeboat towed in a boat that had apparently broken down at sea. The swing bridge was opened to allow the craft to pass up-river to the trawler berths, and I was there to record the interesting effects of town lights upon the waters of the harbour. The evening was luminous, a while after sunset, and though most of the pictures were blurred, here and there a few magically crystallised out. Here is a view of the bridge opening, and the lighting seemed to gel perfectly—this shot is not enhanced in any way. I'll post others from that evening at a later date. Fuji FinePix S5600, automatic. Image by Mike.

Ocean Sky

 

There's something about the eternal southwesterly change of southern Australia that never fails to create pictures in the sky worth capturing. These feathery clouds rose over the Gulf St Vincent in the hot weather, promising some relief. I took this image from the O'Sullivan's Beach overlook on March 3^rd, 2023, framing the skyscape directly over the boat launching area. No post-processing was needed, other than a little contrast and sharpness. Fuji FinePix S5600, automatic. Image by Mike.

Angles and Reflections

 My sense of composition can't resist the effects created by a built environment. Here are reflections in modern plate-glass architecture on a clear sunny day—taken downtown in Adelaide, South Australia on February 23^rd, 2011. I remember being on some errand or other, having the camera with me and being captivated by the angles and lighting conditions the day and structures presented. Cities are sterile places in comparison to the natural world, but filled with the abstraction of human inventiveness and notions of aesthetic appeal, and the engineer and futurist in me can appreciate these things as a form of, yes, abstract art. Fuji FinePix S5600, automatic. Image by Mike.

Angry Eye of Day

The old Fuji chip handles harsh contrast in some interesting ways. One thing it's always excelled at is looking into the sun and adjusting exposure to very dramatic effect. I got this shot on April 11^th, 2023, in the main street of Clarendon, South Australia, a closer angle than the previous pic which included some roof or treetop. The shortened exposure emphasises the contrast so the sun through a merely overcast sky becomes the ominous black of some fantastical storm, one of the ways nature puts on a show if you're quick on the shutter. Fuji FinePix S5600, automatic. Image by Mike.

A Very Australian Highway

 

There's something just so Australian about hot tarmac under a cloudless sky. Ever since director George Miller made an artistic statement out of roads over forty years ago, the temptation has always been to get down on the white line when traffic is sparse and capture images like this. I shot this one on November 23^rd, 2020, on the last leg of a country drive from Palmer to Mount Pleasant. This is in the northern grain lands—there were huge harvesters working not far from our stopping point. This picture evokes the vastness of Australia, and is just as it came from the camera. Fuji FinePix S5600, automatic. Image by Mike.

Cold Stone, Warm Light

England is a land whose history presses close, and reminders of past eras are everywhere. This traditional stained glass window is part of the frontage of the Gothic church on Skinner Street, in Whitby, North Yorks, which I photographed late one evening around the 5^th — 7^th of November, 2010. The warm light makes the stonework glow, this west-facing wall catching the last rays of the afternoon sun, and I remember walking those streets, camera in hand, before going down to the harbour to capture the town lights after dark. This was the last time I was in Whitby, and I can hardly credit that almost thirteen years have gone by! The high-telephoto image has not been processed or enhanced in any way. Fuji FinePix S5600, automatic. Image by Mike.

A Not-So Hidden Gem

 

This image evokes thoughts of deep forest, of a gorge in pretty inaccessible bush land, or a national park perhaps; but a main road is actually less than thirty metres away, to the left. This is the Sturt River where it flows through Coromandel Valley, parallel with the main street, and constitutes the Coro Linear Park. There is usually water in this stretch, all year round, and the valley stays remarkably green even at the height of summer. This photograph was taken on January 21^st, 2020, during a walk on the park trail before coffee and going on to Belair National Park. No retouching or fine tuning, this is just as it came off the camera. Fuji FinePix S5600, automatic. Image by Mike.