Gnarled Giant

Just a forest photo, but look at the shape of that tree... The Australian eucalypt is one of these trees able to take on any shape at all, as determined by the conditions in which it grows, and this one was growing from a steep bank in a gully. It reaches for the light one way, water the other, and creates such a remarkable shape. One would imagine an artist had been extravagant in the layout of a work for dramatic effect, but such things are common in the endless variation of gum tree morphology. However, what really makes the picture is the sun angle—the degree of backlighting, the way it shines through the foreground and understorey vegetation, silhouetting the tree—that's where the art happens. I took this shot on the walk through to Ingalalla Falls, down on the Fleurieu Peninsula, on August 12^th, 2017. Minor adjustments to colour, contrast and sharpness in Irfanview; Fuji FinePix S5600. Image by Mike.

 

Soft-Light Perfection

I don’t often claim perfection, and if it happens it’s probably by accident, but here is a frame where it all came together. Just a simple country view—a farm in the valleys on the railway between Middlesbrough and Whitby, photographed through the carriage window. But all the elements are right—no dirt on the window, no reflections of interior lights, the POV is square-on to the scene (no fine rotation required), and the composition fell into place, the farm framed neatly in the view. The sun came out—the weather was grey and damp but for a while there was sunshine. And even then, the sun angle was low, so the light had a soft, almost transparent quality that makes everything seem different to the hard light of Australia. This was November 14^th, 2006, on my first England trip, and I was about to see my home town for the first time in 35 years—getting off at the very station the family left from in 1971. Talk about circles in completion—it was something that just had to be. But the November light in England, closing in on winter and the snow, is low and soft, and I can hardly describe it—you have to see it, feel it, to understand. Minor adjustments to colour, contrast and sharpness in Irfanview; Fuji FinePix S5600. Image by Mike.

Workhorse of the Sea

There is something majestic about ships, and maritime towns always make for interesting shooting locations. I grabbed this shot on November 8^th, 2012, from the deck of the South Shields ferry, crossing the River Tyne on my way back to Roker after an excursion to Tynemouth Castle and Priory. This is a DFDS Seaways vessel preparing to leave in the evening for its overnight run to Amsterdam. It’s fascinating to be able to see into the open vehicle deck. I’ve often wondered what a crossing would be like on such a ship, a marvelous start to a holiday with one’s car in the hold. This frame is fairly unique as, given the exposure rating of the cameras of the day, I had limited ability to control for low light, The evening was coming in fast, and while the chip handled low light beautifully, it couldn’t compensate for motion with reduced exposure time. I shot plenty of frames, but this is the one where it all came together, and wasn’t blurred by motion. Fun memories, I miss those trips! Minor adjustments to colour, contrast and sharpness in Irfanview; Fuji FinePix S5600. Image by Mike.

Nature’s Effortless Disrespect

Humans modify their landscape—they are compulsive builders. We memorialise our perception of greatness, and such things long outlive their subjects—ask any Pharaoh. But the natural world is oblivious of such things, and competes with the human need to control entropy. Like the need to weed a garden—perhaps the ultimate expression of futility—we erect monuments to last the ages, while nature has a casual disrespect for such notions, in fact is in permanent violation of them. I took this picture in Mowbray Park, Sunderland, in November, 2011, during my fourth UK trip. This statue is of General Sir Henry Havelock, a local, who distinguished himself in India in the early 19^th century, and while he may be standing up there in cast bronze, on a stone plinth and surrounded with canons—how many symbols of imperialism can you get into one place at one time?—nature casually mocks such human constructs. It’s the seagull, of course. I shot the statue from several angles and distances, under that glowering, stormy sky, but that bird did not move an inch, and finally, I accepted it as part of the tableau of the moment—embodying the narrative of nature’s obliviousness to human precocity. The man may have been a hero and a figure associated with national and imperial power, but to a bird—nature—he’s just a perch. And that’s a profound observation on human nonsense, really. Minor adjustments to colour, contrast and sharpness in Irfanview; Fuji FinePix S5600. Image by Mike.

 

Holiday Snap

Fishing boats in Whitby Harbour, Yorkshire, England. Such a simple shot, but one so easy to mess up for so many reasons. Note, the vertical pole is parallel to the side of the frame—this is not adjusted, I managed to get the camera actually level for once! There are no passers-by wandering in front of the lens, there’s no ubiquitous garbage can, no bird dipping suddenly into the shot, no sun glaring off a window somewhere. It all came together, probably by accident, but I remember taking my time, being patient, and waiting for the elements to gel. It’s a bit deceptive too, the river is so calm, generating those nice ripply reflections, and the blue sky looks warm, but this was the November of 2007 (during my second UK trip, when I did some field research at a cemetery in Leicester toward my PhD) and the Christmas decorations were already up. Out beyond the breakwaters there was surf running—I got pictures from the west cliff of white waves coming in, the same afternoon. Nearly twenty years ago—but like yesterday in my memories. Minor adjustments to colour, contrast and sharpness in Irfanview; Fuji FinePix S5600. Image by Mike.

The First Step

Beginning a journey to the UK from Australia is always a momentous occasion—there and back, one is essentially travelling the equivalent of all the way round the world, more or less. This was only the second frame I grabbed on my second trip to the UK, in November 2007, while waiting for the first leg, a domestic short-haul from Adelaide to Melbourne to connect with the international flight there. What makes this picture interesting is the two lighting conditions captured. The POV is from the interior of the terminal, thus artificial lighting in the foreground or framing elements, against the natural daylight outside. I also did a fair job of framing the subject, getting the picture level—this is not angle-corrected but just as it came off the camera. The moody, blue-grey toned sky over the Adelaide Hills contrasts interestingly with the warm toned interior, diagonally across the frame. Minor adjustments to colour, contrast and sharpness in Irfanview; Fuji FinePix S5600. Image by Mike.

When Cloud Becomes Mist

Every winter in the Adelaide Hills there are days when the clouds are down on the hills—when the summits vanish in the soft greyness, and up there it’s as if you’ve stepped into another world. On June 14^th, 2023, I had the chance to photograph these atmospherics from inside and out, and I’ve featured this shoot before. This was the forest near Range Road West, where we parked on a dirt road and shot the silent, eerie world among the ghostly trunks of the gnarly, coppiced eucalypts. No fancy photography, except for holding things still as the light level was quite low, and concentrating on composition. Minor adjustments to colour, contrast and sharpness in Irfanview; Fuji FinePix S5600. Image by Mike.

 

A Designed Landscape

Designer landscapes are nothing new: they were doing it in Tudor times. But the visual impact of such a place—often today merely considered landscape gardening and dismissed as something unimportant—can be amazing. On January 25th, 2023, I paid a visit to Carrick Hill, the famous early 20^th century mansion in the Adelaide Hills, overlooking the city and plain, and the entire grounds are designed to compliment and interact with the house. Views abound, and not just outward—this is a view of the mansion through a veritable keyhole in the now-well-grown trees. It’s an example of expert design given its head, where the undulation of the land features strongly in the layout, and the altitude allows lush growth of northern, deciduous species despite the Australian summer extremes. The place is well worth a visit! Here, it’s a simple shot where composition is everything—the POV looks back at the house through the frame of the trees, and is as picturesque as a painting. Minor adjustments to colour, contrast and sharpness in Irfanview; Fuji FinePix S5600. Image by Mike. Mm

 

Reflections in a Mountain Lake

You need to be where the picture is to get the picture—that’s a truism of all photography. You can visit the same place a dozen times and get a dozen different results, down to the weather conditions, time of day and time of year (thus light angle and intensity) and so forth. This is Loftier Gardens, the botanical gardens behind Mount Lofty summit, above Adelaide, South Australia, and I’ve shot the lake many times over the years. But on this day –January 24^th, 2025—the angle and quality of light were just right. There was little breeze, so the lake was quite calm, thus the potential for mirror-like reflections was there. I shot a series of frames from the hill walk on the east side, near the public shelter, and the quality of the colour was quite amazing. At altitude the gardens remain green despite South Australia’s harsh summers, and are a haven from conditions on the plain. This is a simple snap, no cleverness involved, other than an eye for composition, and while it could be better—less clutter at the foot of the frame perhaps—it’s satisfying as a snap goes. Minor adjustments to colour, contrast and sharpness in Irfanview; Fuji FinePix S5600. Image by Mike.

City and Nature

Staying with the vertical architecture theme, this is a simple snap taken on October 7^th, 2024, on North Terrace, Adelaide, South Australia, down near the east end. What makes it interesting is the juxtaposition of the solid, man-made geometry of the buildings against the random, organic nature of the trees, all bathed in bright sunshine for vivid colour. I love scenes which place nature and the artificial world together like this, the grouping suggesting that they can coexist in harmony if we get the balances right. No adjustments were necessary, this is exactly as the frame came off the phone. It is of course one of a sequence of images, and it was hard to choose between them, so below is another frame which, from a slightly different perspective, favours the vegetation over the architecture, for a different "meaning" in the picture. Poco M5 phone pic. Image by Mike.

Dizzying Geometry

A simple snap, but the thematic material makes the pic. Vanishing point symmetry, of course, but that view up a tall building is always spectacular, invoking as it does thoughts of gravity and physics. The trees are a wonderful biological counterpart to the artificiality of the structure—the natural versus the man-made. Two very similar shots—I thought I’d present both in the same post. I took these frames on October 12^th last year, when in the Adelaide CBD, passing through en route from visiting friends up north. Minor adjustments to contrast, colour and sharpness in Irfanview; Poco M5 phone pic. Image by Mike.

Gothic Skies

I love these broody, atmospheric shots. The old Fuji chip is great at handling these conditions for maximum drama—maybe not with the mid-tone values a modern chip would deliver, nor of course the resolution, but oh, how it captures density and balance! This frame is part of my shoot at Crystal Palace Park, just north of Croydon, England, on November 20^th, 2012. I was in the southern city for a couple of days and took the opportunity of a ten minute run up the railway line to the old park, to see Waterhouse Hawkins’s dinosaurs from the Great Exhibition of 1852—long obsolete views, of course, but they are still so evocative, especially when the weather is being dramatic. Yes, it was chilly, yes it was raining, but it was the only chance I was going to get, so I stuck with it, walked the park and shot every frame I could snare in the hopes some would be useful. Of course, the light was soft and grey, and the best shots are the ones that exploit the conditions, like this. The bare trees against the lowering sky so superbly evoke the time of year and the locale in the global north. It is a very welcome contrast to the monotony of heat and humidity prevailing in Australia at time of posting... Adjustments to colour, contrast, gamma balance and sharpness in Irfanview; Fuji FinePix S5600. Image by Mike.