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 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.

 

Tree Bark and Seed Heads

This is such a simple image, but an artistic one. The frame is filled with nature—living systems from side to side. I took this frame as part if a shoot at Byards Wetlands, South Australia, on August 20^th, 2025, and my eye was caught first by the lighting angle, back-lighting the seed heads of the reeds, then by the organic patterning of the tree bark. Bringing them together was a matter of choosing the angle to exclude any hint of other background—and there it is, an earth-toned panorama of life in the dusty warmth of an Australian spring.

I’ve been focused on work these last few weeks, so will post a few pictures in quick succession.

Minor adjustments to colour, contrast and sharpness in Irfanview; Poco M5. Image by Mike.

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.

 

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.

Glorious Reds

Autumn is always wonderful, but some years are better than others. This year we chased fall colours in the hills but the display seemed rather half-hearted. This pic is a simple snap of a tree in its full glory—taken on May 13^th, 2018, at Riverbend Park, Clarendon. The sky is still pure summer blue. But the trees have been turning for months—2025 saw the Adelaide hills stay yellow until mid-year because the rains just didn’t come. The photographer takes advantage of the display wherever it’s found, and when, by luck, one finds it. Minor adjustments to contrast and sharpness in Irfanview; Fuji FinePix S5600. Image by Mike.

 

Placid Waters

A simple shot but it has the feel of a classical painting—the composition of the far shore and island, reflected in the barely-rippled surface... This is Playford Lake at Belair National Park, South Australia, a frequently-shot destination, and though the scenery remains more or less the same, time of day can dramatically change how the lake looks. Light, is, after all, everything, and the lake can often demand to be photographed by the sensitive observer. I captured this frame during a hills meander on May 9^th, 2023, looking east from the top end of the lake. Frame-up and keeping the image level were the keys here. Minor adjustments to contrast and sharpness in Irfanview; Fuji FinePix S5600. Image by Mike.

 

Sunset in Telephoto

Sunsets are organic images, building, changing and g-fading in response to natural factors. The configuration of the clouds, the angle of the sunlight falling on them—all conspire to make each sunset different from every other. I shot this one on May 23^rd, 2023, almost at the end of a lengthy series, as the finale to a long day's expedition that took us all overt the near north—Lenswood, the Barossa, the Whispering Wall, Gleeson Wetland and so forth. With the sunset building, we pulled over and spent a while shooting the flaming sky from beside the highway, as photographers sometimes do. No particular photographic effects, though this is a high telephoto shot, closing in on the richest point in the sky. Unzoomed frames are mainly blue-toned, with the reds confined to a band low toward the horizon. Minor adjustments to contrast and sharpness in Irfanview; Fuji FinePix S5600. Image by Mike.

Brooding Clouds

The Southern Ocean can always turn on dramatic skies, and any day on the south coast of South Australia can yield a broad canvas of light. I recorded this frame in a sequence at Clayton Bay, down on the Alexandrina Lakes system, on May 26^th, 2018. I’ve posted from this shoot before. The weather was changing dramatically as a front moved up, May typically being the tail-end of the warm weather down here (though this year the hills weren’t green until June!) No particular photographic effects; this was how the chip handled the high contrast of looking into the brightest part of the sky. I adjusted colour, contrast and sharpness in Irfanview, plus some squaring up with fine rotation; Fuji FinePix S5600. Image by Mike.

 

Vertical Motif

Sometimes you can isolate elements in an environment that group naturally together—low clouds making horizontal lines over the horizon, a seaway or roads, for instance. Here, these palm trees make a vertical vanishing point symmetry with the Buffalo monument at Glenelg, South Australia, commemorating the landing place of the first European settlers in 1836. I cropped the image to exclude ground clutter and the overhang of a building to the left, which streamlined or de-cluttered the image, and the only detraction now is the wires strung between the posts. I could go in and remove them digitally, but that seems like kinda cheating. I took this shot on the 20^th of October, 2016, during an outing with my sister-in-law from across the water. The image is just as it came off the card, with the exception of some fine rotation and the cropping. Fuji FinePix S5600. Image by Mike.

Vertiginous View 2

Instead of looking down the tower, here’s the view upward. This is the Westpac Tower, Adelaide, South Australia, seen from it’s own footing, photographed on April 7^th, 2022. I needed data recovery work and the company’s office was way up on the 31^st floor, so obviously I grabbed a suit of pictures in the process. I ran a shot from the top a couple of years ago (“City Panorama,” April 13^th 2023), and have always meant to come back for at least ine more. The tower was long Adelaide’s tallest building, back from when it was the State Bank Building. That honour is now held by Frome Central Tower One, aka “The Adelaidean,” which is soon to be overtopped by the new Keystone Tower. I love vanishing point symmetry, and any trip to town these days involves looking up at the ever-increasing height of the Adelaide skyline. Minor adjustments to contrast, colour and sharpness in Irfanview; Leagoo M9. Image by Mike.