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.

The Australian Vista

'Tis the longest day here in Australia and I wanted to post something taken about this time of year, so here’s a wide view of the Australian landscape as the festive season approaches. This is the top of Mount Alma, South Australia, looking south, on December 13^th, 2019. The day started out quite overcast but cleared out to that hard, brassy sky that so characterises an Australian summer. The hard blue sky over the yellow grass, harsh light and gum trees—no matter where I am in the world, these things will always mean summer Down Under. (At that altitude, there's plenty of green  persisting!) A simple line-up, the composition framed by the trees is the essential aesthetic. Photographic technique is a no-brainer, just point and shoot. Minimal adjustment in IrfanView, some gamma-correction, brightness reduced slightly and a boatload of colour added. Leagoo M9 phone cam shot. Image by Mike.

The Wide Sky

 

A favourite photo stop is the top of Mt. Alma, South Australia. A hill, of course, as all our “mountains” are, and the road leads over the summit. But that view! In fair weather or foul, the breadth of sky is amazing, and the farms below are spread out like a toy landscape. To the south you can catch the Southern Ocean between folds of the hills, and it’s always quiet up there—birds and the bleat of sheep, wind in the grass... I took this shot on December 13^th, 2019, after an excellent early Christmas lunch at Inman Valley Country Kitchen, and you can see the country is already getting into summer mode—quite a contrast to this summer gone by in which green persisted locally until February! This wide-angle shows the breadth of the Australian landscape rather to perfection. This is a phone pic, and no enhancements were done at all. Leagoo M9. Image by Mike.

Long View

This is the view from the top of Mt Alma, South Australia, looking southwest toward an amazing Southern Ocean skyscape. I’ve been over that road many times, and one can never keep going without stopping to photograph the view. From farm lakes that make patches of sky in the landscape, to the rolling countryside and ever-changing cloudscape, it’s one of the best vantages around. Look south-east, you see to Lake Alexandrina, look west there are dark forests... I took this frame on July 1^st, 2018, on a family expedition around the southern vales--the country is wearing its winter green, such a change from the parched summer yellows. The image was enhanced a little, with increase in contrast and colour, decrease in gamma value and a little sharpening. I chose not to square up the skyline, as the angle of the road makes it a bit vertiginous at the best of times. Just a snap, but what a view! 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.

Vanishing Point: winter fog in the Adelaide Hills

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Eleven in the morning on the road in the Adelaide hills -- a winter's morning, saturatingly humid and a little chill ... fog. This shot was captured through the windscreen, somewhere between Belair and Crafers. Driving conditions were interesting, and the photography --? Pot luck. Point, shoot, sort 'em out later and send the junk straight to the bin. In conditions like this, there's always going to be a lot of rubbish, but when something "comes out right," no doubt by accident, such shots can be dramatic. This one is "atmospheric," somewhat creepy. I like it a lot. Photo by Mel, 2006.

Street Scene at Dusk

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The performance of digital cameras never ceases to amaze me, the way they can adjust and compensate for all sorts of conditions -- harsh light, soft light, too much, too little, direct, diffuse... They do electronically what the old 'variable response' filmstocks used to do chemically, and they do it more efficiently. This would have been an unremarkable photograph if taken in full daylight, but what elevates it above a simple travel snap is the fact it's close enough to the end of day for the streetlights to be on. The latitude of the camera is enough to register fine details (on only a 2mp frame!) and expose the general scene as well as the lights. An element of luck was involved, as both the car and pedestrian are far enough from the POV at the moment of shutter release for their motion to be slow enough to not streak all over the frame. That would have been artistic, sure, but this is natural. The location was New Quay Rd., Whitby, North Yorkshire, in late November, 2006 (note the Christmas decorations already up). Enhancements for publication include a little sharpening, and the usual minor tweaks to brightness, contrast and colour saturation. Fuji FinePix S5600, automatic. Image by Mike.

A drought-scourged panorama

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On a roasting day in summer, you've just jolted down the most horrific road in South Australia. You're not quite sure if your knee or shoulder joints are still attached, and if your kidneys are where they used to be! But the reward for making it down the road to Myponga Beach is glorious peace and quiet and a panoramic view from the ocean to what seems to be sub-desert but is in fact sheep grazing country that's being scourged by drought. Up on the hill is a station house ... and here's where it gets interesting. Refer back to Sand, sea and sun, Aussie style, which was uploaded a few days ago, and look at the top of the shot. There's the same house, seen in the distance, photographed from Silver Sands, near Aldinga ... and in the previous shot you can also see that horrific road down the hillside! That's what you drive in order to get to the location above. Dramatic though this shot is, it was also easy to get. I remember the day being so hot that I left the Fuju 6500 set on full auto and let the gadget do the work! Photo by Mel, 2007.

Signage

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We humans love our signage, but there are times when the sheer number of signs around the road is so high, my question is -- how are you supposed to read this much as you drive my at 35mph, and if you can only read a fraction of what's there, how do you decide in a split second what's important, much less critical?! A hot, bright day in the southern suburbs of Adelaide; in fact, you're looking down the aptly named Beach Road at Noarlunga! The shot was captured through the windscreen, and the only work done on it in the computer is cropping. With light this bright, the colors saturate themselves in-camera. Photo by Mel, 2007.

...and have you seen their buses?!

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Today we're flying the South Australian flag -- literally! The promotion is called "SA Great," and you'll see it everywhere, like this. Plastered down the side of a bus. This was a real "reflex" shot, because I was shooting between traffic. Trucks, other buses, taxi cabs, every kind of vehicle you can imagine, which would take turns to obscure your view, while the bus revved up to leave. The day was sizzling hot -- as witness the brilliance of the light which brought the colors up this way in the image. No digital enhancement has been done. All I did with this shot was crop the bottom to get rid of a trash bin! It looked like this at the time. Photo by Mel, 2007.

Under pavilions of trees

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I'm back at Hahndorf with this image ... and it's summer. You can tell at a glance because the trees are so lush. These are massive old deciduous trees; they turn red and gold in fall, and in winter they're skeletal, even though there's no such thing as snow in Australia ... well, not in this part of Aus, at least! Not even in the dead of winter. The trees make an incredible arch across the road. It's as if you're driving through a pavilion -- not just for a few meters, but for a long distance. This welcomes you as you enter the best-known small German town in the antipodes! The image was captured through the windscreen; the shutter speed was fast (to stop the action -- the car is moving!) and then the panorama was cropped out of it and digitally enhanced. See Gone Bush for tips and tricks on how to get great "through the windscreen" shots. Photo by Jade, 2006.

Storm light

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Once in a white "it all comes together" and an amazing photo just ... happens. Driving south down the esplanade in the evening, when a storm was coming in out of the west, I saw this -- and was lucky enough to have a camera on me! Pull over, quick: take the picture. Not much science in this one. It's all about serendipity, being in the right place at the right time. Evening ... approaching storm ... beautiful. The location is Seacliff, on the way to Marino, on the Adelaide coast. Photo by Mel, 2006.

Escher by the Sea

It's in those little out-of-the-way places that you find amazing things, and where angles and junctures are concerned the steep, ancient streets of sea villages never fail to amaze. This is Robin Hood's Bay, on the North Yorkshire Coast, just round the corner from the very sea front; a bright, cool, windy day in early November, 2007. Steps and stairways lead up to and among buildings that perch precariously on the rise of land from waters to clifftops, and the main street is a steep drop from the new town overlooking the bay to the old town below. Perspective composition for vertiginous effects comes easily in places like this, and the texture of buildings which have stood, in some cases, since the 1600s, always makes for visually engaging photography. Photo by Mike, 2007.

Gone bush!

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Gone bush. The words have an almost mystical quality about them in this country, because they mean ... packed up the tent and gone waaaay out yonder, well beyond network coverage, won't be back till Tuesday, earliest, so don't come looking. They can also mean, "Have vanished for the foreseeable future, gone 4x4 adventuring, will be back when I'm good and ready, with an esky full of barramundi on ice." In other words ... civilization has been shrugged off, one has returned to nature! The quest for sanity has commenced! This imaged is through the windscreen, on one of the access roads leading to the Deep Creek Conservation Park. It's primordial ... raw ... primal. Some of my best pictures are through the windscreen. The rules are simple: clean the glass to avoid "ufos;" zoom out to about 100mm to get past the windscreen wipers and windscreen surround; try to keep the radio aerial out of the picture -- or crop it out later; set a fast shutter speed, because the car is moving and all roads are bumpy; and watch out for the sun direction, because if the light falls directly through the windscreen you'll get "glare," and a reflection off the dash mat into the glass. Stick to these rules and you can get some amazing pictures. Have fun! Photo by Jade, 2006.