Hawaiian Times

Two weeks in Hawaii. Too much lava, not enough surfing, great time.
Some snaps from our time there. Black and White, there is colour elsewhere...

Walking

This morning I walked Moonee and Ghosties Beaches. It's been a while, and though things are beginning to change it was a lovely walk. The air is fresh and clear, the only sound the waves pushing the sand back and forth. As usual the beach, for a time belongs to only me. It's a fine feeling knowing there is somewhere so natural and unaffected so close by. I am surely spoiled here and aim to make the most of this amazing place while it lasts.

Looking to the East not much has changed, though further up off the sand the ugly signs of the upcoming development are in full bloom. Most of the bush has been cleared. Areas that were meant to have been remediated after the mining operations (but never were) have now been pushed around into a series of hills and dales reminiscent of every other development site you've ever seen. Mulch from the minced up native bush borders the site to prevent the loss of sand erosion with the runoff, with large mounds of 'mulch' sit at regular intervals around the perimeter.

Saving the bush walking community a good deal of effort Rosecorp has conveniently relocated the native bush into easy to access mounds which walkers are free to circumnavigate at their leisure. The experience is exhilarating.

Could this be a sign of things to come? Sadly, I think it's inevitable.

More than a Day at the Beach

More than a day, more than a beach. This has been brewing like the churning ocean from the day I picked up my fathers old Yashica twin lens. I'm back here again and here I will stay.

Unburied Treasure

Some treasures I found on the way to the beach today. Beautiful day, blue sky, shining sun, glistening water, pair of underpants, crushed can, burnt out car, general household rubbish.

Thanks for providing me with a surplus of interesting things to photograph with new camera, new lens (though not really mine) and new attitude to the whole photography thing.

Digging in for the long haul now...

3 Nights in a Tent

Back home again to the south coast between Sydney and Wollongong. I've written before about distinctly difficult and memorable camping trips. About fears and dangers in the Royal National Park. About that precarious cliff-side drive north from Wollongong. This was the special occasion route on the way to or from the fortnightly visit to my grandmothers home in Wollongong.

Not sure what brought about any of these special occasions, beauty, boredom or belligerence. I've always liked the south coast's rugged and precarious landscape. Coal peeped through the cliff face along which we drove and collected in our swimmers in the surf of many of the beaches. Back to the unscathed small towns I have again started to trek with my girls. This is the simple life.

Three nights in a tent. iPods blazing through the night. Wind blowing non stop. Icy waters and the constant half glimpse of that elusive shark, dolphin or whales fin amongst the white water between sand and horizon. These images collected on the recent visit a fellow image maker alongside, and a sculpture on an early morning walk with the youngster.

New Post

Moving forward with this project and finding new things all the time. I'm looking at Edward Muybridge and Sol Lewitt at the moment and there god almighty huge influence in the art world. Take it as bankable that I will be continuing this series with gusto and aiming for exhibition in a gallery space in the future.

Big Wednesday (at Moonee)

Jan-Michael Vincent staggers across the beach, hungover, bleary eyed, appropriates a board from from one of the local surfers. He can barely walk but once in the water he is one with the board. He stands to ride and his disorientation, his clumsy attempts to remain upright have remained on the beach. His friends watch as he carves the wave and becomes the surfer all locals respect and revere. If you're lucky there may still be a copy of this film tucked away in a dark corner in a truckstop near you.

This was quite a big day at Moonee. The wind was blowing off shore and the swell was up. Have a look in the top right corner of the first image. There is a tiny speck. Think almost bacterium sized. That's a body surfer. I didn't see a person in the water while I was shooting at the beach. I noticed the speck when I started editing the images. I nearly became a speck in the water myself at one point when a surprisingly big set roared across the rock platform.

The three images are one wave traveling by me standing on the rocks.

 

Water Blogged

Water, liquid, aqua, fluid, juice, solution, pond, dam, lake, loch, reservoir, river, stream, creek, billabong, rivulet, spring, puddle, drip, flood, cascade, waterfall, ocean, lagoon, bogeyhole, bay, canal, estuary, sea, pool, puddle, splash....

Never far from the water it seems. Looking back I realise that all the posts so far have been rather damp. I am landlocked and surrounded literally by that which makes up 70% of my body. On one side the big blue, on the other "Australia's Largest Inland Salt Water Lake", or so the rusty sign says.

All that catches the attention of my lens today and most days is that which gives us life.

 

 

 

 

Getting edgy

Have you ever wondered how far it is to the edge of the world, (not the end of the world, the edge) It's something I often speculate on.

So.... speculate no more. It's quite simple really.

First approach the water until your toes are getting wet. This is a good thing to do anyway for non-mathematical reasons. Recall how tall you are (in metres) and deduct the distance from your eyes to the top of your skull. Work out the square root of this number and multiply by 3.856. Simple. The answer in kilometres is the distance you have to swim before you fall off the edge of the earth. So if I were an average height of 1.7 metres, dangling my toes, there would be 5kms to the edge of all I can see.

As the Buddhist's say, 'no moment is like the last, we are constantly changing.'

This is never more obvious than by the ocean.

open the iPod bay doors Hal

Perhaps it's setting too high a target for comparison with that quote from that film set just 10 years ago. Drifting through space with an uncooperative computer at the helm is not a tad left of the ideal photo op. However you can't get more down to earth than your kid's first high school swimming carnival with an iPod touch burning a hole in my pocket.

I've been playing with the iPod for some time now and although it's kinda difficult to hold and the image resolution is pretty low it's a bit of fun on a warm afternoon.