Thoughtfactory: Rhizomes

bark, trees, roads, bushland

trunk + bark

This picture of  roadside vegetation was made on a recent  early morning poodlewalk with Kayla along Depledge Rd in Waitpinga  during the recent stormy conditions. Recent as in late September. 

We chose to walk along this road as the adjacent bushland provided us with some shelter  from  the  strong, gale force  south westerly winds battering the coast.   There was no traffic along the road,  and so we had it  to ourselves; apart from the usual rabbits, kangaroos  and foxes criss crossing Depledge  road.  

a foggy morning

The morning of 2nd August was foggy and, after the  poodlewalk along Depledge Road  in Waitpinga with Kayla we  ended up  slowly walking around the local bushland

Foggy mornings like this are rare in the southern Fleurieu Peninsula. We have  only  had two such mornings this winter. 

bushland + neo-Romanticism

In the last week or so I  have been spending the early morning poodlewalks  with Kayla exploring a small patch of bushland as a contrast to the coastal rocks.  The bush  runs alongside Depledge Rd in Waitpinga,  and  I am assuming this patch has been put aside as a result of  the  Landcare moment in the late 20th century.  

On these bush walks I am using a handheld digital camera to build up some supplementary material for the forthcoming online walking /photography exhibition at Encounters Gallery.   This will  open in August as  a  part of the SALA Festival.  I am also using these walks to find some suitable subject matter for a 5x4 photo session. This is one session that has been done. In the first instance the  5x4 photos are for an upcoming online exhibition for the Friends of Photography Group in August.

When walking in the  bush reserve  I  follow the trails that have laid down by the kangaroos who crewe regular visitors to the bushland.    If I didn't walk their trails  iIwould be walking around in circles with no sense of where I was.  

winter solstice

I made the photo below in the late afternoon of June 20--winter solstice--when I was on a poodlewalk with Maleko. As we were wandering back to the car through the bushland reserve in Waitpinga after a photo session with a medium format film camera  I made the photo in passing just before dusk.

 I didn't think much of it at the time, and I forgot all about it--until I uploaded the photos to check  what the possibilities there were for  from my  recent scoping for another film-based  photoshoot.  This looked to be a good possibility--one worth checking out more consciously.   

Even though it had been rain all day  I decided to go  looking  for the 2 trees this afternoon.  It took me 2 hours of wandering around amongst the passing showers  before I  finally found these 2 trees.  I judged that the subject matter was an afternoon photo session rather than a morning one and that it  needed soft afternoon light and a  blueish sky,  rather than dull light and overcast skies.  

Waitpinga-bush reserve

Whilst on the early morning poodlewalks with Kayla  I have  started to explore a small bush "reserve" running alongside agricultural land and Depledge Rd in Waitpinga.  I presume that this  small block of native bushland  has been put aside  from the old Waitpinga landcare programme.  

Kayla and I  usually walk  along the adjacent  Depledge  Rd  from  6.30 to 7.15 am, then around sunrise we enter the bush "reserve" and wander within it  for around 45  minutes. I am looking for possible photographic subjects and occasionally I  do come across one --such as the one  above. 

Halls Creek Rd, Waitpinga #2

I mentioned in an earlier  post  that I had made a photographic study of these two trees at the beginning of Halls Creek Rd in Waitpinga with  my medium format film camera (a Rolleiflex SL66).   The study is below, and the picture  was made  early in the morning during the winter of  2019. 

It was  just after the early morning sun came above the hill and  early morning light  lit up the roadside corner.

I had forgotten all about this study until I returned to this Tugwell/Halls Creek Rd location early one morning during the Covid-19 lockdown to photograph this scene for the online Covid-19 exhibition at Encounters Gallery.  

Heysen Trail: first light

This picture was made on  a recent  early morning autumn poodlewalk with Kayla along  the Heysen Trail in Waitpinga. The location  is just around the corner from where we live in Encounter Bay--just a few minutes drive in the Forester,   then a short  walk. The location  is ideally situated  for the light just after sunrise.  

The subject matter and location  are  quite different to  the recent  trend of porch portraits in local suburbs, which has been one key response to the Covid-19 pandemic crisis.  Some hold that "porch portraits"   are rather risky, given the confinement and special distancing requirements.  

This digital picture  was scoping  for a  future film session during stage 3 "lockdown"  of the Covid-19 virus.  I started this a few days latter with the Rolleiflex SL66 medium format camera, followed by  some   large format photography with a Linhof 5x4 Technika IV. I wanted to  keep this slow photography ticking  over within  the limitations of the stay-at-home lockdown.     

It  does look as if the lockdown will continue for another month, then it will be slowly  eased step by step.   At the moment we  cannot undertake non-essential travel around the state during the stay-at-home lockdown--so there is no work on the  Mallee Routes project.    Maybe this particular travel  rule  will be  eased within the month,  whilst the South Australian border continues to remain closed.

Baum Rd, Waitpinga #4

This is another picture  of roadside  trees made recently whilst  an early morning poodlewalks  with Kayla along Baum Rd, in Waitpinga. Whilst walking that morning I spotted rabbits darting across the road,  a fox moving quickly across the field, and a couple of  kangaroos in the distance.   

 We woke to the smell of  the fires that morning, the 11th January 2020.    The  blueish smoke haze from the bush fires  hung   along the southern coast of the Fleurieu Peninsula. It was the morning of the day  that saw some light  rain that was part of a south westerly change.   

Baum Rd, Waitpinga #3

This picture was made in late November 2019 whilst I was on  an early morning poodlewalk with Kayla: 

I made a number of photos along Baum Rd in Waitpinga around this time, prior going into hospital with an infected leg. The wild, windy  spring  weather had eased, the mornings were mild,  and the early morning light was soft. I was attracted by the darkness as opposed to  the brightness of the early morning  light  when I am walking along along the foreshore of Encounter Bay.  

on Baum Rd #2

This picture was made in mid-October whilst I was  on an early morning poodlewalk.  

I was  with Kayla and we had been walking along Baum Rd in Waitpinga since sunrise.  Kayla was on high alert for hares and kangaroos. A fox in the distance  quickly disappeared. We were returning along Baum Rd to the Forester when the photo was made.

In the  few weeks since this photo  the green  undergrowth has turned  yellow/brown.  It is the same with  the fields in the background.  The landscape has  been transformed. It is now a yellow/brown landscape. This is the summer look,  and it lasts until the rains in late autumn.