I've  realised that I have been making roadside pictures without being consciously aware of my doing so.  My  concentration was  on the pieces of bark themselves, not their location.  This is a good example.   This  is another one in  black and white.  Then I realised that the location was often the roadside. 

The roadside pictures usually happen whilst  I'm  walking down back country soars (eg., Depledge Rd)  in Waitpinga on the  early morning poodlewalks with Maya.  A case in point -- in  the late summer of  2024 

Read more

During the   winter storms the trees fall down and branches break off in the Waitpinga bushland.  The bark  then peels off  the fallen trunks and branches during the summer months,  and the wood slowly decays over the years.   

The picture was made whilst on a poodlewalk with Maya in the early morning -- around sunrise -- to avoid the snakes. 

This is what happens to old piles of bark in the bushland that have been lying on the ground for a year of more: 

The colours  fade, the bark slowly breaks up, then it starts to crumble.  

I came across the above  pile when I returned to walking in the bushland with Maya  after a long break over the summer.  I was  introducing Maya to the bushland. I recognised the pile  from a year ago. 

Read more

A photo of some roadside vegetation along Depledge Rd in Waitpinga in early May 2022. The photo was made in the early morning  on a poodlewalk,  just as the sun's rays  illuminated  the vegetation:

During May Kayla and I usually walked along this road prior to sunrise, then we go into the bushland  5 minutes or so after sunrise. We timed the walk so awe were by the tree when it was illuminated by the early morning light. 

I noticed this hanging bark whilst I was walking along Depledge Rd in Waitpinga on an early morning poodlewalk with Kayla. We have a routine  on this walk. We walk  along the road before sunrise,  then we return to the Forester  via  the bushland. We walk through the bushland is slow as I am  taking photos.  

The bark is on the roadside, hanging from a branch.  It is kind of  sculptural; a mobile if you like,  as it gentle  moves when there is an easterly wind blowing. I've  made a video of the movement. 

Read more

Lying beside one of the paths  through  the local Waitpinga bushland  is a pile of bark. It has been there a while. The pink gums (Eucalyptus fasciculosa)  are shredding their  bark and the pile keeps changing due to the  strong coastal winds.    Occasionally, when I am walking  by whilst on a poodlewalk,  I casually toss another piece of bark onto the pile, to see what happens. 

I often photograph the pile when I'm walking past on my way  to  a photo session elsewhere in the bushland. On the occasion of this photo being taken it had been raining  in the early hours of the  morning in early January (6/1/22) and the bark was quite wet. The colours were more intense and saturated than normal.  It was the colour that caught my eye.  

This  picture of roadside vegetation was made in late January whilst I was on an early morning  poodlewalk along Depledge Road in Waitpinga  with Kayla:

I've  started thinking about the possibilities of making a video showing the  early morning light starting to move across the trunk of the  trees whilst  I have been making these kind of photos of roadside vegetation.  Photographing  along Depledge Rd and in the adjacent bushland  has made me very aware that light is constantly moving.     

 In so  thinking  I have assumed  that  video is an extension of still photography. Video represents movement -- eg., light and wind -- that is beyond the capabilities of still photography.  So video is supplementary to  still photography,  rather than being quite different in its approach to the photography that I've been  doing on poodlewalks. 

Read more

This was made in the early morning in the local Waitpinga bushland. Or to be more precise it was 7.15 am on the 29th December 2021. It was one of the last photos I made in 2021. It was one of the few sunny mornings  of this cool and windy summer. 

Afterwards,  Kayla  and I  walked around the bushland for another 30 minutes taking the odd photo.   There was little traffic on Depledge Rd, or even on the central Waitpinga Rd to the beach and surf.  Depledge Rd and the roadside vegetation was dry and dusty -- it hadn't rained for a while. The main sound that morning was the buzzing of the bees.

Read more

On some of the recent  early morning poodlewalks with Kayla  I have been wandering in the local bushland in Waitpinga.  I was scouting and scoping for some possibilities for a  large format photo session. I am looking for something simple and basic that can  done in the early morning  during the summer months. Early in this context means no later than half an hour after sunrise.  

This is one possibility that I came across:

 However, I'm not sure that I could find this particular trunk and branch again. I will need to spend time looking for it and if I find it, then laying a trail to guide me back to it.

Read more