Another study of dead leaves in the Waitpinga bushland in the Fleurieu Peninsula. This was in the spring of 2024. Like the others in the series the photo was made whilst on an early morning poodlewalk with Maya.
Posts for Tag: Sony NEX-7
leaves + light
The picture below is another one of my attempts at converting a colour digital file to b+w. A previous attempt on an earlier post is here. These pictures of the details of the landscape were made whilst I was on a poodlewalk in the local Waitpinga bushland in the southern Fleurieu Peninsula of South Australia.
These b+w conversions haven't been successful using an old digital camera and I've never been able to even approach the rich tonality that Sebastian Salgado achieved with his impressive b+w Kuwait photos. One response has been to return to using b+w film.
In both cases my intimate bushland pictures were made with a very old Sony NEX-7 digital camera (2011), a modern Voigtlander closeup adaptor, and a vintage Leica M 35mm Summicron f.2.0 lens (1960s). This combination is trying to keep my old photographic equipment going rather than discarding it.
fallen leaves
Another interpretation of dead leaves in the local Waitpinga bushlandmade whilst on an autumn afternoon poodlewalk. This time it is the leaves that have fallen to the ground:
The leaves become part of the ground cover that we walk on, and often than not they are not noticed. As the leaves slowly decay during the winter months they lose their colour. It was the colour that initially attracted me.
dead leaves + photographic self-questioning
I have spent quite some time walking in the local Waitpinga bushland this autumn. I walked with Maya on the morning walk and with Maleko on the afternoon walk. Whilst being preoccupied with dipping my toes into making walking art I noticed the dead leaves hanging from the branches of the eucalypts as well as the bark.
I'd ignored them up to now as I had been primarily focused on the bark with a 35mm film camera. The leaves were concealed -- merged into the background. In the last couple of weeks of walking I started to look at the dead leaves as I walked past them. Their speckled brownness stood out from the background world of green. I started to photograph them closeup.
What emerged was the simple awareness of something present-at-hand in its sheer presence-at-hand. The seeing involved in the encounter with the present-at-hand gives precedence to the entity and it does so precisely because it detaches itself from the background context. The emergence of the dead leaves into presence can be understood as an event of the un-concealment of the dead leaves out of concealment. The photography discloses this coming into presence.
hanging bark #2/meditative seeing
The local bushland is becoming off limits in the afternoon due to the snakes coming out of their winter hibernation with the warm spring weather. It is still okay to walk in the bushland in the early morning before sunrise when it is cold or wet from the heavy dew.
I notice that this Rhizomes blog was neglected during the autumn/winter period this year -- there is a gap between March and August. There is even greater neglect with The Littoral Zone blog. I'm sure this neglect was the result of me struggling to put the walking and the photography together as a process-based photographic project.
The photo below was made in early September 2023 whilst I was on a poodlewalk in the late afternoon with Maleko:
Going back through the archives Rhizomes and seeing what I had photographed in the local bush during that March-August period I can see that an immersive style of walking was emerging: one that was reactive to what was occurring around me, rather than going into the bushland to photograph a particular object in certain lighting conditions that had been pre-visualised.
bark #4 (hanging b+w )
This macro photo was made whilst I was on a hobbled walk in the local bushland.
It was late in the afternoon. I have looked for this bark since, but I have never been able to find it. The winter winds would have prised it loose from the branch of the pink gum.
walking Depledge Rd #3: bark
This is another interpretation of the hanging bark along Depledge Rd in Waitpinga.
In contrast to the early morning version that was uploaded in this earlier post the above version was made in the late afternoon.
bark #2
From an early morning poodlewalk with Kayla in the local Waitpinga bushland in November 2021
We only explore the bushland in the early morning just after sunrise, due to the prevalence of the eastern brown snakes. Even though it is cool that early in the morning we tread very carefully whilst keeping a sharp lookout. It is the Littoral Zone for the afternoon poodlewalk with Maleko.
There is an earlier picture of bark hanging from a branch here
bark
From a early morning poodlewalk in local bushland in Waitpinga with Kayla during the middle of winter 2021.
It has been 3-4months since I've walked through the local bushland. I went back yesterday morning to avoid the gale force south westerly winds. I noticed that the native orchids were in flower. During this time I have been reading Photography and Place: Australian landscape Photography 1970 untill now , which is a pdf of an exhibition curated by Judy Annear, Art Gallery NSW in 2011.
tree abstract
The macro photo below was made on a recent, early morning poodlewalk with Kayla along Depledge Road in Waitpinga on the Fleurieu Peninsula in South Australia. It was sometime during the 2020 Xmas/New Year period.
I have generally been walking along the back country road in the morning or afternoon to avoid the strong, gusty coastal winds; or for some shade from the late afternoon summer sun. The rhizomes photography has been rather limited this summer.