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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
I took a break from sitting in front of the computer working on The Bowden Archives and Industrial Modernity book by wandering around the local bushland on a poodlewalk with Kayla. Sitting in front of the computer was getting to me.
Kayla and I made a brief return the local patch of bush in Waitpinga last week. We had not walked around there since late spring. We had stayed away over the summer months because of the brown snakes. In early autumn I decided that it would be safe early in the morning around sunrise as the early morning temperatures was cool.
So Kayla and I had a quick poodlewalk one morning when it wasn't heavily overcast to check things out. It is quite dark in this patch of bush early in the morning, and the heavily overcast skies make it difficult to take photos handheld. It was safe. We haven't been back since because of the heavy cloud cover in the morning.