Pictures with Words | The musings of Geoffrey Dunn: photographer, scientist and occasional poetPictures with Words | The musings of Geoffrey Dunn: photographer, scientist and occasional poet

Lensbaby Love

I have a Lensbaby.

For anyone unfamiliar with these nifty devices, it's a variable focus 50mm f/2 lens. The single lens element is fully adjustable to enable a focal 'sweet spot' to be found in creative photography. A particular setting can be locked and then fine tuned by rotating any of the three protruding long screw threads. To change the aperture, a series of magnetic aperture rings is provided and held in place in front of the lens element by a series three small magnets. It's a quirky lens with a maximum aperture of f/2 and produces a wide range of focal effects. Mine is a Lensbaby 3G … which is now sold as the 'Control Freak' (can't imagine why … I mean look at the thing!).

Picture courtesy Lensbaby

When I first received the lens (passed to me by a cinematographer friend who'd purchased it for cine-work but found it unsuitable) I put it on my D80 DSLR. It produced some neat results but it wasn't a go-to lens by any means. Also the lack of adaptive exposure metering in the camera body meant more then a few frames to get the manual exposure just right … it just seemed a bit of a chore. For this reason I had been putting off trying the Lensbaby on my new D600 body and but … well … whatever(!) … so I took it along in my bag to the abandoned shops in the previous post. I put it on the camera, dialled in what I thought was my anticipated exposure setting and took a picture. Beautifully exposed! Well I wasn't expecting that! So I left the settings as is, re-composed and took another shot of something somewhere else … and? Same! Great exposure! It was then I had one of those total 'Derr!' moments when I realised the D600 was automatically adjusting to bring in the best exposure for the scene … it actually had very little to do with me and my settings ;-)

Now, this was fabulous news as I am essentially a lazy photographer at heart and I realised that the previous burden of adjusting exposure had been banished … it was like I had a new lens … which I guess I kinda do. Here's the same shops as seen through the Lensbaby … Enjoy!

Lensbaby love … have you ever fallen in love with a lens (or anyhting for that matter…) all over again?

General About / News / Things to See / Thoughts — 15 comments
05
May 13

Downer in Decay

I took a ride up to the urban decay that is Downer Shops on the weekend … and took some photos … the shop side is truly derelict.

One of my first group houses in the early 90′s was a weatherboard affair in Durack Street (which incidentally was the coldest house I’ve ever lived in) and Downer Shops was my local. The centre was in decline even back then. There was a dark supermarket (literally dark and dingy and not of the supernatural bent … well, not that I ever saw…) a Chinese Restaurant which was passable and an Italian which was dire. There were some others too but I’m unable to recall them.

There were people around. Over at the Community rooms on the other side of a little park (with attendant rock sculpture) in the middle of the complex a groups was packing up after a meeting. The community rooms are by contrast clean and swept … and the end of the building features a mural by Byrd. There was a little post-it note stuck onto some fresh graffiti staking a claim on what’s otherwise a remarkably graffiti-free building. The carpark was more or less subscribed and the two sporting fields were both full of soccer and families enjoying the late afternoon autumn sunshine.

The shop side is just sliding into decay and I loved the irony of the boarded up security company shopfront. The community noticeboard lies vacant and the hand-carved bicentennial logo (someone took ages making that … with it’s little Tasmania) still stands proudly beneath a dead clock. So, while there were folks about … the centre felt truly abandoned. I understand that new development is slated for the area … maybe that’ll start this dead heart?

Photos / Resources / Thoughts — 43 comments
21
Apr 13

Back on The Drops Again

I'm back on the drops again.

Anyone who has followed my photography for a time will know how much I love to play with water … I love how it plays with light … how under the right circumstances it becomes a lens, refracting and playing and changing the world we see into something other … something imaginative. Today I'm talking drop photography. Taking pictures of water is something I work hard at … well perhaps work isn't the right term because I enjoy the process and the journey. There's the setup, which can get fiddly (not to mention wet!), getting the drips just right at a frequency which allows the drops to be singular and not interfere with one another. There's the choice of backdrop … that's the image or pattern you want refracted (remember it will be upside down!). The distance between the backdrop and the drop itself determines how large the pattern will appear in the drop. Too far away and elements of your kitchen begin to appear in your drops ;-)

Below is a behind the scenes shot of the setup I used to take these ones … I even labelled it!

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See, you can do this at home in your kitchen!

Using this stripy back drop provides refractions like these…

While I adore the symmetry of these first two … did I mention I like symmetry? No? I like the tension of this last one in the stripy series…

I'm going to print some of these.

Changing the backdrop to a spotty one produces refractions like these

As I said it's fiddfly and there's lots of variables but it just takes some practice and a ~~reasonable sense of timing~~ little luck … ok and the ability to live with a lot of empty frames … oh and I used the fork in front of the backdrop to focus by holding it in the drop stream and focussing on it … the fork mis good also because you get a feel for the way the drops are falling vertically or slightly off and can vary the focus accordingly.

Next time I set this up I might even do a little video if anyone's interested? Do tell :-)

General About / Photos / Thoughts — 31 comments
18
Apr 13

On Printing

Last year a local gallery sold one of my large (44"x30") prints. They're keen to sell more, it's what most galleries like doing and so I recently took in some sample images on my tablet to show them a range of images I thought would work in their space. I had a set of 10 images to show which worked either individually or as part of a series of twos or threes. We eventually settled on three; two new images and a reprint of the one that sold. Jolly good … now I need to print them.

For me as a photographer, and as an artist I guess, there is a stage of the process which quietly freaks me out … I'm talking about printing and You, clever reader forearmed with the reading of the post's title, will no doubt have guessed this already!

A couple of years ago I had my first exhibition. I wanted my pictures to sing, to look as good as they possibly could and so I set about looking for a printer … not a machine … a person … an artist. Someone who understands what to me is a dark art … someone who can take what I have created and take it to another level … namely a wall. I didn't want a commercial sausage machine with automated calibrations. I was looking for someone who would create something special. I needed to trust them with my work.

When I first visited Stephen, who lives an hour's drive away in rural New South Wales and saw the tidy cottage which houses his printers and workstation I was quietly impressed. When he showed me the range of papers he collects and started to show me sample prints speak of black levels and colour absorbency and paper saturation levels and the depth of gloss and coatings I thought "He knows his stuff … he certainly knows a lot more than I do…" I quietly nodded. It was when he spoke to me of his theory: that a viewer has two simultaneous reactions to a picture – the first is a response to content or subject, form and balance … the second is a subconscious reaction to the colour and texture of the print itself and it was this subliminal aspect of the print and it's combination with the structure and form of the image the he strives for in his printing … he got a faraway look in his eyes when as he explained it and I thought "you're the one" and so I entered a relationship with a printer. You have to trust them … they can make or break your picture. (I'm paraphrasing … he said far more eloquently than that) …

There's a strict calibration setup for my monitors to ensure that the colour and tones you want are what Stephen will see when the images lands on his display. He understands implicitly how his inkjet printers interpret colour and tone and crafts an individual colour profile for each image to achieve that … it's what he does and he does it exceptionally well.

When the printing's complete and the prints delivered I get tense and sometimes I don't want to unroll them or open the folio case … the images have entered the tangible world … they're now real things. Real things that people will look at and buy and hang on their walls … I feel a buzz from that mixed with a weird sense of responsibility … one which I hope I never lose.

Eventually of course I do open them and look and pore … and breathe. Prints of this size are a reasonable investment … they represent my investment in my talent as an artist. An acceptance and belief in what I'm doing … trying to do … should be doing. They look fantastic of course … what was I worried about?

I took them to the gallery the other day and we discussed frames and mounts and wall space … I signed them. There, now they truly are mine. Michael, the gallery owner, loved them and the first of the prints goes up on the wall this week. It's exciting.

Are you printing your pictures large?

Food / General About / News / Thoughts — 20 comments
14
Apr 13

Sausages

I like sausages. I think I've always liked sausages. I like sausages so much I came to the idea that I wanted to make my own … it's simply ground meat and spices stuffed into a casing right? So, my friend Ashley and I decided to give it a go. I mean how hard could it be? Well it turns out … not very!

Bit squeamish about grinding up meat and intestinal things? Here's a completely different post.

Onward!

I have my parents original Kenwood Chef A701 which incidentally is as old as I am … give or take … and amongst the myriad attachments they had bought for it (many of which are still in their original boxes) is a mincer attachment. Please excuse the phone-pics ;-)

OK … mechanism for grinding meat? Check!

Next we need some meat. This is roughly 2kg of pork forequarter prior to being coarsely cubed.

And after… some fat was left on to assist with the cooking…

And first pass through the coarse grinder…

Flavours … We went with fresh, finely cut sage and thyme (about 2tbsp of each), some nutmeg and ginger and about 2tbsp of sea salt. The salt is the critical one … too little and the sausage tastes like straight cooked meat and too much … well, too salty … see, I do something once and standing on the shoulders of ~~Google~~ Giants I sound like I actually know what I'm talking about! The spices were mixed through by hand with the addition of about 150ml of iced water which serves to congeal the fat. I didn't take any pictures of that bit for fear of encasing my phone in ground meat.

OK … the next stage involves putting the filling into the casing to make sausages. What to use? Synthetic or gut? I spoke to my local butcher at Lyneham, makers of the famous Country Pride sausages and they supplied us a length of sheep intestine for the casing with instuction to run a little cold water through before fitting to the nozzle. As we did so it swelled up like … well … like gut… Ashley is seen here threading the casing onto the filling nozzle. In case you're wondering it is exactly like fitting a very long and slippery organic condom… there … you always wanted to know that huh?

Here's the nozzle fitted to the end of the mincing attachment ready to be stuffed. I'm not going to share what I thought this resembled…

OK! Fire that sucker up and lets make a sausage!

Certainly looks like a sausage! And here's where we ran into trouble (and it wasn't because I was too busy documenting to notice what was going on ;-) ) but the Kenwood mincer with the nozzle attached kept getting blocked necessitating the regular dismantling every 40cm length of sausage or so. The reason is the design of the grinding filter and I think the worm screw was pushing meat to the plate faster than it could be pushed through. After several dismantles and scraping out of tangled meat … definitely not a job for the squeamish … and the application of brute force, we had … you guessed it! Sausages!

We then cleaned up (how responsible is that!) poured some more wine and set about cooking a couple to sample them… it was about midnight by this stage…

And the result!

And they tasted bloody fantastic! It's always a cool moment in creation when you stand back and look at something you've made and think 'We did that!'. Going to do it again? Absolutely! The only part of the process I didn't enjoy was the repeated dismantling and hand-clearing of the mincer during the filling of the casing. The Kenwood really isn't the machine for that part of the job. It did great on the initial grind … just not the filling. I'm looking into a dedicated sausage stuffer and we'll try again after that. In the meantime I'm off to a BBQ this afternoon where our sausages are the guests of honour ;-)

Dee-lish!

Things to See / Thoughts / Travel — 18 comments
11
Apr 13

On Francis Bacon, patina and love

John Deakin’s photograph of George Dyer in the Reece Mews Studio, ca. 1964, Dublin City Gallery the Hugh Lane (Image courtesy Art Gallery of NSW)

In February of this year I travelled to Sydney for what really was a rather Arty weekend. I saw the Anish Kapoor show at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Circular Quay (very good … so good I took the kids up to see it a couple of weeks ago) … I saw Lisa Gerrard and Brendan Perry performing at the Sydney Opera House in their legendary duo (+ band) Dead Can Dance which brought me to tears on more than one occasion with it's power and sheer beauty.

I also went to see the Francis Bacon show at the Art Gallery of New South Wales.

Now let's get this out there first … I'm not a huge fan of Francis Bacon … none of his works feature near the top of any of my lists of favourite art but I do respect his work. I find it uncomfortable and violent, visceral and gutsy. I like that I feel something from his art even if it makes me uncomfortable. There's a certain violence in his work … it's been said that he was ismply repsonding to the violence and opression he saw and felt around him. I think he was brave or perhaps he just didn't care … I respect that he kept going and going … thoroughly obsessed by his work and not caring whether it was liked or not. I think he did care and the angst in his pictures is, to me a demonstration of just how deeply he felt.

There was a large collection of his paintings and sketches, over 50 in all, along with books and and detritus from his studio. Then there were the photographs… they were what affected me the most. The photos were placed in simple frames that were deep enough to allow the crumpled prints to breathe. The photos were scrunched and ripped, taped back together, creased and stained, torn … I imagined them cried over … the tears falling onto them after the passing of his lover, I imagined them being scrunched into a ball and thrown in anger after an argument, unfolded and pressed flat by hands, left under whatever else occupied the artist's mind at the time… they had patina.

In short: they were loved

At a time when our culture is obsessed by perfection, the smooth and the wrinkle free, these photographs spoke of life and how it is messy and sticky and visceral and at times violent. I think we forget that or it somehow suits us to forget that. I realised I had been looking at them a long time transfixed by these thoughts and resolved to write them down … to blog them … I forgot – distracted by whatever else was going on in my life … the new and shiny smooth wrinkle free objects of my attention.

I said I'm not a huge fan of Francis Bacon but re-redading my post I think just might be.

Are you moved by art? … I think some of you might be…

General About / News / Photos / Things to See / Thoughts / Travel — 28 comments
03
Apr 13

Optical Galaxy and then some … a trip to Cameron Offices

On Sunday afternoon I went for a little photowalk. I went up to the Cameron Offices, once a shining example of 1970's Brutalist architecture and future vision … half has been demolished and the other half transformed into student accommodation … still, amongst the concrete there is a semblance of the vision of the architects and designers … in between concrete angularity and rigidity there flow streams and reflective ponds, stark white lift wells and sculpture. Optical Galaxy by Canadian sculptor Gerald Gladstone (1923-2005) particularly caught my eye …

"Commissioned for Cameron Offices as part of the Town Square located opposite Mall 9. It was created by the Canadian sculptor, Gerald Gladstone who was striving to express humanity's concern with its position in intergalactic space. The sculpture comprises eleven truncated fins each standing 7 metres high that are curved to represent the form of the sine waves used in measuring light waves. On top of each fin is a Lucite block in which is suspended a sculpture of welded steel road to represent the swirls of planets in the galaxy. A specially designed water cannon emits a cascade of water over the work." (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gerald_Gladstone)

The piece has been moved from its original location opposite Mall 9 and now stands somewhat external to the main complex and easily accessible although it lacks any form of descriptive plaque or insightful inscription … I would love to see it in action with its custom water cannon but sadly I think it may be defunct.

What about you? where was your last photowalk? Did you take any pictures? Sometime I go on a photowalk and leave the camera in my bag the entire time ;-)

ps … thanks to everyone who let me know just how much the gallery option didn't work for them … we're back to inline images again :-)

News / Things to See / Thoughts — 12 comments
29
Mar 13

Cell Block 69 – The Spiegel Garden

A couple of weeks ago I attended and photographed an extraordinarily fun gig in an extraordinary place. Cell Block 69 were performing at The Spiegel Garden – a purpose built circus style marquee that has been enjoying a month long residency at the Senate Rose Gardens for the centenary of Canberra celebrations. The group? Comprised of 8 members all calling themselves "Corey" they customarily play 2 gigs a year, one in Sydney and the other here in Canberra. They've been together for nigh on ten years and are somewhat of a Canberra Christmas institution (if there is such a thing). They play covers … trashy Eighties covers. Whip It!, Queen, Computer Games, Centrefold, Girls on Film, Jump etc etc. They have gone to tremendous effort to replicate the sounds using period effects and analog synthesisers. Lead singer Pip Branson changes costumes and character for each song … he is a very talented boy. The gig got very crowded and was a little nuts at times. It got a little crowded when I squeezed through to get to a position at the foot of the stage. Impossible for me not to sing along … I remember those songs when they were released!

: Certainly Corey Mercury

: Corey Spandau

: Corey has a dedicated fanbase ;-)

: Careless Whispers

: Aaahh … BOSS effects pedals!

: Corey Elektra

: Between encores

: iPhones are new the cigarette lighters. This one even sports a video flame!

(apparently you can click on a picture to see it writ large!)

The gig finished at 2am. live on the other side of the lake in the middle of Canberra and I was on my bicycle so I got to ride home under the stars … getting home around a quarter to three … I smelled like a squash court so I showered after initiating the loading of the images off the memory cards.

Tell me, does the gallery option I've used in this post work? would you prefer larger, in-line images?

A larger, more comprehensive set of images from the gig can be found at Lushpup Images … here.

What's the last gig you wnet to? Was it music or poetry? What kind of music? did you dance and get all sweaty or was it a sit down more formal affair? Do tell :-)

General About / News / Photos / Thoughts — 14 comments
25
Mar 13

Collective Thoughts

I have been getting back into taking pictures again. This follows on from my moving and renovation experiences late last year when I took almost no pictures of anyone or anything except the progress (and at times … total lack of progress) on the renovations to my flat. It was a period of perhaps six or seven months where I took next to no pictures purely for the pleasure of taking pictures … it was like my photo-mojo had vamoosed. I like to think of it now as a kind of enforced sabbatical … a time when I reflected upon other things and new directions … though I recall at the time finding it confusing and debilitating.

I mean, after a while you start to think about whether you'll be able to take pictures again. You look back on the remarkable things you've captured and published before but they feel like they were taken by a different person and there's so much going on in your mind, things are moving so quickly, that even beginning to write a post feels like it's passed before you even start.

I knew the mojo would return … I could feel it circling me. I began to see pictures again … the ones the you compose when you aren't carrying a camera. You see the picture … the light, the crop, the depth and the colour even though you didn't actually take it. Truth be told that's how most of my pictures are captured … I have a large mental store of those ones … the ones I saw but didn't take.

Enter The Ellis Collective; a six piece folk-rock (also referred to as 'Bloke-folk' ;-) ) group from Canberra. I'd shot them before and we were both very happy with the results. I met with Matty Ellis (the large chap with the shaved head) in early March and we tossed around some ideas. There were to be two separate shoots … the first of the band having a picnic and the second … well …

Matty had this idea of a shot with band at night standing in front of a car's headlights and I began to think of how I'd do it. This was one of those times when you know technically how you would take a shot but have never actually taken a shot like it. I knew from my Strobist readings many years ago (that's a great site if you're into using any kind of flash in your photography btw) how to expose for the background lighting and illuminate the foregound with speedlights or flash. I knew I could do it and I wanted to do it and the band were into it but I'd never attempted it before … and certainly not with paying clients! There was a real risk that we would come away with nothing … that I'd assembled the group in the dark for nothing ;-)

The shot called for a stretch of deserted road … I used trusty Google Maps and found a spot amongst the fields of Pialligo out near the airport, arrived at sunset and began to set up. We moved a car into position and I got the band to stand in front but it became clear that I needed more light … so we moved another two cars to just out of frame … now we had plenty of light :-)

Now for the speedlights, I used two (Nikon SB-910 & SB-800) atop two mid light stands on either side of the band. The SB-910 on the right of the frame sported a Honly speed grid to provide harsh, directional light across the band. I controlled the power of the speedlights using the the D600 camerabuilt in flash as a commander. The camera uses the Nikon Creative Lighting System (CLS) to alloow the body to remotely control the power setting of speedlights. The camera was atop a tripod and the pictures shot through my 70-200 f/2.8.

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The road was dusty and I got the band to kick up some dust to produce a smokey effect. One hassle with that was there a light breeze blowing across the frame from right to left … I left the camera (with my remote in my pocket) and went down to band to get some dust in the air. However, the remote sensor on the Nikon is on the left side of the body and wouldn't trigger from my upwind side … for these pictures I threw the dust, ran across the frame, fired the remote and got the picture … fun! I do like a picture you have to do some work for :-)

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I even did a lighting diagram just for you :-)

Ellis Collective lighting diagram

And some from the picnic shoot too :-)

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News / Photos — 8 comments
20
Mar 13

Look what arrived in the mail today

bookcover The Grimalkin's Secret

A book! The Grimalkin's Secret by Kara Komarnitsky

A book with my dragon tail image featured on it's back cover. There was a lovely handwritten letter from Ms Komarnitsky enclosed as well.

I do like this life.

It made my afternoon … it really did. I'm still smiling :-)

General About / Photos / Thoughts — 19 comments
25
Feb 13

Lucie Thorne – The Front – 24th February 2013

I had the pleasure, in between passing cells of heavy rain, to see Lucie Thorne perform at my local pub/gallery/cafe The Front yesterday afternoon. Lucie sings finely crafted stories of longing with aching melody and feeling. The Front provides an intimate setting to see performers and Lucie did not disappoint.

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Apparently she's become quite famous!

You can visit her here.

Lucie Thorne – The Front – 24th February 2013

Nature / Photos — 38 comments
23
Feb 13

Last of the Summer Rains

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It rained last night, a soft gentle rain that collected in heavy droplets and made everything glisten this morning before the clouds moved in again.

I do love water drops …

Photos / Poetry / Words with Pictures — 24 comments
20
Feb 13

Poised

Poised
as I ride the wave
the rush and churn of new over old
I am still.
centered and reflecting a blue sky

I love gerberas.

Photos / Travel — 21 comments
11
Feb 13

Sydney Archistracts

A term I found in the Plus "Archistract" or an Architectural Abstract describes seeing a building in an abstract way … it's something I like to try when I'm visiting a new city (or a city that's not my city). The trick for this technique, the real trick, is to look up. These are from my walking around Sydney last weekend. Archistracts seem to work best in monochrome … which suits me at the moment because I'm on a real monochrome kick at the moment :-)

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Photos — 14 comments
10
Feb 13

Towards The Within

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On a monochrome kick.

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Step into the white mist at the foot of the stairs …

Sometimes I find colour distracting. When I feel like this I like to strip the colour out … bring the photograph back to basics so speak. Let tone and contrast and form tell their stories of how they work together to create something your eye can interpret as clouds, as stairs … as a face … as light and dark. Strip off the gloss and the patina … return to an essence.

General About / News — 32 comments
06
Feb 13

Happy Birthday … to Me!

Bokeh firework

So it's my birthday today … the hour and nine minutes that's left of it anyways :-)

It's been a fun day despite having to go to work for a large part of it … I got to have cake and champagne with the family and red wine afterward and catch up on my blog and all the lovely people who've stopped by on various forums to say hello and wish me well. It's been nice … a laid-back kind of birthday and to celebrate I've included a bokeh firework shot on Saturday night looking toward Darling Harbour in Sydney. Gosh, that was a fun weekend … nothing to do but decide what to do next, take photographs … or not … I walked a long way.

So, Happy Birthday to Me! :-)

What's your ideal way to spend a birthday? Soaking bath? Skydive? Zilch? Everyone? Noone? Chocolate!

Do tell :-)

General About / Photos / Things to See / Thoughts / Travel — 18 comments
04
Feb 13

Sydney: Anish Kapoor – Museum of Contemporary Art

I have just returned from a glorious weekend in Sydney. Well, glorious for the people and things I saw … the weather was cold and wet and so unlike Summer. The main purpose of the trip was see Dead Can Dance perform at the Sydney Opera House on the Sunday night. DCD are essentially two people; Lisa Gerrard and Brendan Perry. They have been working together for nearly 30 years with their first release coming in 1984 and their latest work Anastasis released last year. The performance was outstanding and supported by another 5 musicians. If you're unfamiliar with their work and you have 6 minutes of guaranteed 'alone-time' click here. There's no 'clip' with this one … just a visual of the cover art for the album The Serpents Egg. The track was also featured on the Baraka Soundtrack. They performed this last night about half way through their set and I wept … this piece always moves me and hearing it live has now somehow made my life more complete.

Anyways, I digress! I also saw the Anish Kapoor show at the Museum of Contemporary Art down on Circular Quay. This show is his first for Australia and didn't disappoint. There are many visually challenging pieces in the show and the scale of some is quite breathtaking. Like, for example My Red Homeland (below). From the catalog;

My Red Homeland is a monumental wax sculpture that consists of 25 tons of paraffin wax mixed with a deep red pigment. In this enormous circular sculpture, a large motorised steel blade slowly traces the circumference of the structure, which measures 12 metres in diameter. Each rotation of the blade takes about one hour, as it cuts a course through the wax, dissecting and reshaping it into endless new forms.

I know … to make this work, I think we need some wax … how about 25 tons of wax! And I want it red, blood red, so when it's cut and churned it resembles meat … yes … like that, flesh. Visceral, cut, shaped and continually reworked (once an hour) … quite brilliant really.

The scale alone is enough to grab you in.

I went up to Sydney with my good friend David and his wife Thao. David's a huge DCD fan and he drove us all up to Sydney for our weekend of culture. Here he is in the picture below photographing Kapoor's Memory, a 24 ton hollow steel construction that required the roof to be temporarily removed to lower it into its install space.

Now, apart from these rather colossal installations, there are a lot of pieces that sincerely mess with your visual perceptions of the space you find yourself. Kapoor uses non-reflective pigments in a number of pieces which really works to mess with you perception … I didn't take any pictures of those … it would have been pointless really … you have stand in front of it and experience them yourself … sorry about that.

I did take a picture of When I was Pregnant (below)

Oh and there was a whole room of very shiny S-curves and C-curves all incredibly polished that served to reflect and cross-reflect the room and the people in it in a myriad different ways. I spoke to one of the assistants who explained to me that the artist has a team of specialist polishers flown over from New York specifically to polish these installations … the polishing took nine days for the MCA show. They did a bloody good job!

I really enjoyed this show by Anish Kapoor. It runs until the 13th of April 2013.

How's about you? Been to visit any particularly fine art recently.

Photos / Thoughts — 19 comments
29
Jan 13

Night Moves

Three images from a moving car. These were all taken on a single journey back from a party out in the countryside last year. I wasn't driving so I was able to drag the shutter and capture the light traces transcribed by the reflectors on the road as our headlights illuminated them. I took 8 frames I think of which these three were the best … and I thought that a reasonable shooting average! And now the song 'Night Moves' is stuck in my head … why do I do that?

...ribbons...

Ribbons

Jazz

Jazz

Spirit Chase

Spirit Chase

They work as abstract patterns evoking a sense of the other … our minds shape them into objects we relate to … I'm interested in what you see in them … do tell! :-)

General About / News / Thoughts — 23 comments
24
Jan 13

2012 PlusOne Collection

2012 Plus One promotional poster Found out yesterday that my photograph Feel the Wind was selected for the print edition of the 2012 PlusOne Collection.

boy standing in front of train passing a station at speed

It's exciting and it seems I'm in esteemed company … the 299 other images selected are all fantastic. I've pre-ordered my copy and I'm looking forward to seeing it in April :-)

Great collection, great cause. Check it out.

General About / News / Photos / Thoughts / Words with Pictures — 25 comments
22
Jan 13

The wind in my heart

Monochrome self portrait with white light bars across my face

Searching, it's a common theme here on this blog … searching for that indescribable piece that falls into place the moment we find it. The thing you don't know what you're looking for until you've found it. That thing.

I've been looking for pictures to post … this is Pictures with Words after all … but I've come to realise over the course of this search that I'm grown dissatisfied with my body of work. Don't get me wrong, I don't dislike them, they remain good photographs but they don't represent where I am now. What to do about that? Well take some more obviously! Like this one taken this afternoon as the sun was beginning to set out the window of the flat. Those beams of incandescence, hot and bright. I felt them as I closed my eyes and breathed.

The wind in my heart

The wind in my heart

The dust in my head

The dust in my head

The wind in my heart

The wind in my heart

(come to) drive them away

Drive them away.

Listening Wind, Talking Heads, Remain In Light

General About / News / Photos / Thoughts — 27 comments
31
Dec 12

Elsewhere

Time spent elsewhere. If I start to type will the words flow?

I honestly don't know…

It's been three months and now it's the last day of 2012. It's been an intense period for me and I'm looking forward to what 2013 will bring. As some of you will know, my partner and I decided to split amicably in August. We'd been together for over thirteen years and while I'm not going to go into the details here suffice to say that we both want different things in life and neither of us can see it happening if we stay together. Things are friendly and all but it's still tricky at times. So I've been busy renovating my flat and moved in two weeks ago. The renovations took much longer than planned, thanks largely to an oft-times absent builder, but it's worked out well with end of the school year and Christmas holidays. The flat's turned out very nicely and I'll do a whole post on that soonly. It doesn't feel quite so much like a hotel suite anymore ;-)

Astute readers of this blog will have noticed I've been very quiet creatively and while I've been taking some pictures I've not had a workstation to process them on until I moved in. That said, I have done a couple of commissions for Living Magazine;

20121013_NIKON D80__DSC3083 20121013_NIKON D80__DSC3070 20121013_NIKON D80__DSC3093

pimped a friends Cadillac

20120901_NIKON D80__DSC2981

got flown to Adelaide for a weekend of following two gorgeous musicians around the Adelaide Hills (the images are beautiful but awaiting my workflow mojo to return ;-) )

On the way there, I stuffed around in the airport;

20121112_NIKON D80__DSC4138

I did go outside … to Sydney even;

DSC_0308_Karen

Wirestorm, one of the large pictures from last year's exhibition sold for $2,000 at a local gallery … I was quite pleased about that :-)

Two of my photographs were selected for book covers;

Canberra by Paul Daly

canberra

and a dragon-fantasy book in Canada … the title of which I am unable to currently recall

...dragon tail... [REDUX]

The Australian National Botanic Gardens featured my work when I photographed their AfterDark night garden experiences

31-12-2012 10-31-05 PM

I finally entered the smartphone fraternity and spend many, many hours playing with it. It takes decent pictures too. I've spent a good deal of the past three months drooling over the new Nikon bodies but came to the realisation that if I'd bought one then it would pretty much sit in its box… the time is approaching though!

On the way I lost track of some friends and I honestly don't know what happened with some of them … things went quiet and just nothing … I didn't have the energy to follow through and all and chase things that seemingly held no return … my mind really was elsewhere.

Looking back I've been busy and I would oft look at my neglected blog and read through my feeds but have not commented when I felt I had nothing to share back … it's been kinda like that … a lot of feeling I had nothing to share back … not publicly anyways.

If you've read all the way down here … thank you … and I wish you the very best of the season and a spectacular 2013. I'm going to be there and I'd love to see you there too.

Geoff

Photos / Science / Thoughts — 19 comments
13
Aug 12

Round Like A Circle In A Spiral

Down the barrel

Round Like a circle in a spiral…

This morning I awoke thinking about lenses and the thought: Why aren't photographs circular? I mean the lenses produce circular representations of the light. It must be for practical reasons; glass plates, negatives, storage … convenience … who has or had the time to cut out circles? And storing circles … knowing which way was up. I got to thinking about how these early practical considerations have shaped the way we look at the world. How we frame and crop it to suit. Our cameras have shaped and at times constrained our view for so long that I feel sometimes we forget that the world is not cropped into 4×6 or square or 5×7 ratios … that the light coming into our lenses is circular and that we chop it up. Our eyes don't see in terms of square cut windows. I think it strange that with the advent of new technologies that potentially free us from the practical constraints of the past (such as digital imaging, capture and projection) we still cling to them … we call them imaging standards. I imagine that a camera that the captured the light in a circular fashion would be labelled 'novelty' or of 'limited practical use' simply because it did something new (there's an irony in there somewhere).

like a wheel within a wheel …

From a biological perspective, our eyes see circles. We are fortunate to have them hooked up to a superlative imaging system in our brains that creates the impression that we see much more than the circles of light refracted upside-down onto the back of our eyes. Our brains take this input and effectively stitch our visual reality together for us. Our visual experience appears so seamless because the transition between scenes is edited out. You can test this for yourself very easily by a simple experiment. Standing in front of a mirror, look at your left eye. Now look at your right eye. Did you feel your eyes move? Quite likely. Did you see them move? No, you didn't. That movement is a transitional scene that your mind edits out … I don't know why it does but it does. Magicians and sleight of hand experts exploit this phenomenon.

Now I don't spend hours in front of a mirror trying to see my eyes moving back and forth and I only present it here to illustrate how what we see is not always what we see.

The photograph: you're looking down the barrel of a 105mm field gun at a defence recruiting display at the Canberra Show. I loved the way the rifling spiraled away into the bokeh. The colour is a result of the crowd walking past the other end of the gun. Reference – sprial – blur – colour … what more could you want? Sometimes the world blurs into shape and colour … abstract forms and amorphous shapes (thankfully not when I'm driving ;-) ). It retains for a time the rigidity of frame, of reference but becomes something else entirely … something without frame or reference.

Did you try the experiment? Go find a mirror and try it now. Did you see your eyes move?

News / Photos / Science / Thoughts — 29 comments
09
Aug 12

Curiously Curiosity

You may have gathered I like things astronomical and sciencey. On Monday afternoon I took the kids out to the Tidbinbilla tracking station outside Canberra. The station is also known as the Canberra Deep Space Communications Complex (CDSCC) and forms an integral parts of NASA's space communications network alongside similar stations in Madrid and California. The Tidbinbilla station was the one that was going to be facing Mars when Curiosity landed after its nine month journey between the planets. I wanted to be there at 1530 when the signal was received (or not received!).

We arrived out there at about half-two and parked by the side of the road some 500m from the front entrance. We joined a long line of cars and more were arriving behind us. By the time we got into the visitors centre the place was packed and standing room only (and rather stuffy) with a large screen piping in the feed from JPL. It was fantastic to see so many people – and all sorts too – out there to witness something the internet would have shown them better. Mobile devices had to be switched off so they didn't interfere with the radio gear on-site. We left the main building and went outside to the playground and some fresh air(!). I caught up with a photog mate who was out there doing some time-lapse work.

I loved explaining to the kids that at that moment, at 1500 the dish was sending a signal across 220 million kilometers, to another planet, to the Curiosity to 'Go!' to begin it's descent… and that after 30 minutes we'd know whether it had worked or not. That dish there … that one right there … will pick up the signal. I was excited ;-)

At about 1525 we sneaked in around the side into the visitors centre to listen to the JPL stream. We could hear them calling the descent rate of 0.75 meters per second when they announced 'Touchdown! Curiosity has landed'. The place erupted in near-teary and relieved applause … the atmosphere was terrific … we all clapped and cheered. We applauded not only the engineering feat (the calculations!) or that it all worked (I want a sky crane!) but through relief that hopes and dreams had not been dashed. That this will be the last rover for some time and had it failed there would unlikely be another for many, many years. What a cool thing … they took a moving science lab the size and weight of a car and flung it through space and landed it on another planet to within 7km of its landing spot … who on Earth works that kind of stuff out?

The photo is one I took on another visit (we're somewhat regulars) during winter last year. It was an icy windy day beneath low clouds when the sunset broke through and bathed the dish in beautiful golden light.

Nature / Photos / Poetry / Science / Thoughts / Words with Pictures — 52 comments
31
Jul 12

a full moon always rises at sunset

moonlight on blue water

moon rises full
across a sparkling sea
the sun cedes the sky

You want to know something that absolutely fascinates me? Of course you do! You'll need to think about this a bit so let's go … 'a full moon always rises at sunset' … think about that for a moment. Have you ever seen the full moon rise at any time other than sunset? You know, like in the middle of the night or in the morning? The answer will be no because it doesn't happen. OK, so far, so good. Now hold that thought and add to the fact that the lunar cycle is fixed … well OK, let's say regular at 29 and a half days (29.53059 days to be precise). So every 29 and a half days there's another full moon. OK? Now the next bit gets confusing but stay with me and let's quickly recap;

full moon always at sunset
full moon occurs every 29.5 days

Alrighty, there's another cycle working here too, the seasons. Every day the days get longer or shorter depending on the season you're in and by 'day' I'm referring to the amount of daylight. So, here in SE Australia the days are growing longer as we march toward Spring. There's a full moon this Thursday (2nd August) and it will rise at sunset even though the day has lengthened. What balance!

There's lots more moonphase related stuff over at Moonconnection.com which is where I lifted the diagram below;

] moon phases diagram

Courtesy Moonphases.com

Think about it next time you see a full moon rising … just remember 'a full moon always rises at sunset'.

I'm the type of person who follows the moon and the seasons … I know where the moon will be (roughly!) at any given time of the day or night depending on where the lunar cycle's up to.

Do you follow the moon? Do you use the sun to tell you which direction you're facing? Do you live above the arctic circle? You can tell me what happens there! Do tell. I'm interested.

Nature / Photos / Sum of the Parts / Thoughts — 42 comments
25
Jul 12

Sum of the Parts #2

blurred landscape of indeterminate origin

earth and sky 
we walk between 
pondering both

A new piece for my ongoing project the Sum of the Parts where I'm intentionally blurring a scene during capture in an attempt to deconstruct them into their component parts. The result invites the viewer to ponder and create their own landscape … a new sum of the parts. One day I'll get enough of these to put a show together.

I particularly like the way this one remains ambiguous. Is it dusk or midday? Inland or coastal?

Poetry / Thoughts / Words with Pictures — 26 comments
23
Jul 12

Ripples

triptych of ripple patterns in monochrome

a pebble dreams of falling
sinking slowly into sleep
ripples spread in silence above

A warm lazy afternoon … cooler in the shade by the water. A stone thrown into a pond. You hear the 'plop' … a quick, fluid sound. You look and see the ripples radiating. Think of the pebble then … as it drifts down to the bottom … turning perhaps … a little sideways drift but a certain destination. The air brought down with it bubbles away leaving a sunlit trail of sparkle as it nestles on the bottom amongst a myriad others. While above the ripples spread.

Nature / Photos / Thoughts — 58 comments
18
Jul 12

Which Comes First? The Image or the Words?

On my previous post I talked about the habit of writing … about falling out and falling back in. The post prompted a lot of discussion (thank you) … well more than normal on this blog anyways! In the course of that discussion one question posed by blogging friend Ally stuck in my mind today; she wrote

words first?

or image?

Does it matter?

My initial response to the question was 'Image first' and although it's true that I generally choose an image and then let the words flow from there … my answer didn't really satisfy me. Who is to say that the words weren't simmering away waiting for an image? I rarely think of the words or an idea and then go find and take a picture to illustrate it … I know plenty of photographers who do but I'm not one. I do have some projects I'm working on that require this approach and I've discussed some of those previously.

Composing a picture is a searching, almost meditative process for me. Often I don't know exactly where I'm going with it until I arrive. I'm trying to think whether the words are there then at that moment of artistic creation? No, they're not. Not in the form as you're reading now. But then, the vision behind my thoughts … behind my presented image was. When I present the two together, they appear simultaneously to you. There's no telling which came first … you get to choose!

When I took this picture (in December 2011) was I thinking of the words I'd write here today? No I wasn't. I was thinking of the interconnectedness of things … about how the structure of the leaf and the arrangement of its veins was likely an efficient method of town-planning … about how the natural and constructed worlds shared much and that our contructed world had more to learn than perhaps the other way round.

Oh and I was holding my breath because I didn't want to cause the leaf to move.

Does it matter?

Does the fact that I wasn't, in this case, thinking of the words and the picture simultaneously matter? I don't think so. Did one influence the other? Most definitely.

Which way does it work for you? Which comes first?

Photos / Poetry / Thoughts / Words with Pictures — 53 comments
11
Jul 12

Falling Out of the Habit of Writing

Falling out of the habit of writing

Not that I'm running out of things to talk about … quite the contrary, my mind is often full of ideas and thoughts all competing to get out. Sometimes in conversation I am so internally focused on the discussion that the conversation has moved on by the time my bit is ready to go … other times I hear someone talking, think 'that sounds interesting I should listen to that' only to find it is in fact me talking! Thankfully that weirdness doesn't happen too often.

Writing, I find, gives me an opportunity to focus, to concentrate, to refine in a way that conversation doesn't. The poems, the haiku, the questioning and searching … it all makes more sense when written down rather than floating as abstracts in my head. That once I chose a subject to write about the rest just flows … it's the choosing I find difficult. Like what image to post next(?) … that is the hardest decision for me with regard to this blog. There are so many to choose from but which one conveys what I'm trying to say now? Once I decide I can find something to write about it. I do like those blogs where only the image is placed … sometimes no text at all. They have a minimalism that I admire but still I sometimes wish I knew more about the thoughts behind it. It lends a level of understanding of what the photographer is trying to say … what did they want you to see by placing this image in a place where you are going to see it? Why put an image up if you didn't want people to 'see' something in it.

Today, it's a picture of a mesh fence, the background fernland dissolved into a warm bokeh. The fence for me is that barrier to my mind … the filter that lets thoughts in and out … it's a little rusty like my writing skills of late … I've fallen out of the habit of writing you see.

I can feel myself falling back in too … thankfully.

Thanks for coming along for the ride.

Nature / Photos / Poetry / Words with Pictures — 35 comments
10
Jul 12

Malua Moonlight

Rock pretending eternity
Moonlight heavy on the sea
Clouds bring the sky

Photograph and haiku of Malua Bay on the south coast of New South Wales. Lit here by about 8 minutes of the full moon. All is not what it seems. The moonlight softens the waves creating a smooth effect of deceptive calm … the clouds coming in give the game away.

Photos / Travel — 16 comments
09
Jul 12

Bali Impressions

Some pictures from a trip that already feels like years ago :-)

Oculus / Photos — 19 comments
08
Jul 12

The Lost World

Photos / Poetry / Science / Thoughts / Words with Pictures — 39 comments
03
Jul 12

Time

Clocks show their faces
moments pass us by in silence
there is no time today

Time. I've never truly gotten a handle on it … slippery thing that it is. I can count. I count really well. I count in even beats and measures … I turned this into percussion and music … it seemed a natural progression. I read an interesting series of articles in New Scientist recently on the nature of time … of causation both forward and backward (think about that for a bit … something in the future having a causal effect on the past). Of how time doesn't inherently have direction …that it doesn't implicitly flow one way or the other - it is how we perceive time that makes it appear that it flows. That bends my mind it – really does.

What is time to you? What your watch or phone says. Is it a feeling or a notion? Is it an instant or a the suite of sensations that accompany an event or moment? For me it can be all of those things … how about you? I'm interested.

About the photo:
Camera: Mamiya 645 Super with 80mm f/2.8
Film: Fuji FP-3000B B&W Polaroid
Scanned: my dusty 3-in-1 multifunction scanner
Subject: Old clock sitting on the piano at Ness

Poetry / Thoughts / Words with Pictures — 18 comments
02
Jul 12

Suspense

$black and white image of a droplet falling and refracting a checkerboard background$

My colour - your colour
blending unseen against solidity
As pattern is introduced
My being warps it
Becomes visible
Clearly refracting 
seen only as a distortion of your regularity
bending the very rays
and become visible against them
perfect imperfection reveals
a passing lens

I remember falling past you
on my way to a fluidic oblivion
caught
the relic of a splash I made when I was someone else

Water and the refraction of light are common themes in my work. I remember being in primary school and realising that things were visible only if they shone with their own light or reflected light into my eyes. I had this little mirror I used to take to school and I would play games with it like positioning it in the grass on the oval at just the right angle so that it effectively disappeared. I would then spin around or close my eyes for a time, and proceed to look for it … could I pick out the tiny replication that signalled where the reflection was? That moment of suspense when I thought that perhaps, this time I had actually lost the mirror… upon reflection (no pun intended) I was maybe a little odd as a child. Not that much has changed, I was in love with light even then.

When did you realise you were in love with light? Was there a moment when you really noticed it … noticed it or simply became aware of it? Do tell :-)

Photos — 35 comments
01
Jul 12

Hold me

Hold me…

Photos / Travel — 12 comments
29
Jun 12

Something in the wine

Three and a half seconds of dragged shuttery, fire-twirly goodness for your viewing pleasure. Have a good weekend … what are you up to?

Oculus / Photos / Things to See / Travel — 11 comments
28
Jun 12

Gunung Batur

$Volcano Gunung Batur on the island of Bali refracted through a glass sphere$

Oculus time again. This is a picture of Gunung Batur (Mount Batur) on the island of Bali. It is an active volcano and this picture was was taken from the rim of the caldera which was formed around 25,00 years ago. The present cone rises some 700m above Lake Batur which has formed on the caldera floor. The last major lava flows were in 1968 and can be seen clearly as dark basaltic out purings out from the main cone but the volcano urmbles and emits steam regularly. It looks and sounds remote but there are literally hundereds of restaurants and tea houses stretched along this, the southwest part of the rim forming part of the town of Kintamani.

Nearby is a Volcano Museum which wasn't there last time we visited and contains some great models and geological samples. My eldest (7), who's totally into seismographs at the moment (even more so after watching 'Journey to the Centre of the Earth' twice on the plane on the way over…) thought it fantastic. We found a little staircase in one corner of the museum labelled 'Observation Room'. We ascended the stairs to find a little bright room with several tripods with high powered binoculars pointing vaguely at the volcano. The tripod mounts are very wobbly and the scopes could not be focussed … oh well. On the way back down we stopped at a little glass door where we found the resident seismologist who seemed completely chuffed to have some interested visitors. He welcomed us in and showed us the seismograph which had a trace on its drum from a tremor that morning. Mr 7 was in heaven!

Of course my oculus came to Bali with me and although it stayed in my camera bag most of the time … it came out whenever I remembered it was there … like this occasion. Shot using my favourite lens my Nikkor 50mm f/1.4.

Photos / Poetry / Thoughts / Words with Pictures — 25 comments
26
Jun 12

Fade

Fade

I had no words today
I thought to set words to this image
to say what I thought when I created it
or it created me ... I never can tell

then I realised
I remember standing there ... holding the trigger 
the roar of the ocean
the bright dawn light
I recall the click of the exposure ending 
after, I guess, the minutes I asked for
that in between I went somewhere
to where I do not know but it was peaceful

there were no words

Photos / Street / Thoughts / Travel — 31 comments
25
Jun 12

Walking A Different Path

Walking a different path. Travel … one of the best things we can do for both ourselves and our children. As a family we travelled … a lot. I changed schools every two or three years and after a while you make friends like a traveller makes friends … knowing that it's a temporary thing … one or other of you will be gone soon. You don't put down roots, they'll only be torn up in a couple of years. You learn to be compact and self-reliant. On the other hand you get to see things other people do not. Countries that no longer exist. Ways of life that have disappeared forever. I remember seeing Chinese junks in Penang and Singapore harbours. Orchard Road with wooden shops before it became high-rise. Islands before they became the footprint for mega-resorts. It wasn't that long ago either.

I remember returning to Australia, to a new school again after one of these trips and finding people simply didn't believe that I'd been overseas … that I was making it all up … that everywhere was simply the same as it was here. How I longed to be able to teleport them to walk along one of those streets, or to the center of an asian market where you chose the chicken you wanted for dinner, went away and returned to find it newly converted into fresh-plucked chicken … still vitally warm … or you could stay and watch. That would learn them … maybe.

I believe it's vitally important to walk down another street. A place you've never been … surrounded by people living a life completely different to yours (albeit superficially … I mean we're all essentially looking for love and warmth and food) to see how people live. It changes the way you view the world and your place within it … at times if only to realise just how lucky you are to have the things you have and often take for granted.

I took the picture above on a recent family trip to Ubud in Bali. I liked that it showed that essential nature of travel … walking a different path.

Do you travel? Have you walked another path?

News / Photos / Thoughts — 20 comments
23
Jun 12

Changing Light

Have you ever travelled somewhere you've been before but a long time ago? Somewhere perhaps where things are different to the life you left to go there? Although I'm an Australian and have spent most of my life here, I was born in Georgetown, Penang and have spent significant periods of my life growing up in Asia. I feel an affinity – there's a large part of me in Southeast Asia. I recently returned to the mountains of the Indonesian island of Bali after an absence of 10 years. Bali's a beautiful (& warm) place with rich a Hindu culture and warm, friendly people … did I mention warm? The morning we left Canberra it was -6C! When we landed it felt the same … it smelled the same. We couldn't find the driver our hotel sent so we jumped in a cab for what's normally a 40 minute ride. The trip took 2 and a bit hours in at times quite ridiculous traffic … perhaps traffic is a bit generous – traffic implies movement of some kind. There was plenty of time to look out the window. As the sun set I noticed something had changed. At first I couldn't put a finger on it yet it altered my whole perception. By the road, shops and houses, scooter repair, makan (food) carts, temples and shrines – switched on their lights pools in the increasing darkness.

The shops felt colder, less inviting … why was that? Of course! The light! The light was now blue! I remembered it as orange … incandescent … warm. The incandescent globes had all been replaced by compact flourescents (CF) with their cold bluey glow. Here in Australia, we've been changing the globes over for years and I remember noticing that houses looked less inviting and colder then. It was one of those 'Derr!' moments when I realise the obvious … of course everyone everywhere is changing to the new bulbs … of course it will look different. Then why did I have such a reaction to this?

I'll declare I dislike CF lighting … it feels stark and cold to me … somehow less intimate. Halogens still retain their warmth (literally most times!) … I guess people who've grown up with nothing else do not yearn as I do for those warm oranges and yellows. I sincerely hope that lighting engineers are working on warmer, energy-efficient solutions – I'm sure they are!

How about you, do you miss the incandescents? Have you always known CF lighting? Does it feel cold to you? Less intimate?

Do let me know :-)

Nature / Photos / Poetry / Thoughts / Words with Pictures — 33 comments
04
Jun 12

Fernland

Fernland

Damp, earthy – a faint musk
Cool, verdant
quiet … still
Fractal patterns stretch
Unfolding gently, chaos becomes ordinary
repeated
and repeated
and repeated – seeming endlessly
easy to dismiss, to overlook as all alike
they're copies to a point
each unique – new and ancient both

Reaching for the light
As I to you
unfurling in hope that the light will come
Do you see me here in the fernland?
beneath the trees
striving for the dappled
When I find it I thrive
Without it a piece of me dies

(June 2012)

—-

I'm not a religious person, let me just state that up front. Sometimes when I look over what I've written, I can see how some of the writing could be viewed that way … all this striving and longing for light stuff. What I am striving for is a completeness that I don't find in my day-to-day life. A feeling that I glimpse every now and again of a natural patterning (and I emphatically do not refer to design) at once simple and mind-bendingly complex. I see it in the sky, in the forming of clouds or the way light refracts through a freshly rained droplet. Or in this case the fiddle-head of a fernlet reaching through the dark. I see them as beautiful but I also have the rationality to know that it's me who's labeling them that way. That they, in all likelihood would exist and go on without my observations … or would they? Sounds like a discussion over a glass of wine (or three)! Anyways, enough rambling. Enjoy!

Nature / Photos / Thoughts — 13 comments
03
Jun 12

Autumnal Fire

Canberra has had one of the most spectacular autumn displays in years. A combination of the drought breaking last year and a very mild, wet summer. The oaks and maples are still running yellows but the main show met the icy winter blasts that heralded the beginning of winter’s grip … great cold fronts dragging up air from the antarctic. Where there were streets transformed into riotous displays of colour, trees now reach for the sky with branches bare save a few hardy splashes of colour clinging on.

The first picture was taken of a golden ash in full flight using a Lensbaby 3G … a quirky little lens that can produce outstanding results. The second picture, below, is the back deck after a recent rainshower. You could likely guess what kind of trees we have in the back yard…

For a lot of you it will be late spring or early summer. Canberra, although known as the ‘Bush Capital’, has many exotic tree species and plantings … which I find kind of nice as the Euclaypts, being evergreen, aren’t renowned for their spectacular seasonal shows. Autumn in Canberra is gorgeous. Do you have native flora where you live? A mix? Is the landscape around you so modified by people as to form a new kind of ‘natural’ or native?

Nature / News / Oculus / Photos / Thoughts — 22 comments
30
May 12

Temple of the Sun

Another oculus picture from my coastal artist retreat from earlier this month at Ness. Here the rising sun clears the top of an exposed rock.

Looking at a scene refracted through the glass sphere makes it appear both internalised and externalised at the same time … like I’m both within and without simultaneously … it does something for me … something deep.

Do you have a special object or way of of looking that touches you deeply? You know, makes you think of things differently for a moment? That takes you beyond?

Do tell :-)

Animalia / News / Poetry / Thoughts / Words with Pictures — 18 comments
29
May 12

“It’s dead” said Petra

 1.
She held out her hand
Upon her palm a tiny lizard, a skink
A shining dark olive back – thin yellow strip along the sides
Iridescent blue-aqua beneath its chin
Beautiful
“It’s dead” said Petra as she held it aloft by the tail – and it was
I looked into its eye and saw right through to the verdant bush beyond
The tangled twigs and rocks – a land of nooks and tasty creatures
“Most likely where this lizard is now” I thought as I peered through the eyeless window
I remembered to breathe – brought myself back
The sounds of this world filling my ears as I returned
from reverie and soft melancholia
Into the light - the present

2.
She made a small home for the lizard
A little box lined with tissue and care
The tiny claws catching still – a feeble anchor
it looked like it would dart away in a flash
but it already had
Discarding this garment long ago
a once animate husk
Beating and alive

(GD @ Ness May 2012)

Nature / Photos / Poetry / Thoughts / Words with Pictures — 19 comments
23
May 12

Found Stones

One

Round and thin ground - not polished – sheens from within

colour the light grey of clouds that promise but bring no rain

Pale orange flecks spittle across its face

But these come after

My first thought?

That it would go far

skipped across the smooth surface of a dam or creek

maybe to the other side

maybe to be held again

maybe

The Other

A rough kite shape, smaller

Quartz intrusion speaking of a violent past

struck by the cross formed

I don’t believe in the crucifix

But I believe in space and time intersecting

A singularity we call the present

Both

Seen amongst millions

Pondered, chosen

Carried up from the sea and

Placed atop a wooden table,

Talked about - discussed and played with

Then one forms a circle around the other

Yes, that works

They’re together again

Found stones

(Ness, May 2011)

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10
May 12

The Monaro Plains

THE MONARO PLAINS - Anthony Lawrence (May 2012)

Wooden crosses
a vanishing point wired for talk

a watercolour bleed
of low clouds, windbroken pines

a charcoal rubbing
of lost connections  ~ you are here

passing through
uncoupled is a state of rhyme

what the eye reveals
the mouth extends in clipped syllables

depth of field
a black rain squall of starlings on a hill


Words: Anthony Lawrence (Used with author's permission)
Picture: Geoffrey Dunn

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01
May 12

Petroleum

Petroleum

windswept leafy autumn chill

fuel that warmed machine's internals now drained

only vapours

hollow booming – signage an empty promise

abandoned a day and already unkempt

fenced, dug up and replaced

the land given a new life

and on future warm summer evenings

when myriad people sip and watch

a faint waft of petroleum hangs sweetly in the air

-May 2012

Our local service station has finally closed. It marks the end of an era for this little suburb. One of the last small servos to go. The bicycle shop – it was handy having one just down the road – closed up months ago. I was on my way back from a family shoot on Sunday and saw that the place had finally closed … so I stopped and took some photographs. The signage came down yesterday morning. I know all things must change and the world moves on but I was sad to see it go. Soon it will be as though nothing was there. Units will be up in a year. Nothing will remain except the faint waft of petroleum hanging sweetly in the air.

What about you? Do you document the things that change before they change?

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26
Apr 12

Familiar

Familiar hills
the horizon half-remembered
my folk grew
and grew old
died here
Yet I've never stood here before I know
the curves of the land drawn in me
How do I know this place?

My mind some structured facsimile for geography?
A genetic memory for place?
For time?
I cannot explain but I know
that my soul has been here before

I am fascinated by the notion of genetic memory … that a landscape or place experienced over generations may leave some kind of imprint in the descendants of those generations. A line of hills, a mountain, a river … these things change over time I know but their basic forms can remain constant on a scale far larger than the people living on them. I don't believe anyone has found any evidence such a phenomena may exist but that's not about to stop me pondering on it.

What about you? have you ever been to a place or landscape that seemed so familiar to you only to find out later that you ancestors had been there? Thought that they would practically be looking at what you're seeing now.

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19
Apr 12

Perfume

Thought

falling as water through air

shaped and warped by passage

divide and coalesce then

splash!

merged - our instant experienced

then gone, essence perfuming the next

lingering as the half remembered dream

an aroma of reality at the edge of an instant

before falling and dripping away

News / Photos / Things to See / Thoughts — 4 comments
18
Apr 12

The Invisible Mother

This was a practice where the mother, often disguised or hiding, often under a spread, holds her baby tightly for the photographer to insure a sharply focused image.

- The Hidden Mother

ealry portrait of a family standing around a mother obscured by a blanket

Now I understand that this practice originated when exposure times were slow meaning subjects had to sit perfectly still to render themselves sharply. I get that some families wanted only to have a portrait of their offspring with no parents. I still find the pictures a little macabre and creepy. I know that I'm looking with a modern eye and that what I'm seeing was 'standard practice' for the photographer and subjects but I can't help feeling that the pictures resonate with our society's underlying desire to make mothers invisible at the expense of their families. We don't pay mothers to do what they do … we expect it. The need of the next generation are put, quite rightly, first but at the expense of and often with hidden cost to the mother. The Invisible Mother.

Early portrait of child by mother obscured by a blanket

So here we have a series of pictures which had they been taken today could be hailed as a representation of the western social invisibilty of motherhood … but that's not why they were made.

Interesting stuff to ponder … what do you think?

Footnote: I found these fascinating photographs over at BlueMilk and liked them so much I'm referencing the original site Retronaut where you can find a stack of these images.

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05
Apr 12

My image went viral on Pinterest (and I didn’t know)

I was going through my Google+ stream earlier tonight and came across a reshare of this image … only it wasn't reshared from me but from someone else! Cranky! Theft! Piracy!

I contacted both my contact who had shared it to me and the original person who had it in their stream with no attribution. They got back really quickly and apologised meaning no harm and promptly removed it as I requested … it still had my old 'Lushpup Images' watermark on the bottom left of the picture! I asked where they found it and they said #pinterest and sent me the URL (they really were quite helpful and I became less cranky). Sure enough there was my image with the watermark … no attribution. What caught my eye was the list of 200+ reblogs listed on that page. When I did a Google Image search for the picture I was returned 15 pages of exact matches from all blogs and sites all over the world … I stopped looking after that.

Interestingly, downloading a copy of the image from a number of sites to my machine (coming home in a way) the Author metadata still listed Lushpup Images as author and copyright holder … not that anyone looked at it ;-)

Now, in the rare times I go searching for my own images using Image Search I come across one or two sites. I send them an email and in 99% of cases we resolve it through removal or attribution. In this case, where the image has clearly gone viral, what to do? I have heard that Pinterest throws copyright and intellectual property pretty much out the window by leaving it up to the individual account holder…

My image went viral on Pinterest (and I didn't know) … What would you do?