Robert's Ramblings

So white, so clean, so empty.

This concrete helix provides access to the various parking levels at the Adelaide Airport terminal.

I like the fact that vertical traversal has been separated from the congested maneuvering of car parking space. Not that there is any mayhem this time of the morning.

For now at least its just clean, white and empty; the way a car park should be.


Photo: Robert Rath, 'Day 850, Concrete Helix' 13s f/22 ISO320 17mm

Colour, colour, colour. I think that's why I liked this so much. That and those big bug eyes!


Photo: Robert Rath, 'Day 849, Bug Eyed' 1/6400s f/3.2 ISO100 200mm

Just because you have control does no mean you are in control.

What does it mean to be 'in control' anyway?


Photo: Robert Rath, 'Day 848, In Control' 1/50s f/2.8 ISO3200 200mm

What an odd name for a watch I thought; 'Pebble'.

I find it curious how with the advent of phones and computers providing time keeping more and more people are wearing watches less and less.
You can almost spot a technophobe now by the fact they are still wearing a wristwatch.

Things are however changing and the once humble wristwatch may indeed be making a comeback under the headline of 'wearables'.

Watch this space (pun unintended)!


Photo: Robert Rath, 'Day 847, Pebble'. 5s f/8 ISO100 100mm

They were selling jars of stuff.

Hundreds of them all filled with some off-white coloured cream.

I did not ask what was in them. I did not read the labels, in fact I did not even notice if they had any.

I simply loved the repeating pattern and the reflections in the glass lids.


Photo: Robert Rath, 'Day 846, Glass Jars'. 1/1600s f/8 ISO100 200mm

I first photographed this bridge when it opened in 2012 and have traversed it many times since.

I've crossed it meeting people from abroad or delivering friends and family embarking on or resuming their own journeys.

I've crossed it as a single man and returned with my bride.

I've admired its design of glass and concrete and steel. I will however always lament the one thing missing from this beautiful structure; ... colour.

To me this will always be a grey, grey walk.


Photo: Robert Rath, 'Days 845, The Grey Walk'. 5s f/22 ISO320 17mm

Here's a place I have seen many times but never actually been to, the Birkenhead Tavern.

Seen here from across the Port River it looks alive and buzzing and perhaps even warrants a visit for a a meal or even drink or two.

I must say I am a sucker for anything waterfront so that alone is enough or a draw. Throw in some live music and we will be there!


Photo: Robert Rath, 'Day 844, The Birkenhead Tavern', 1/5s f2.8 ISO320 200mm

I often hear wine punters discuss vertical tasting events.

Despite the fact that this actually means tasting the same wine from a series of successive vintages I find it amusing to imagine it simply being the normal state of a glass of wine held in the hand.

So what would a horizontal tasting event be like? I'll let you imagine that one for yourselves.


Photo: Robert Rath, 'Day 843, Horizontal Tasting', 1/15s f11 ISO100 100mm Lighting 2 x Inon LE720

Many times it's not enough to 'see' an image and capture it.

'Well seen' is an expression often used when the composition of an apparently ordinary scene brings it to life but this idea really only applies to lenses and apertures close to our own vision.
There is a different kind of seeing that you know will only be possible after the fact. Images with shallow depth of field, extreme perspective, flares or bokeh simply don't exist in our human vision.

Who would guess that this pretty pattern of coloured transparent dots between two bollards is actually the Adelaide Bright Cement works.


Photo: Robert Rath, 'Day 842, Between Bollards', 0.3s f2.8 ISO320 200mm

Henley Beach jetty has many moods. In fact they are as varied as ours.

Often they are not so obvious, as subtle nuances of the changing tides and weather. This is especially so on our many mild days.

Bring in the clouds and the wind and the rain and put the sun to bed and the mood is not so subtle any more.

I'm sure it's brooding over something, ... again!


Photo: Robert Rath, 'Day 841, Brooding', 10s f14 ISO160 15mm

We have a lot to thank popular culture for the way it changes our thinking in the most bizarre ways.

Here I am looking at a fountain that just isn't doing its thing with any sense of enthusiasm. Half measures I thought!

The moment that thought entered my head I was thinking of Walter White from Breaking Bad when he stated "no half measures'.

Well that line of thinking leads to either very good or very bad depending on the measures you take.

Now to find the control valve and show them what that fountain should look like!


Photo: Robert Rath, 'Day 840, Half Measures', 1/8000s f4 ISO320 70mm

The day began dreary and rainy and I had virtually consigned myself to a day in the office. Soon after lunch however the clouds started becoming patchy and my hopes were raised.

By 3:30 in the afternoon the clouds with sparse and the sun began to dim.

By 4:00 there was a noticeable change in the way the light felt, like someone had taken the edge away.

By 4:30 the light all around was soft and gentle. Not like the soft yellow glow of the golden hour but something else full of day colour but quite surreal.

From there is started getting brighter again leaving a full yellow orb to set on the horizon.

Today's eclipse was the last solar eclipse (partial or otherwise) here in Adelaide for the next 14 years so I'm glad the clouds parted and I captured this image.


Photo: Robert Rath, 'Day 839, The Dark Shadow', 1/2000s f11 ISO100 400mm UberND

Having a little fun with boats and ropes and pulleys and clouds and the last light of the day...


Photo: Robert Rath, 'Day 838, Rigged Silhouette', 1/3200s f2.8 ISO400 200mm

This image is unashamedly inspired by recent black and white work of local Adelaide photographer Tony Kearney (please checkout his work).

This time there was no studio or planned props (pun unintended). No control over the light or positioning of the subject. No imagined runway to land on.

I just looked and happened to notice this little plane safely landed at the Brighton Sunday Market.


Photo: Robert Rath, 'Day 837, Safely Landed', 1/2500s f3.2 ISO100 200mm

With an ocean so golden in the dying hours it is easy to imagine being on a planet like Mustafar where volcanic lava flows instead of water.

The birds however look out of place, too calm, too gentle and I am brought back to the Earth's oceans again.


Photo: Robert Rath, 'Day 836, Lava Birds', 1/200s f11 ISO1000 400mm

I have always been fascinated by Port Adelaide's Birkenhead Bridge.

The idea that a bridge can decide to not be a bridge anymore, open up to let tall ships through and then transform back into a bridge again seemed to me to be a marvel of engineering.

To be fair I was only a child at the time and up until that realisation a bridge was a bridge, was a bridge, was a bridge!

My experience of a transforming bridge must seem so naive in this day of mechanical transformers such as Optimus Prime, Megatron and Bumblebee.

To me however, Port Adelaide's Birkenhead Bridge will always be the original transformer!


Photo: Robert Rath, 'Day 835, Birkenhead Bridge', 1/8000s f16 ISO100 130mm

Who is this mysterious merwoman who adorns 'The One And All' as her figurehead?

I have search high and low for her name but alas I am left none the wiser.

In all the texts I have found she is simply referred to as 'the figurehead'.

I even found one reference to the artist who carved her, Ainsley Pine, however a search for more information on Ainsley was even more obscure leading me nowhere.

So who is this mysterious merwoman who adorns 'The One And All' as her figurehead?


Photo: Robert Rath, 'Day 834, Mystery Merwoman', 1/640s f2.8 ISO400 200mm

Even in the murkiest of conditions the spell of the Leafy Sea Dragon completely dissipates the gloom leaving us to marvel in wonder.

All the effort, the preparation of the gear, the long drive, the poor visibility, the current and the strong surge seem just a distant memory down here.


Photo: Robert Rath, 'Day 833, DragonSpell', 1/100s f8 ISO320 15mm

Most of my environmental portraits have a connection with the ocean and the experience of being immersed in something we love to do; dive!

I jokingly named this diver 'Dives With Sponges' after an old Kevin Costner movie but his real name is Herbert, a German friend come to Adelaide and Rapid Bay specifically to dive with and photograph our Leafy Sea Dragons.

The visibility for Herbet's dives here was very poor ranging from 1-3m over the dives we did. However we we not disappointed with the Leafys we found.

As for this image, it was nearly called 'Dives In Sponges' instead.


Photo: Robert Rath, 'Day 832, Dives With Sponges', 1/100s f11 ISO320 15mm

How small and alone our star seems in the daytime sky. Yet light enough it has for all.


Photo: Robert Rath, 'Day 831, Lone Star', 1/800s f10 ISO100 15mm

How many times have you heard the expression, 'I don't do selfies!'.

Well I didn't use to but once I got the idea that it's all about sharing context I decided selfies are not so bad after all.

Especially when it's what I love doing!


Photo: Robert Rath, 'Day 830, Selfie', 1/200s f11 ISO640 15mm

Seeing 'Red' is always much better when it's a beautiful Adelaide sunset.

You might think such a sight would lift the stress from the day and ease the mind into a relaxed evening.

For me the experience is very different. The width of the sun in the sky is around 0.5 degrees of arc and of course we all know that the earth rotates 360 degrees in a day so that means that the total time it takes for the sun to move from its radius above the horizon to fully disappear is only 3 minutes. That's 3 minutes of stress for me creating the image or images I feel best conveys the the uniqueness of the sunset.

Sometimes depending on the atmospheric conditions the sunset can linger on for a little longer as the suns rays are curved around the earth through refraction.

This time it just dipped below the horizon leaving me simply sea'ing red.


Photo: Robert Rath, 'Day 829, I Sea Red', 1/800s f14 ISO100 310mm

Today I went to the Oaklands Park train station to pick up my daughter at a pre-determined time.

Arriving early I decided to capture a few images.

It seemed odd there was no one around.
It seemed odd I had not been chased from the tracks by trains.
It seemed all too quiet when suddenly my daughter tapped me on the shoulder from behind.

The train station was closed today ...


Photo: Robert Rath, 'Day 828, Train Station Closed', 1/40s f8 ISO100 40mm

As I stood gazing into yet another magical Adelaide sunset a lady came up to me exclaiming about how beautiful the sky was and how it reminded her of a sermon her priest gave about being grateful for God's sunsets.

As we stood there together I pointed out the amazingly delicate nuances of light and colour and then the transit of a jet whose trails twisted into a spiral of cloud and ice. 'Oh' she said, 'you have better eyes than mine' and her disinterest in what was actually unfolding in front of us was cast into palpable relief.

At that moment I understood how different our experience of this sunset really was.


Photo: Robert Rath, 'Day 827, Twisted', 1/30s f8 ISO400 400mm

This magical mushroom appeared at the end of a wonderful evening with fantastic friends at Tiros Restaurant; Tafe's training restaurant at their Regency Park campus.

Full as we were, the saying holds true, there is always room for dessert!


Photo: Robert Rath, 'Day 826, Magic Mushroom', 1/25s f5.6 ISO1600 40mm

It would have been nice if we could have seen the full lunar eclipse here in Adelaide tonight.

It was absolutely awesome that the moon was just beginning to re-emerge as it peeped above the eastern horizon of the Adelaide Hills flanked by the white tower of Mount Lofty Summit and it's adjacent peaks.

What am amazingly surreal moonrise. Made me feel like we were on someone else's planet.


Photo: Robert Rath, 'Day 825, Whose Planet Is This?', 1/1000s f3.5 ISO100 200mm

I never grow tired of messages on t-shirts.

When I see a frivolous remark, a bawdy comment, a nerdish in-joke or a deep insight brazenly displayed by someone in public I am reminded how important our diversity really is.

I am also reminded how important it is to celebrate my own.

... Now, what to wear tomorrow?!


Photo: Robert Rath, 'Day 824, Wise Words', 1/1000s f3.5 ISO100 200mm

I'm not sure whether to cite the smooth vocals of Elizabeth Rallis of local band 'Liquified Grooves' or the challenges of shooting into a bad light open window as a backdrop.

Frustration turned to play as I realised there's more than one way to deal with difficult light.

In the end I abandoned the bad light, settled back with a drink and enjoyed the music instead.


Photo: Robert Rath, 'Day 823, Rallis', 1/1250s f2.8 ISO640 200mm

Has the DJ gone AWOL or just having a break?

In either case the Mac's queue is deep and should keep us going for as long as the DJ is offline.


Photo: Robert Rath, 'Day 822, Offline DJ', 1/10s f2.8 ISO3200 200mm

An incoming wave starts to build giving every clue it will deliver something more.

I time the moment, click, another few seconds then the shutter opens.

The surge rushes towards were I am standing and I jump back leaving the camera amid a swirl of salty white streaked water; shutter open.

As the water recedes I follow it back, camera high and dry above a drowned tripod.


Photo: Robert Rath, 'Day 821, Risky Business', 8s f14 ISO160 15mm