Robert's Ramblings

I never meant to take band photos tonight.

It was supposed to be just a Christmas function with good friends but when the band started playing the most diverse collection of covers I have ever heard I was torn between dancing with friends and photography. Fortunately I was able to combine them both. Sort of ...

Adelaide band 'The Incredibles' did not wear the red spandex of their namesakes (which I am truly thankful for), instead they were sharply dressed and put on a fantastic show taking us from the 80's to the present and back again.

I don't very often get to interact directly with a performer but when vocalist Louise Messenger spotted me I definitely experienced that 'who you looking at' feeling but in the best way.


Photo: Robert Rath, 'Day 972, Who You Looking At?', 1/160 f/2.8 ISO1600 200mm

Yes, this place in particularly!

Here's a mood of the Henley Beach jetty I have never captured before. It's dark and grainy and very surreal in it's austerity.

There is no sunset, no waves crashing, no jetty lights. This is place is separated from our normal experience of it by the stretching of time and the quiet darkness of night.

It took a very long time exposure under the dark moon shadow of the jetty to bring this mood to life.

This is indeed is a place I am tonally addicted to!


Photo: Robert Rath, 'Day 971, Tonally Addicted To Place', 240s f/16 ISO400 15mm

I have been listening to articles and reading accounts of photographers who have described being in the creative doldrums.

Some were just going through the motions, others were questioning their recent work and wondering if they weren't just producing pretty stuff that people liked. A close friend of mine even wondered if they had been deluding themselves all along.

This all got me thinking and having only just come out of rut myself I wondered, what is it that I really love able creating images?

I love being there behind the camera and choosing the moment, choosing the scene and and committing my vision in that click of the shutter.
I love the way I see the world differently when I am holding my camera and looking for the beauty, the geometry and the stories unfolding all around me
I love the way all the other stresses of life evaporate when I am in that special place of being really able to see.

This image is a case in point. With 4 minute exposures there was no rush to compose, plenty of time to see and space to look around visualizing my next image.

So for me it is about the moment I commit my vision to the camera. The rest is the necessary work needed or I'd never be able to share what I see.


Photo: Robert Rath, 'Day 970 Low Tide II', 241s f/11 ISO100 15mm

Now that summer has reluctantly arrived there are more and more people coming to the beach in the evenings.

The hot evenings are chaotic and I need to remind myself to arrive early and that I will not be getting a park anywhere close to where I want to photograph.

My very favourite ones though are the hot still breathless nights with the water lapping on the sandy shoreline. I can't wait.


Photo: Robert Rath, 'Day 969, It Gets Busy Here In Summer', 1/259s f/16 ISO1000 200mm

Some people would tell you there's no more gold left in the old diggings at Jupiter Creek in the Adelaide Hills.

The problem is simply a matter of timing. Just make sure you head up there about 15 minutes before sunset and you will find all the gold you can photograph.


Photo: Robert Rath, 'Day 968, Jupiter Creek Gold' 0.4s f/11 ISO100 15mm

I stumbled upon this striking mural adorning a building in Compton street. Always curious I discovered this to be the work of Australian artist Angus Rayner titled 'Weekend All Year'.

As it turns out Angus Raynor has a fascination with depicting the female form and the stylized naked women in this image are a good example of his work.

At first I saw this work as just a colourful abstract piece. The naked forms did not become apparent until I really took the time to see the work.

Note to self; look less, see more.


Photo: Robert Rath, 'Day 967, Weekend All Year' 1/125s f/6.3 ISO250 75mm

I am sure this recent appearance on the Adelaide city-scape is actually not the SAHMRI building at all but an extraterrestrial spaceship.

All you need to do is go for a stroll around its base and nothing about it feels like a building. It could take off again without notice.

So forget the fact they you may think you have seen it being built. Forget the fact that apparent human like occupants come and go.

It's alien and it's landed here in Adelaide.


Photo: Robert Rath, 'Day 966, It's Landed' 5s f/11 ISO400 15mm

There are so many subtle messages in this typical image from a typical beach in a typical metropolitan beach-side suburb.

I wonder what this little girl is thinking as she holds her daddy's hand tight watching the pounding runner pass by. Her dad too is caught in a moment of reflection but is his gaze instead shifted a little further down the beach?

Couples strolling, dogs cavorting, waders venturing into the water just enough to say they got wet but you couldn't really call it swimming.

Ah yes, just another evening at your local beach.


Photo: Robert Rath, 'Day 965, My Local Beach' 1/500s f/2.8 ISO160 200mm

Yes I have a preoccupation with aircraft contrails.

Looking up is more than just the visual drama. Up there are hundreds of souls entrusting their lives to the modern miracle of international air-travel.

Up there adventures are being created or completed, business deals are in the offing, agreed on or have been laid awry.

I see a distillation of the human experience shrouded in a cylindrical tube hurtling 11Km above at 900Kph.

Safe travels on to Melbourne flight SQ217.


Photo: Robert Rath, 'Day 964, Flight SQ217' 1/640s f/5.6 ISO320 200mm

Come the end of a hot Adelaide afternoon nothing beats cooling off better than playtime in the ocean.


Photo: Robert Rath, 'Day 963, Playtime' 1/320s f/16 ISO1000 200mm

There is a wonderful feeling of abandon that goes along with the expression 'gone fishing'. It's like saying that work, family, money and all the other pressures of life can wait.

This may well be the case for the recreational fisher who does not carry any of the stresses that fishing for a living might entail.

In this image there however only one man in a vary little boat so I reckon he's just gone fishing.


Photo: Robert Rath, 'Day 962, Gone Fishing' 1/125s f/4 ISO640 200mm

There's a time of day where the details on the lunar surface, the clouds and the diffracted blue of the early evening sky all come together to be captured in a single image.

I wonder how many people bothered to look up, let alone see or notice our beautiful moon sliced perfectly in half.

There is also a little nostalgia behind this image. The very first image in my 1000 images collection (not quite there yet) was also a perfect half moon.

Sometimes half measures are just right.


Photo: Robert Rath, 'Day 961, Half Measures II' 1/320s f/5.6 ISO320 200mm

The sun has set and gone, the clouds once lit like lava fire are fading to grey, the last colour of the day recedes.

Now begins the beautiful soft light of twilight to usher in the evening.


Photo: Robert Rath, 'Day 960, After The Sun' 13s f/18 ISO100 15mm

While wondering through the scrub near the old Jupiter Creek diggings I came across this extraordinary construction.

I don't think it was ever covered with animal pelts and home to anyone in particular but you can easily imagine it might have been.


Photo: Robert Rath, 'Day 959, Inside The Teepee' 2.5s f/11 ISO100 15mm

In my short time fossicking for gold in the Adelaide Hills I have learned two important lessons.

The first is that you are going to dig up a lot of trash and the second is it's only ever about fun and exercise, any yellow shiny stuff is a bonus.

In an estimated 40 hours of poking around I have found plenty of lead shot, bullets, shell casings, nails, slugs, screws, brass fittings, miner's brass buttons, an old brass picture frame and various unrecognizable lumps of rusted iron and even an old Lucas engine hour meter.

I wonder what I will find this weekend?


Photo: Robert Rath, 'Day 958, Trash and Treasure' 0.5s f/4 ISO100 100mm

This old push-bike has probably not been peddled for a long while judging by the state of the very flat tyres and the green paint on the pedals.

It's a pity really because when ever I see a bike parked, locked up or otherwise my mind is immediately drawn to the story behind the rider and to my own bicycle adventures.


Photo: Robert Rath, 'Day 957, Bicycle Adventures' 1/320s f/2.8 ISO250 140mm

If you are into the sea air, a gorgeous sunset, a box of fishing tackle and being with friends you could do a lot worse than spending Friday night at the end of Henley Beach Jetty.

I watched these merry makers for a short while as the sun descended beyond a watery horizon. While I gazed I noted all kinds of fun interactions and activity going on but the one thing I did not see was anyone bringing in anything on their fishing lines.

I'm sure the lines are just for show and the real reason for being out there has nothing to with actually catching anything.


Photo: Robert Rath, 'Day 956, Kicking Back on a Friday Night, Henley Beach Style' 1/4000s f/8 ISO100 200mm

I'd say countless picks have scoured this patch of alluvial overburden near Echunga in the Adelaide Hills looking for some little morsel of shiny yellow missed by the old timers more than a century ago.

This pick's most useful feature is as a prop for the camera as I explore, scratch around a little and find yet another handful of bullets and lead shot to take home with me.


Photo: Robert Rath, 'Day 955, Slim Pickings' 8s f/16 ISO100 15mm

Which way is up, down, left or right? Well that depends on your ...


Photo: Robert Rath, 'Day 954, Lost Perspective' 10s f/14 ISO200 15mm

The sun has long set but high above the ice lights up like fire as sunset is cheated for a few minutes more.


Photo: Robert Rath, 'Day 953, Contraility' 1/100s f/4 ISO320 200mm

Watching the sun setting on a clear seaside horizon is like watching paint dry. Nothing seems to happen and then all of the sudden it's gone.

Watching the sun set through the rigging of sailboats is a completely different experience as the sun slices its way through spars, masts and cables. A far more dramatic departure.


Photo: Robert Rath, 'Day 952, Through The Rigging' 1/8000s f/8 ISO100 200mm

The thing about watching people down at the beach is how they interact with the sand, the water, the jetty, this space and each other.

Kids bound in and out of the water, parents alternate between pride, concern, relief and joy, couples stroll at the waters edge kicking the lapping water, joggers pound a line following the firmest sand.

This moment reminded me of a sitcom I have never seen. Odd that.


Photo: Robert Rath, 'Day 951, Two and a Half Men' 1/80s f/16 ISO160 15mm

What I really wanted for this shot was a drop dead gorgeous model to stand knee deep in the lapping water. Unfortunately my girl is travelling in Ireland at the moment so I had to get someone else into the shot.

It's been a while since I have posted thanks to a host of distracting motivations but I really had fun down at our local beach tonight (without my drop dead gorgeous model) so hopefully the images will begin to flow again.


Photo: Robert Rath, 'Day 950, Henley Selfie' 10s f/16 ISO160 15mm

There was blood to be had as the shadow sliced its way across the white-grey landscape leaving behind a red-stained terrain.

Just as time heals all wounds, so the moon has since returned to its silvery glory.


Photo: Robert Rath, 'Day 949, Blooded Moon' 1/60s f/5.6 ISO800 400mm

There be gold in them there hills!!

168 years ago gold was discovered in the Adelaide Hills and for the next 50 years various strikes and digs from Willunga to Mount Rufus produced hundreds of kilograms of gold before becoming uneconomic.

In the last few months I have been working on and playing with products from local Adelaide company Minelab and this weekend we were using a new detector.

I had gotten used to the whooping sounds and constant murmuring tones while sweeping back and forth over the ground. Up until now we had dug ball bearings, cigarette packet foil, used brass bullet shells, fencing wire and even an old lapel pin. Buried fencing wire was the worst with the detector literally screaming at me and taking several seconds to recover.

This time while sifting through the rubble I caught a glint of yellow in an otherwise dirty brown stone and picked it up noting how it felt unusually heavy. A quick clean revealed a cute little gold nugget, our very first!


Photo: Robert Rath, 'Day 948, Gold' 20s f/14 ISO160 200mm

Anthony Callisto and David Mazzarelli of Cosmo Thundercat. Performing at the Wheatsheaf Hotel.


Photo: Robert Rath, 'Day 947, Cosmo Thundercat' 1/60 f/2.8, ISO4000 123mm

Melissah Marie and Jason Mannix, The Rememberz. Performing at the Wheatsheaf Hotel.


Photo: Robert Rath, 'Day 946, The Rememberz' 1/25 f/2.8, ISO2000 200mm

Tom West singing solo at the Wheatsheaf Hotel.


Photo: Robert Rath, 'Day 945, Tom West' 1/30s f/2.8, ISO2000 200mm

Alison Coppe singing solo at the Wheatsheaf Hotel.


Photo: Robert Rath, 'Day 944, Alison Coppe' 1/50s f/2.8, ISO2000 200mm

Bokeh is one of those things that confuses the question of what is real in a photograph.

It's absolutely what what was captured by the lens. There are no Photoshop effects, no Instagram filters, no mathematical convolution. It's exactly what the lens saw.

So why can't we see a bunch of fairy lights in the same way? Try as I might, staring at the fairly lights, then at my finger and then off to the distance, the never looked like this.


Photo: Robert Rath, 'Day 943, Red Bokeh' 1/15s f/2.8, ISO200 190mm