Robert's Ramblings

The Short-Head Seahorse, Hippocampus breviceps, is one of the cutest seahorses in the sea and Edithburgh is great place to find and photograph them.

I almost never see them during the day but at night a bit of hunting will soon find them.


Photo: Robert Rath, 'I Sea a Horse' 1/100s f/14 ISO320 100mm

Always willing to pose for an image is Edithburgh's Gurnard Pearch.

When nothing else seems to want to stay in the frame;

when the hunt for a prettier subject is failing;

when the surge is making midwater images impossible;

there is always a gurnard perch, or three sitting on the sand patiently waiting for their photograph to be taken.


Photo: Robert Rath, 'Photogenic' 1/100s f/14 ISO320 100mm + twin strobes

The world of macro marine photography is full of life and colours and action that many new divers simply swim on by.

However for photographers and those who take the time to look nudibranchs make wonderful subjects due to their diversity of colour and form.

This bulldozer of a sea slug, Ceratosoma brevicaudatum, is only 5cm in length but is quite imposing up front.

Not to be outdone however a tiny little amphipod has photobombed the scene and stolen the limelight.


Photo: Robert Rath, 'Photo Bomb', 1/100s f/14 ISO320 100mm

I found this beautiful mineral specimen recently while exploring the historic Barossa Goldfields.

The most obvious thing about this mineral specimen is of course the gold but when I thought about it a little more I realised that symbolically the ironstone and quartz represented perhaps the real value.

Without iron the world would have been a very different place and without the silicon we may never had miraculous technologies that the microelectronics industry has created.

So what about the gold? Funnily enough gold is also a very important part of microelectronics and other industrial processes.

Put into perspective, this mineral specimen is a great symbol of our industrial, technological and aesthetic world.


Photo: Robert Rath, 'Industrial Gemstone', 15s f/11 ISO100 200mm

Bright neon signage.

A deep blue starless sky.

Reds, greens and golden masonry.

No lights on.

The Stamford Grand Hotel in Glenelg almost looks abandoned but is really jumping at ground level.

Just goes to show a picture can hide as well as it can reveal.


Photo: Robert Rath, 'The Stamford Grand', 1/50s f/4 ISO1600 155mm

Sultana Point Lodge where we stay in Edithburgh has a long history from the early 1900s as a holiday boarding house to more recently being a beautifully renovated and cosy retreat for divers and non divers who just like get away for a while.

While relaxing one evening with cameras at hand my friend Gavin decided to photograph one of the living space decorations and when I chose to capture the very same image I was flatly told that I was not to post my image until he did.

So Gavin has now posted his version on his site, ‘What’s My Seen?’, and here is mine.

I love how two photographers standing in the same spot with the same gear in the same light will capture two different images.


Photo: Robert Rath, ‘Fishing For Shadows’, 10s f/22 ISO160 210mm

This bizarre looking sea sponge in the sea grass beds off Edithburgh Jetty reminds me of a a cross between a diseased heart and a human brain.

It really does look like something that has been recently extracted from an animal and dumped on the ocean floor.

Oddly enough this strange looking form is actually an animal after all and will have spent some part of its childhood free swimming in the sea until it chose its permanent home.


Photo: Robert Rath, 'Sponge Bob' 1/160s f/7.1 ISO640 15mm

The last time I saw one of these critters was also on a post midnight night dive under Edithburgh Jetty a few months ago.

This time however the conditions were a little more inviting without the 15knot onshore winds. As always there was plenty to see and make the effort worthwhile.

Nudibranchs, also known as seaslugs, are fun to search out and photograph. They make ideal subjects (once found) as they tend to move quite slowly as they go about foraging for food.

This guys is called Doriopsilla carneola and it's not really glowing in the dark. As it has lifted up its front some light has hit its underside resulting in the luminous glow.

I like this image as the unusual pose has created the impression of a big pair of orange lips puckering for a kiss.


Photo: Robert Rath, 'Puckering Up' 1/100s f/14 ISO320 100mm

I can't believe it has been nearly eight years since I last photographed a shrimp!

It should have been an easy one to identify but really I am stumped. The best I can come up with is some species of Rhynchocinetes.

There is little spot under Edithburgh Jetty, a jumbled clump of concrete blocks, where these guys seem to particularly like hanging out. Now that I know I will be back with barbie in tow. Well actually probably not!


Photo: Robert Rath, 'Shrimp for the Barbie', 1/100s f/14 ISO320 100mm

This little guy is a Tasmanian Clingfish, Aspasmogaster tasmaniensis, which would make him a long way from home here under Edithburgh Jetty.

In fact judging by the number of these clingfish I see here I think the entire 'Apple Isle' population must have emigrated. All humor aside I find it strange that many critters have names pinning them to some location when in fact they are quite widespread.

The thing I adore about clingfish is that they always look like they are smiling and they make me smile too every time I see one.


Photo: Robert Rath, 'Clingy', 1/100s f/14 ISO320 100mm

Did you know that cows really can fly?

Like a 747 cruising overhead this Shaws Cowfish cruised over my head at Edithburgh on what ever errand a cowfish might be engaged in.

Normally these guys are more like hoverboards keeping close to the ground. This one had other ideas.


Photo: Robert Rath, 'Low Flying Cow', 1/80s f/7.1 ISO640 15mm

When is an animal truly primal? Does having eleven arms, a prime number, count?

Prime numbers are actually quite common in plants but seem wrong in the animal world.

Our Oceans' Eleven and and Edithburgh resident, the eleven-armed sea star, Coscinasterias muricata, is our largest starfish and is as primal as they come!


Photo: Robert Rath, 'Ocean's Eleven Again' 1/160s f/7.1 ISO640 15mm

The Blue Ringed Octopus, Hapalochlaena maculosa, is one of the deadliest creatures in the sea with a venomous bite that can kill a human.

Normally they are not seen during the day so a night dive under Edithburgh Jetty is a good way to find one if you really want to.

On this particular dive I counted four out hunting in the rubble and curiously they all had their famous blue rings subdued to gentle blue flecks.
Normally very timid they did not seem the slightest bit perturbed by my lights and camera as they went about their business hunting.

It was common to see as in this case two front legs extended as they waited to ambush some unsuspecting passerby.

Photo: Robert Rath, 'Bluey' 1/100s f/20 ISO160 100mm

Southern Calamari, squid or Sepioteuthis australis (if you want to get technical) are wonderful to watch at night when they are out hunting.

This juvenile under Edithburgh Jetty shows the incredible colouration created by the chromatophores in their skin.

They also remind me of the sentinels in 'The Matrix', affectionately know as the squiddies!


Photo: Robert Rath, 'Squiddy' 1/100s f/20 ISO160 100mm

This is where all the mollusc action is happening!

A top shell (Phasianella australis), closely followed by a small whelk is about to summit the razorfish (Pinna bicolor) while the small abalone and tube shells have made a permanent home there.

Not to miss out a few sponges, algae and barnacles have also joined the party.

There's a lot to see in this tiny little place called Mollusc City under Edithburgh Jetty.


Photo: Robert Rath, 'Mollusc City' 1/100s f/20 ISO160 100mm

On my way home tonight I spotted this gorgeous waxing crescent moon setting amid wispy western clouds.

No time to find an exotic location. It was enough to get a tripod out onto the footpath, fight off the pedestrians and time the shots between glaring oncoming headlights.

And then it was gone.


Photo: Robert Rath, 'Wax On' 0.8s f/11 ISO1000 600mm

I spotted this tiny (12mm long) little nudibranch (sea slug) during an amazing Edithburgh Jetty night dive during the early hours of this morning.

I am still attempting to identify this little guy but in the mean time I'll just call it the White Rabbit as the two leading rhinophores look like ears and the rear branchial plume makes for fine cotton tail!

In the same way that Alice took off down the rabbit hole or Neo after Trinity, it's a white rabbit like this one that draws me away from a cosy bed into the chilly ocean in the small hours of the morning with camera in tow to see what wonders I can discover.


Photo: Robert Rath, 'Following The White Rabbit' 1/100 f/14 ISO320 100mm

I truly am a big fan of black and white images but there is something in the subtleties of colour tones that keep pulling me back from colour oblivion.

Maybe I am just not really ready to fully embrace non-colour.

The colours really were vivid but this time I saw a different sunset.


Photo: Robert Rath, 'A Different Sunset' 1/15 f/16 ISO320 15mm

My street photography may not be as strong as my beach photography but in this case they have blurred into the same thing.

I really like they way she still has her earbuds in place and is using an iPhone despite the Panasonic Lumix in her lap.

My take on it is that when it comes to selfies, connectivity is more important than quality.


Photo: Robert Rath, 'Connected Selfie', 1/80s f/2.8 ISO160 200mm

This is the first image I have made of Port Adelaide's historic Hart's Mill.

For a long time now I've been put off by all the restoration hardware surrounding the building structure.

I finally found an angle from which it does not matter!


Photo: Robert Rath, 'Reflections of Harts Mill', 30s f/7.1 ISO640 85mm

Last night we celebrated a significant birthday of a good friend at the Port Adelaide Sailing Club. Great company, food, music and a view out over the Port River from the decking made for a great night.


Photo: Robert Rath, 'View From the Decking', 30s f/7.1 ISO640 100mm

With the excitement of the recent blood moon behind us I'm already planning for the next one and what I should do differently.

There are the technical challenges and to that end the problems and solutions are becoming clearer. Practice and technique trump dollars spent every time!

OK, perhaps an attempt to photograph the lunar footprints of an Apollo mission might require more than my budget will ever support but the idea is the same.

So in the spirit of practice here is our waning gibbous moon captured using a cheap second hand camera and an old entry level zoom lens. Hmm, I reckon there is room for improvement!


Photo: Robert Rath, 'Waning Gibbous', 0.3s f/32 ISO160 600mm

Mum has a liquid amber tree in her front garden and every Autumn I am reminded how amazing it is see those fantastic colours.

Growing up I never really noticed as the colours changed from green to yellow, orange, red and finally crimson before littering the ground below.

Now my visits are infrequent and every time it is a treat to see a different season. This one Autumn.


Photo: Robert Rath, 'Mum's Autumn Treat', 1/8000s f/25 ISO640 100mm

An opportunity, a cheeky grin, a peek through thousands of negative images on long strips of celluloid.

The irony is that this image will never experience the physical reality of silver rendered in film.

Instead these photons were transformed into minute pockets of electric charge then carried away on structures of aluminium, gold and poly-silicon to be stored again elsewhere.

Copied, uploaded, mathematically manipulated, archived, download and finally rendered in the memory of something I once viewed on a screen I once owned.

Though I miss the real physicality of silver in celluloid, I'd miss making images of cheeky grins more.


Photo: Robert Rath, 'Peeking Through Celluloid', 1/25s f/4.5 ISO100 125mm

What's black and turns heads?

... This!

Photo: Robert Rath, 'M', 1/30s f/5 ISO400 24mm

Shrouded behind veils of patchy cloud an impossible challenge is to capture the details of the lunar surface as well as the intricate details of wispy cloud.

In the end a compromise was to over expose the moon, to under expose the clouds and do my best to get detail in both.


Photo: Robert Rath, 'Veiled Moon', 1/5s f/4 ISO640 200mm

Like an omen of the evening unfolding the oval moon rose orange in the east.

From our vantage of the Palmer Lookout a group of us had gathered to witness the blooding of the moon to come.


Photo: Robert Rath, 'Blood Moon Offering', 1/80s f/2.8 ISO640 200mm

Tonight we experienced the work of Trent Parke and his 'Black Rose' exhibition at the Art Gallery of South Australia.

Trent's exhibition is extraordinary. Not an exhibition of extraordinary images but an an extraordinary collection of images.

To be frank there were many images I would not look twice at but as a collection there was something much, much bigger than I could get my head around.

Trent Parke's images are not just someone else images but a body of work worth making the effort to experience.


Photo: Robert Rath, 'Someone Else's Images', 1/80s f/2.8 ISO640 200mm

It promised to be a great sunset last night until it turned out not to be.

So I hung around for the twilight colours and it was just magic looking north towards Henley Beach jetty in the distance..


Photo: Robert Rath, 'Twilight', 1.6s f/13 ISO640 15mm

It's been a while since I have captured a 'down the line' image of Henley Beach Jetty so a while's now up.

As always this kind of shot results in lots of water on me and the camera. So much so that I am thinking of designing a tripod with legs that can take the powerful surge as the water rushes past.

OK, a project for later later on!


Photo: Robert Rath, 'Down The Line', 4s f/16 ISO640 15mm