Robert's Ramblings

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

Sometimes something is so colourful that it almost becomes painful to look at, ....ah that's better.


Photo: Robert Rath, 'Day 942, Colourful' 1/125s f/20, ISO100 200mm

Does anyone remember mirror balls and disco's.

I was always reminded of little worlds with oceans of light and dark reflections of terrain. The sparkling points of lights tracing walls and ceilings like the projections in a planetarium are the stars in a world of a very different creator.


Photo: Robert Rath, 'Day 941, Planet Club' 1/60s f/2.8 ISO2000 200mm

Putting a camera to my eye changes not only what I see through the lens but also changes the way I see when I'm not.

Something as simple as shallow depth of field is hard to describe to anyone who has not looked through lens or seen it in a photograph yet it's there all the time in everywhere we look waiting to be seen.

Even a can or two of soft drink 'Lift' sitting on the fence take on new appeal.

Thirsty?

Photo: Robert Rath, 'Day 940, Lift Sitting on the Bench' 1/1250s f/2.8 ISO400 200mm

When is a beach not a beach? When it's City Beach of course.

Smack bang in the middle of the city is block of beach sand sandwiched between highrise buildings and busy city streets.

Why is there a beach in the city? To play beach volleyball of course.

It's both very cool and very quirky this little patch of sports ground on the corner of Pirie and Frome Streets in the Adelaide CBD.

While on the courts you could be on a beach anywhere in Australia assuming you are focused on the game and not the glass and concrete horizon.


Photo: Robert Rath, 'Day 939, City Beach' 1/40s f/2.8 ISO160 200mm

With recent local deaths all the issues we have been experiencing of out of control trucks coming down the South Eastern freeway and new speed restrictions I thought I go see for myself what the real impact has been.

I stood in the entrance of the down track tunnel for nearly an hour during which time a good number of trucks drove through on their way down into the city.

Every truck I observed was adhering to the reduced speed limit of 60KpH. Perfect for ghostly images like this.


Photo: Robert Rath, 'Day 938, Ghostly Truckin' 1/40s f/2.8 ISO160 200mm

This is an unashamed corporate annual report cover shot of the new University of South Australia's, 'Jeffrey Smart' building. All offers welcome!

Seriously though there is something about signs that has captured my attention of late and I really liked the way this vertical slab of blue emblazoned with logo and text stands out.


Photo: Robert Rath, 'Day 937, Jeffrey Smart' 1/40s f/2.8 ISO160 200mm

Green and gold are Australia's official sporting colours so when the canola fields are blooming intersperse with wheat, beans and other green crops it's like a seasonal tribute to Australian sports.

For me I simply like the colours and textures and the amazing natural saturation of these not so subtle colours.


Photo: Robert Rath, 'Day 936, Green and Gold' 1/2500s f/7.1 ISO320 200mm

I was wondering what to write about this beautiful place and found myself singing lines of a song from 'The Sound of Music'.

Instead of raindrops on roses and whiskers on kittens I had stormclouds and soft light, and ripples on oceans... Well you get get what I mean.

This image of a brooding Rapid Bay not only captures some of my favorite things but reminds me to pursue them more often.

Unlike that song from the Austrian Alps I plan to do less remembering and more doing!!


Photo: Robert Rath, 'Day 935, My Favorite Things' 1/400s f/10 ISO100 31mm

Sure it's just a sign. Much like any sign really.

It carries the name of a famous Australian artist. No surprises there.

It states what the sign means to name. That's what signs do.

It's read by thousands of people daily but few have ever really seen it. The mark of a good sign.

Just a sign perhaps but today I made it a portrait.


Photo: Robert Rath, 'Day 934, Just A Sign' 1.6 f/4.0 ISO160 130mm

This might be another Toy Soldiers Crew image but I'm not really sure. It's with a collection of their work but does not quite seem their style.

The thing that really caught my attention in this macabre portrait is the very striking resemblance to one of our national politicians.

Enough said.

Edit/Update ... the artist is Jayson Fox

Photo: Robert Rath, 'Day 933, Stark Raving Mad' 1/40s f/11 ISO160 17mm

This time of year here the local canola fields are blooming creating amazing blankets of saffron yellow across the landscape.

Interspersed between fields of wheat and peas and beans we can at least for now be certain that canola here in the Barossa Valley is non Genetically Modified.

This does not however mean I am against GMO as a means by which we shape our environment. We have been doing this already for thousands of years in less dramatic ways. Hand picking and cultivating or breeding plants and animals with traits we deem useful or pleasing has traditionally been our technology in achieving this transformation. So to me being against GMO because it is wrong is both naive and absurd simply because we have been doing it since the beginning of farming, perhaps the single biggest contributing factor to the creation of our modern, global civilization.

The real challenge as I see it is how to continue this technology in a way which benefits both us and our environment. The real risks as I see them are in big business steaming rolling unsafe iterations of GMOs into the environment in the interests of profit over sustainability or ecological disasters.

So being GMO free is not what we really want. It's simply a stop-guard for now until we have all worked out how to do it well, for all our sakes and for the sake our environment.


Photo: Robert Rath, 'Day 932, GMO Free For Now' 1/1250s f/8 ISO100 200mm

Unless the light was just right you would not even notice the gossamer fine threads snagged on the barbed wire. Notice it I did

I'm certain it is not there by design and wonder if the original web was caught in the wind and transported here.

The other thing I am sure of is that on I leaving this now immortalized thread ensnared barb, I will have seen it once and will never see it again.


Photo: Robert Rath, 'Day 931, Only Once' 1/800s f/8 ISO320 135mm

At a quick glance you might confuse this metallic textured dome with some perspectives of the new SAHMRI building on North Terrace.

I certainly could not help but notice the uncanny similarity with some of my own images.

Perhaps it could be a closeup of a stage microphone with artist belting out some tune just out of view.

It is of course neither of these as any drinker of real-leaf tea would recognise.


Photo: Robert Rath, 'Day 930, Architectural Bubble' 0.3s f/16 ISO320 100mm

Contrary to rolling stones these stationary blocks have gathered a beautiful adornment of moss and I have to admit I really like this look where a human construction has become one with nature.

I wonder if this might start a trend in future architecture?


Photo: Robert Rath, 'Day 929, Stationary Stonework' 1/50s f/4 ISO160 200mm

A combination of two of my favorite things, photography and coffee.

These beans won't last long. By tomorrow morning they will be ground and in a steaming brew by mid morning.

Coffee and photography. Why not.


Photo: Robert Rath, 'Day 928, Coffography' 1s f/22 ISO320 100mm

What is it? It's actually iron but the gorgeous textures could just as easily be wood.

This very large piece of iron can be found on the banks of the Torrens River just behind the University of Adelaide.

From this perspective it is rather abstract but if you were to step back a little you would see a sculpture called 'Fugue' by local artist Greg Johns and commissioned back in 1997.


Photo: Robert Rath, 'Day 927, Fugue Perspective' 1/13s f/14 ISO200 35mm

Did I mention I love tunnels?

Well I do and I still remember my first as vividly as if it were yesterday.

Yes I really I am talking about tunnels! For me, driving through a tunnel creates a strange combination of trepidation, the excitement of discovery, the rush of speed and a moment of feeling part of a bigger machine.

So you can imagine how excited I got many years ago when Adelaide decided to build its first real tunnel under part of the Mount Lofty Ranges, The Heysen Tunnels.

Still it's not as good as my first. I suspect none ever will be.


Photo: Robert Rath, 'Day 926, Tunnel Love' 10s f/18 ISO160 70mm

Yet another striking Toy Soldiers Crew image just off down town Hindley Street.

I don't seem to get very far (geographically that is) when I go walking around the city looking for images

I think I spent a good 30 minutes here looking from different angles, trying to be clever. I even thought about removing the rubbish, the cigarette butts, the old Bounty Bar wrapper, the plastic cups and the rest of the urban dust.

In the end this image was only ever going to be right at you, all or nothing!

No Monkey business going on here excepts for Federico's


Photo: Robert Rath, 'Day 925, Monkey Business' 1/80s f/11 ISO160 17mm

Snaking its way down to the Heysen Tunnel (just out of view), the South Eastern freeway is a grand way to come into Adelaide from the South East.

Every traveler from Melbourne To Adelaide would know this road well and thousands of Adelaide Hills commuters drive it daily.

Tonight it takes on a different personality in the soft light created by vehicles and road lighting.


Photo: Robert Rath, 'Day 924, Light Canyon' 30s f/4.0 ISO800 70mm