Robert's Ramblings

I am sucker for awesome city skylines and Sydney has them in abundance.

Here's just one take devoid of the usual Sydney icons but in every way, Sydney


Photo: Robert Rath, ‘Day 713, Circular Quay' 8s f/8 ISO320 15mm

I had to look twice then look again. I thought I had found 'The Tardis' masquerading as a lift.

When I stepped inside I was however transported to another world, ... George Street!


Photo: Robert Rath, ‘Day 712, Tardis Blues' 5s f/14 ISO200 15mm

I watched discretely for a few moments as this Sydney street performer performed his own personal ritual as he made his immediate surrounds, now vacated by peers and spectators, his own space as he prepared his show.

The expressions he wore during this private time were varied but when he looked up and spied my lens that smile was quickly painted.


Photo: Robert Rath, ‘Day 711, Painted Smile' 1/500s f/3.2 ISO160 142mm

The QVB building on George Street is a place I have wanted to capture images of since the first time I wandered through it many years ago. For some reason it has taken me all this time.

Finally I made it a priority even if a little late in the day to capture the bustle of Christmas shoppers.

Looking down from the above you can see all four floors through three horseshoe shaped voids to the street level below. Perhaps luck comes in threes as well.


Photo: Robert Rath, ‘Day 710, Lucky Floors' 1/30s f/10 ISO3200 15mm

A photo walk in and around Seaforth led me inexorably down to the waterline.

Here on Fisher Bay Walk I was treated to one of the many Sydney suburban waterfront views with yachts, powerboats, recreational fishers and multimillion dollar residences with views to dream about.

I really do like the fusion of natural terrain, waterfront and residential development but rather than capture yet another cli·chéd Sydney image I went for the lapping water at my feet with just a splash of Sydney in the background.


Photo: Robert Rath, ‘Day 709, A Splash of Colour' 0.4s f/11 ISO320 15mm

While meandering along Marine Parade just south of Manly Beach I noticed a small group of people with iPhones up in the air and aimed into the bushes.

I watched for a while from a distance until the subject of their enthusiasm, an Eastern Water Dragon (Intellagama leseuerii), became obvious. One delighted English tourist remarked, "we never get to see anything like this at home".

Fortunately for all of us the beautiful creature sat patiently on it's rock in the sunshine until we had all satisfied our curiosity.


Photo: Robert Rath, ‘Day 708, Eastern Water Dragon' 1/800s f/5.6 ISO320 200mm

Waiting for trains is not something that has to be a drag, especially when armed with a camera.

Recent Sydney arrivals await the the next train to Sydney.


Photo: Robert Rath, ‘Day 707, Train Transit' 2s f/10 ISO640 15mm

Perhaps this play on the word 'atonement' is not so obvious but I chose it for two reasons, the spiritual beauty of the circle and the seeking of a perfect balance of tone across its hemisphere.

Ordinarily this lamp would do nothing more than light the space it occupies and hardly even be noticed unless it failed to do its evening work. For me this bright disc of light above us drew my attention long enough for me to become aware of the tonal changes over its surface revealing the fact it is indeed a sphere and not just a simple bright circle.

I purposely kept the natural image noise of a high ISO, applied no sharpening and only played with the tones to render this disc back into a sphere.


Photo: Robert Rath, ‘Day 706, Atonement' 1/1000 f/2.8 ISO2500 200mm

I wonder if these bars on an old Port Adelaide building were meant to keep people out or to keep something else in.

Perhaps neither. The owner may just have liked iron bars.


Photo: Robert Rath, ‘Day 705, Iron Bars' 0.3s f/16 ISO100 15mm

The expression 'fruit of the sea' is usually a term used for the animals of the ocean such fishes, crustaceans and molluscs. There are in fact 'real' fruits of the ocean and the sea grass meadows of the coastal shallows are one place you can find them.

The predominant seagrass of the Rapid Bay area is Posidonia sinuosa, and now with the warming water they are beginning to fruit.

The fruit of Posidonia sinuosa is actually quite pleasant to eat although I have never eaten enough of them to comment on their toxicity. Once you peel back the outer green husk there is a firmer green nut-like body inside which is not at all salty as might be expected and tastes something like a cross between a pumpkin seed and a pine nut.

Fruit from Posidonia sinuos might not be the beginning of a new food industry but seagrass meadows play an incredibly important role in providing our 'fruit of the sea' as a nursery habitat for many important commercial fish species.


Photo: Robert Rath, ‘Day 704, Fruit of the Sea', 1/100 f/5.0 ISO100 15mm

The greater Adelaide area has been blessed with amazing sunsets these last few days which has got me to thinking about how they happen.

When there are local high clouds and hundreds of kilometers of clear dry air off into the direction of the sunset magic happens.
The light from the sun, now well below the horizon, is bent around the curvature of the earth. The long path through the atmosphere filters out the colours from violet through to yellow lighting up the local clouds with vivid reds and oranges.

This image is actually before sunset with the sun disappearing behind Rapid Head. The light show is juts beginning.

Unfortunately our gorgeous sunsets do not last very long due to the angle of the sun in the sky . Now nearing our summer solstice we can expect the really vivid colours to last no more than about 5 minutes (compared to about 10 minutes in winter) as the sun races of into the west.

The title of this image comes from the poem 'Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night' by Dylan Thomas; "... Rage, rage against the dying of the light".


Photo: Robert Rath, ‘Day 703, The Dying of the Light', 1/320 f/8 ISO100 15mm

There is something post apocalyptic about his image. The dead rubble, the grey gloom, the line of steel posts running off into nothing and a lone cowfish missing most of her tail.

This poor girl is a female 'Shaw's Cowfish', Arcana aurita, and when I cam across her she was tucked in behind the steel post swimming into the current.

I can only speculate the reason for her battered body. I'd like to imagine some heroic escape from a large predator but probably she was harassed by triggerfish who sneak up from behind and take out little chunks of flesh.

Regardless I see here here as a lonely survivor in a bleak landscape.


Photo: Robert Rath, ‘Day 702, Lonely Survivor', 1/320 f/8 ISO100 15mm

Visibility at Rapid Bay has dropped off a little following that dread northerly wind and corresponding bottom surge.

The wide angle lens may not be able to capture the larger environment very well but does a fin job in its other role of close focus wide angle.

This majid spider crab, Leptomithrax gaimadii, seems happy enough to pose for this style of portrait regardless of the fact that the dome of my housing is just inches away from him.


Photo: Robert Rath, 'Day 701, Just Hanging' 1/30s f/7.1 ISO320 15mm

I remember the first time I laid eyes on this scene 25 years ago as vividly as if it were yesterday.

This sweeping stretch coastline from Normanville to where the road heads inland and down on to Cape Jervis overlooks Lady Bay out to sea and Rapid Head out to the west.

Last night we were treated to the most incredible sunset I have ever seen and I nearly did not even notice as we were driving home from Rapid Bay.

Suddenly Jennifer gave a yelp of delight and screamed 'pull over'. Glancing back over my left should I saw it. By the time I got may camera setup on the tripod it was nearly over but even the aftermath was spectacular.

This time she got the best shot of the amazing colour on her camera phone and I got the beginnings of the sky changing from a full sky of fiery orange back to twilight blue.


Photo: Robert Rath, ‘Day 700, Lady Bay', 1/5s f/7.1 ISO160 15mm

Capturing movement in water is a tricky business.

If you are too fast the water looks like frozen ice. Too slow and it looks like mist. Somewhere either side of these extremes there is a range of exposure times where the movement simply makes the water look blurred.

Then there is that sweet spot where like magic you can see the flow and feel the liquidity of the water's movement.


Photo: Robert Rath, ‘Day 699, Liquidity', 5s f/16 ISO160 15mm

This amazing sponge has been a deep water landmark for me since the first time I cam across it more than 4 years ago.

We really do get some big sponges here in South Australia and have some incredible sponge gardens which leave anything tropical in their salty wake.

What we have is cold to temperate nutrient rich water, strong tidal currents and with some of the very deep water through Backstairs Passage we have diving here to rival anywhere for richness, colour, diversity and most importantly uniqueness.

This almost regal specimen is nearly a meter tall and even though it's not far (swimming distance) from Adelaide's most popular recreational dive site my guess it that not many will have ventured deep enough and far enough to find it.

I'm completely in the dark about sponges so perhaps it's about time I learned.


Photo: Robert Rath, ‘Day 698, Symbolic Sponge', 1/200 f/10 ISO320 15mm

We all like to see symmetry in nature. Animals balanced from left to right are common place but most curious of all are animals structured as a prime numbers.

Whether we realise it or not prime number configurations are common in plants and we see them everyday so they just seem normal. Primes in the animal kingdom however just seem wrong and especially so when that number is eleven.

The eleven-armed sea star, Coscinasterias muricata, is our largest starfish and very common on most shallow reefs of southern Australia. It's our Oceans' Eleven!

This sea star is out to lunch, literally and is currently feeding on a group of commensurate fan worms in about 17m of water in the Port Noarlunga Gap


Photo: Robert Rath, ‘Day 697, Ocean's Eleven', 1/200 f/6.3 ISO160 15mm

Rapid Bay is becoming a bit of a regular drawcord for me not just for the diving but for the land and seascapes as well.

Here at the eastern end, fishers perch precariously on the rocks while a gentle sea laps on the shingled beach.

It's great to have a moody sky again after the recent wall-to-wall blue skies.


Photo: Robert Rath, ‘Day 696, Precariously Perched', 1/320 f/7.1 ISO160 15mm

The Adelaide City Council's 'Free Wall' project and this space under the Morphett Street Bridge is a place I come back to photograph over and over.

There is always something different and you never know who you might meet.


Photo: Robert Rath, ‘Day 695, The Wall', 2.5s f/8 ISO100 40mm PanoX3

How do you know you have entered the personal space of a Victorian Scalyfin (Parma victoriae)? Easy, because he comes out and starts headbutting your camera!

On the plus side is that you get plenty of photo opportunities before pretending to be chased away.


Photo: Robert Rath, ‘Day 694, Bossy Scalyfin', 1/60s f/22 ISO800 15mm

I'm revisiting this protected location where I had previously noted a mated pair of Leafy Seadragons (Phycodurus eques) and to my surprise I found a new young adult while the original pair were nowhere to be seen.

Although the water was quite clear with 8-12m visibility there was a roaring current with all sorts of things in the water drifting past. Capturing this image required me to wait for the debris to be reasonably clear but because of the very strong current this leafy was happy to stay down low in its den rather that drift up and away, a behavior I would normally have expected.

I am quite excited to have identified a new leafy dragon here after around 2 months of revisiting the same location.


Photo: Robert Rath, ‘Day 693, The Dragon's Den', 1/60s f/22 ISO800 15mm

Lying on the ocean floor looking up at this school of Old Wives (Enoplosus armatus) I am treated to a moment where the school have created their very own jetty pylon.

Their unfortunate common name refers to the sound made when a fish is caught on a fishing line. I wonder if the plural of the common name should be 'Old Wifes' instead?

As shown the visibility down at Rapid Bay is still very good even with some recent bad weather. This site holds up very well to periods of bad weather from the west through to the south which will be our most common type of 'weather' as we head into summer.


Photo: Robert Rath, ‘Day 692, A Pile of Old Wives', 1/60s f/14 ISO640 15mm

Driving past this field of wheat south of the city near Maslins Beach I noticed a set of tracks running perfectly straight off into the distance.

The rest of the field was completely untouched and it was this interesting feature which grabbed my attention and made me pull over to capture this image.

I'm glad I did.


Photo: Robert Rath, ‘Day 691, Counting Gold', 1/500s f/10 ISO320 17mm

If I were to stare at this with my eyes for too long I am sure my eyes would never recover.

With 700 Lumens of light coming from a single LED and even being behind a diffusing lens, all the eyes would see is blinding white. That's where the camera can see something we cant; the detail.

In the very centre you can see the square shape of the square LED die and in each successive hexagonal element it is progressively displaced off center. By shifting the colour balance and saturating the differences you can really see how the diffusing lens not only 'diffuses' the light but also creates a rainbow of colours as the light refracts through the the individual elements.


Photo: Robert Rath, ‘Day 690, Diffused', 1/500s f/7.1 ISO100 100mm

Well after its long stint and now almost a landmark on the western Adelaide plains the Cavalia big top is being topped!

The the company with its performers, the horse and its entourage are all gone, the internals have been cleared away and the gutted big top now stands like an empty shell.

So long Cavalier, you were a great landmark for a little while but soon you will gone elsewhere.


Photo: Robert Rath, ‘Day 689, Topping The Big Top', 8s f/5.0 ISO1600 70mm

In 1848 a two-masted 225 ton wooden brig named 'The Tigress' set out from Scotland with a load of general cargo bound for Port Adelaide, South Australia. After such a long and difficult journey she made it to within 50 nautical miles of Port Adelaide before gale force winds swept her onto reef south of Port Noarlunga. In the subsequent efforts to get to the shore two souls were lost, the captain Alexander Guthrie and a passenger Francis Frew.

In 1970 the Scuba Divers Club of South Australia moved the anchor from the original Tigress wreck site and placed it here at along the reef at Port Noarlunga.

Most divers who dive the inside reef at Port Noarlunga are unaware of the history here and simply use this as the half way marker for their dive.

My thanks to local maritime historians Steve Reynolds and Christopher Deane and their web articles for the back story.


Photo: Robert Rath, ‘Day 688, Gloomy Memorial', 1/200s f/8 ISO320 15mm

The outer reef at Port Noarlunga is not dived very often as most divers prefer the protection inside the reef.

Make the effort to climb up and over and large schools of playful big silver drummer Kyphosus sydneyanus will zoom in to investigate. Here the drummer like to play and feed in the impact zone and feed on bits of algae debris in the turbid white water. At low tide when the ocean does not break over the reef they just seem to want to play games with each other as they wait for the rising tide or swell.


Photo: Robert Rath, ‘Day 687, Silver Drummer', 1/200s f/5.6 ISO160 15mm

All the travel advertisements seem to espouse the beauty of white sandy beaches, the finer the sand and the whiter the better!

I love beaches of shingle. They seem ancient and speak of harsh conditions where fine sand would have or has been completely swept away.

The best part of all is not having to clean the sand out from everything when you leave!


Photo: Robert Rath, ‘Day 686, Coloured Pebbles', 1/200s f/22 ISO100 17mm

Passing by the 'Cavalia' big top almost every day has given me the chance to see so many different moods of this curious structure.

This view is just a little different with a wide open lens and intentionally out of focus.


Photo: Robert Rath, ‘Day 685, Big Top Bokeh', 1/13s f/2.8 ISO100 100mm

If you are a local and spend most of your time around the Adelaide metropolitan beaches then you could be excused for thinking we are looking south.

Many Adelaide visitors make this mistake and then wonder why they can't enjoy the sunset here. This view is looking west and now that we are heading into summer the sun will still descend behind the headland.

I don't usually make the effort to explore the coastline around Rapid Bay, at least not above the the waterline. I plan to do it more often.


Photo: Robert Rath, ‘Day 684, Rapid Bay', 1/400s f/2.8 ISO640 200mm