Robert's Ramblings

The artist's tools are unmistakable.

The duffel bag of cans, paint and roller to prep the surface and sustenance to keep them going all night.

I noted with some curiosity the labels which read 'USE CANS FOR Art NOT FOR VANDALISM', captures a few image and left the scene. Street artists never seem comfortable with a photographer while they are at work. Perhaps I'll revisit to see the final piece.

Photo: Robert Rath, ‘Day 563, The Tools' 1/40s f/2.8 ISO1600 165mm

The Marines are a well known historically landmark of our seaside suburb of Grange.

Theses terraced houses built in 1882 are one of the few remaining three-storied terrace houses in South Australia designed in the style of English seaside resorts of the late 1800s.
These beautiful old homes more than many on our coastline come to life in the golden hour as they light up with deep oranges and yellows in the light of the setting sun.


Photo: Robert Rath, ‘Day 562, Golden Marines' 1/30s f/6.3 ISO640 17mm

Imagine creepy, scary, monstrous and beautiful all in the same image!

We all seem to have a strong relationship with the thought of spiders. For some reason they play on our emotions and evoke reactions like no other creature for most people I know.
I remember Shelob in 'Lord of the Rings' as a child and how scary she was even though only a made up story.

More and more I find myself wanting to photograph them and then leave them alone but most of my macro images are more suited to biology publications rather than a fine art.

This time I think I've captured something worth sharing with the afternoon sun directly behind in her messy but beautiful web.


Photo: Robert Rath, ‘Day 561, Arachnid Silhouette' 1/500s f/36 ISO50 200mm

Not quite street photography, not as edgy as urban exploration and clearly not architectural. city landscape perhaps?

This busy intersection as Rundle Mall transitions into Rundle Street is always a fascinating place to stop and watch the interplay between traffic and pedestrians. The ever present light show dancing across the face of the Rundle Street car park always a source of entertainment as people sometimes stand transfixed for what seems like minutes by its ever changing patterns and colours.

No such things as 'move along, nothing to see here'.


Photo: Robert Rath, ‘Day 560, Rundle Street' 2.5s f/16 ISO640 17mm

An Apple a day keeps .... well you know how it goes.

The new Apple store in Adelaide is beautiful. The hardware is beautiful and I must confess to a certain envy when I window shop Apple products. I adore the visual design of the new Mac Pro and applaud Apple for bringing people to the technology.

That all said I do not own an Apple product, I have never purchased an apple product and I have no desire to actually use one. I love them anyway!


Photo: Robert Rath, ‘Day 559, An Apple A Day' 0.6 f/10 ISO50 17mm

Grey weather's on its way so this is most likely that last nice sunset for a few days.

Time to head in to the city and perhaps explore a different genre for a while.


Photo: Robert Rath, ‘Day 558, Pelican Sunset' 1/100s f/14 ISO100 15mm

Henley Beach again but this time a little fun with colour.

Or should I say the lack of it. Actually it's not quite colour free. The warm tones of the original colour image were lost so I have added them back in, just a little!


Photo: Robert Rath, ‘Day 557, My Beach' 1/20s f/14 ISO100 15mm

It might be winter and it might be cold but the beach will always be a compelling place to be.

Winter in Adelaide is fantastic for photography with plenty opportunities for combinations of clear blue sky mixed with dramatic clouds. Throw in a beach, a jetty and a sunset and it doesn't get much better.

Henley Beach Jetty, it's good to be back to the beach.


Photo: Robert Rath, ‘Day 556, Back to the Beach' 0.4s f/14 ISO100 15mm

Have you ever wondered how fast rain is moving when it hits the ground?

This question become important in photographing rain and choosing a shutter speed. In this image the drops are 3-4 cm and at 1/100 of a second that making that 3-4 m/s. I guess that makes it 'light' rain.


Photo: Robert Rath, ‘Day 555, Rain' 1/100s f/10 ISO320 200mm

In this image I wanted a dark low key background but with plenty of diffuse natural looking light. To get this effect I simply placed the vase and tulip in the middle of a room with normal ambient lighting but framed the shot through an open doorway into the the darkness of the garden outside.


Photo: Robert Rath, ‘Day 554, Faded Petals' 1/13s f/22 ISO100 100mm

This image was taken while we were out trying to find the well known landmark, 'Bear Rock'.

Unfortunately I was about 100km off from where I thought I'd find it! 200km later we finally found it just above the town of Palmer but is was well after sunset and the light had gone.
Here on Sedan hill we pulled over briefly to take in this gorgeous sunset and the amazing view into the Murray lands below.


Photo: Robert Rath, ‘Day 553, Sedan Sunset' 1/1600s f/8.0 ISO320 15mm

I marvel at our rings and the craftsmanship with which they were created.

In this image I wanted to really show how Ben has crafted the white gold bands around my father's ring and around my wife's grandmother's ring. Getting the lighting and the colour right to really show off the final result was an interesting exercise. This capture is perhaps a little traditional and cliched in composition, but I think it really show off the hidden treasure inside.


Photo: Robert Rath, ‘Day 552, Hidden Treasure' 1.6s f/22 ISO320 100mm

Of all the things I like best about shopping (not that there are many) I love patterns and repetition.

In supermarkets it's beautifully faced shelves of jars and bottles. In book stores it's stacks of perfectly aligned hardcovers beneath the display copies. In department stores it's the piles of perfectly folded jeans, a display of ties or in this case a rack of coats.


Photo: Robert Rath, ‘Day 551, Off The Rack' 1/40 f/4.0 ISO1600 40mm

The lookout from Mengler's Hill is a place that has been special to me since childhood.

I remember riding our bicycles up the steep road (no gears back then) and celebrating the ability to get all the way up without stopping to walk some of the way. More often than not we didn't.
After taking in this magnificent view we would race back down the hill, no helmets, at breakneck speed to see who would reach the main street of Tanunda first.


Photo: Robert Rath, ‘Day 550, Barossa Bliss' 1/3200 f/8.0 ISO320 15mm

A simple tribute to a local legend of the wine industry in the Barossa.

Peter Lehmann passed away Friday June 28 2013 at the age of 82.

We will remember you Peter every time we drink a 'PL' wine.


Photo: Robert Rath, ‘Day 549, Tribute To Peter' 1/400 f/2.8 ISO100 135mm

Adelaide, we have arrived home after our amazing time away.

Most of Adelaide is in dawn shadow with the first hint of morning sun catching the hills in the distance. In 60 seconds we will have touched down, heralding the beginning of a return to normality. Or would we be?

Our time in Ireland as been life changing. We left a few weeks ago never being sure just how to define ourselves. We arrived back again as a married couple. The normality we once new is gone and our lives have been forever transformed.

Hello Adelaide, we are back!


Photo: Robert Rath, ‘Day 548, Adelaide Arrival' 1/200 f/10 ISO160 37mm

Last leg or last legs?

There is a real feel of travel weariness pervading the air. Hours of travel seem to have reduced the excited expectations of reaching a new or a final destination to nothing more than silent anticipation.

... soon now.


Photo: Robert Rath, ‘Day 547, Last Leg' 3.2 f/16 ISO800 15mm

Changi Airport Singapore is renowned as one one of the worlds busiest transit hubs.

Quiet moments like this are however just as common when transits take you through the early hours of the morning. Most shops are closed, and a weird sense of serenity invades the daily mêlée transforming the cosmopolitan feel into that of a country town bus station. Even in this image I see one weary traveler has found a cosy bed for the night, shoes on the ground and bags for a pillow.

Next destination, Adelaide.


Photo: Robert Rath, ‘Day 546, Almost Deserted' 0.3 f/9.0 ISO320 15mm

My favorite seat when flying is an aisle seat but on the short flight from Cork to Heathrow having a window seat made for great cloud gazing.

There is something magical about being above the clouds. With land and sea now out of sight, all sense of being in a plane seems to vanish and the world is some fantastic place not of this world. For this flight at least the windows seat will suit me just fine.


Photo: Robert Rath, ‘Day 545, Flying Home' 1/250s f/11 ISO100 40mm

It seems somehow fitting to leave this beautiful green isle with a final gorgeous sunset.

We came here to an Ireland of blue skies and sunshine (the locals reckon we brought the sunshine with us) to get married. We created history and memories which will remain with us, our families and our friends. As my new brother-in-law complimented us so eloquently, "you played a blinder!", and we did!

Ireland, ... we will be back again soon.


Photo: Robert Rath, ‘Day 544, One Last Irish Sunset' 1/60s f/18 ISO400 200mm

Well stocked indeed but there is something obvious missing.

Where is the bartender? Where are the guests? There is a simple answer to odd state of affairs. It's the end of a big night out and we have out drunk all the patrons who have left. The bartender has finished for the night and asked us to leave when we are ready by the side door entrusting us to lock it behind us.


Photo: Robert Rath, ‘Day 543, Well Stocked' 30s f/9.0 ISO160 15mm

Once upon a time in Blarney there were great woolen mills known as Mahony's Mills which manufactured woolen products and employed hundreds of locals in all manner of roles.

Nearly 150 years from the day it was built the mills ground to a halt due to declining demand and production. 500 people lost their jobs in 1973 on the the day it closed. Two year later a former shop floor employee of over 22 years, Christy Kelleher, purchased the property and converted it into a souvenir shop and hotel.

Now known as the Blarney Woolen Mills it is the biggest Irish products store in Ireland thanks to Christy's vision.

This old loom remains in the centre of the store as a reminder of another era.


Photo: Robert Rath, ‘Day 542, Blarney HeirLoom' 1/40s f/4.0 ISO1600 40mm

In every town we visited or passed through we found a grotto with an effigy of the biblical Mary.

While traveling through the town of Charlieville I noticed something different, this single statue in the courtyard of an old church. In it I saw a small child playing and leaning over the edge of a stream or river, its guardian angel ever present.


Photo: Robert Rath, ‘Day 541, Guardian Angel' 1/2000s f/2.8 ISO100 200mm

Down the tower steps, on to the plush red carpeted guests landing and finally those grand banistered red stairs down to a kingly Irish breakfast.

We have brought back many wonderful memories of Dromoland Castle but by the way this image brought those memories flooding in I'd say red carpeted stairs will will always be special to us now.


Photo: Robert Rath, ‘Day 540, Red Carpet Stairs' 8s f/11 ISO100 15mm

If this were a Grimm fairy tale I could imagine myself calling up to my beloved Rapunzel to let down her golden hair so that we might be together.

But this is not a story book tale. It is my gorgeous bride standing watch for my return from the the old tower of Dromoland Castle. The call would not be a whispered shout from the garden below but a text message on a mobile phone announcing I would be climbing turret stairs back to our room for the night.


Photo: Robert Rath, ‘Day 539, My Rapunzel' 6s f/9.0 ISO640 25mm

Walking through the main doors of the Great Northern Hotel is like stepping back in time.

62 years ago Jennifer's newly wed parents Gerard and Nuala stepped through these very same doors on their honeymoon. I wonder if they thought the very same thing conjuring up images of the late 1900s. Years even before then it was here that Jennifer's grandmother was proposed to and accepted.

Now all these years later it still feels like the grand old hotel it always was. I am proud we also honeymooned here and made the Great Northern Hotel part of our history as well.


Photo: Robert Rath, ‘Day 538, The Great Northern Hotel' 1/1600s f/3.5 ISO100 110mm

Jennifer first brought me to the bustling seaside town of Bundoran 11 years ago.

Then as now we experienced blue skies and sunshine. This time we got to linger a few days and explore and even take one or two photos.

Photo: Robert Rath, ‘Day 537, Bundoran' 8s f/10 ISO100 15mm

In quite a dramatic departure from the beautiful Irish landscapes I simply had to capture a scene from the bar.

Some might call this landscape equally as beautiful except for the odd one out! Despite the offerings on tap (pun unintended) we chose to round off the evening with hot Irish whiskeys instead.


Photo: Robert Rath, ‘Day 536, Odd One Out' 1/10s f/8.0 ISO320 15mm

Just a few kilometers east of the popular northern seaside town of Budoran a very special meeting is taking place.

When this swimmer emerged from his evening dip in the the cold North Atlantic sea he looked up at me and yelled, 'how did you find me?'. He could very well have been having a short respite from the tensions of the G8 meeting just up the road. I suspect though he was just having a bit of craic!


Photo: Robert Rath, ‘Day 535, North Atlantic Swimmer' 1/160s f/8.0 ISO160 15mm

An old castle had to turn up sooner or later.

It seems almost every large Irish town has a castle of note and Mallow is no different. I'm not sure how old the ruins of this old castle are but at least they are maintain well enough to create a safe environment to walk through and pond waring clans of another time.


Photo: Robert Rath, ‘Day 534, Inside The Old Walls' 1/100s f/9.0 ISO160 15mm