Robert's Ramblings

Reflections of suburban lighting on water can be just as pretty as the large city scape.

Back in Adelaide again and I can't seem to shed the water theme of my last 8 days. Here is Glenelg's King Street bridge with the marina behind.


Photo: Robert Rath, '366 Days of 2012, Day 178 - Glenelg'. 3.2s at f/4.0 ISO-640 200mm

All good things must come to an end.

The final overnight crossing from Lady Musgrave Island to Bundaberg was by most accounts ugly. By about 5pm the only souls left with stomach's intact or not cowering in their bunks where the skipper and a four of us. Even the cook was nowhere to be seen!

Well into the night and the seas, Liam, Michael, Pasi and myself kept a vigil, drank the rest of the alcohol, made own dinner in the galley, watched movies and otherwise braved it through. By our accounts it was a good night and a great end to a fantastic trip.


Photo: Robert Rath, '366 Days of 2012, Day 177 - Ocean Traverse'. 1/500s at f/2.8 ISO-3200 15mm

Farewell said the lionfish but before you go let me pose for you so that the world may see my beauty.

Well perhaps the thoughts of a lionfish are not quite so vain and complex but a poser it certainly was. For me it was a lovely way to end my last dive on this Great Barrier Reef odyssey.

This guys is a red lionfish, Pterois volitans and as mentioned in a previous post, Lionfish are common to the Indo-Pacific region and considered every bit a part of our tropical waters. Its new arrival in the U.S.A. however is not welcome at all since being introduced by the aquarium trade back in 1992. Having no natural predators in other parts of the world means this beautiful creature has become an introduced pest to our friends bordering the Atlantic Ocean.


Photo: Robert Rath, '366 Days of 2012, Day 176 - Farewell Said the Lionfish'. 1/160s at f/9 ISO-640 15mm

We search over the reef and down to the depths, we looked far and wide and high and low. We searched the cays and then the lagoons till we finally found Nemo.


Photo: Robert Rath, '366 Days of 2012, Day 175 - Finding Nemo'. 1/200s at f/4 ISO-400 38mm + 1.0 diopter

The dark and looming shape above is our lifeline, our home in this vast ocean, the mother ship!


Photo: Robert Rath, '366 Days of 2012, Day 174 - The Mother Ship'. 1/100s at f/13 ISO-400 17mm + 1.0 diopter

Giant clams bring back childhood memories of movies with swimmers trapped by giant clams and rising tides!

Scary movies aside, the magic, colours and gorgeous textures of giant clams has held a fascination for me ever since and will always remain up there for me in the highlights of diving the tropics.


Photo: Robert Rath, '366 Days of 2012, Day 173 - Wham Bam Giant Clam'. 1/100s at f/11 ISO-320 15mm

Twilight reflections on the ocean go hand in hand with amazing Great Barrier Reef sunsets.

A dappled beautiful sea beckons more fantastic diving ahead.


Photo: Robert Rath, '366 Days of 2012, Day 172 - Reef Twilight'. 1/8000s at f/5.6 ISO-800 290mm

Grey hunter of the sea glides past me on Hackies Reef.

Half curious, non-perturbed, sleek and beautiful. The grey reef shark, Carcharhinus amblyrhynchos, is a beautifully proportioned shark. Everything about it speaks of speed and efficiency.

This is my first shark encounter on an amazing Swain's Group, Great Barrier Reef adventure.


Photo: Robert Rath, '366 Days of 2012, Day 171 - Grey Suit Hunter'. 1/160s at f/7.1 ISO-200 40mm +1.0 diopter

Our home for the next 8 days.

The MV Venus II. Built in 1961, later acquired and re-fitted by George Christensen as a live aboard dive charter vessel.

The beginning of out Swains Group, Great Barrier Reef odyssey.


Photo: Robert Rath, '366 Days of 2012, Day 170 - The Good Ship MV Venus II'. 0.6s at f/8 ISO2000 24mm

It's a beautiful ride along the Torrens River which meanders down from above Gorge Road in the Adelaide Hills, past the city itself and under the bridge I am standing on before emptying into the sea.

It is quite dark, the sun having recently set and I have made a simple long exposure image of the Torrens River looking back towards the city and beyond.

I love these long exposure night-into-day images for the surreal warmth they give to an otherwise cold and uninviting landscape.


Photo: Robert Rath, '366 Days of 2012, Day 169 - Sea to City'. 25s at f/8 ISO1000 15mm

I am so fortunate that we live near the beach and I get to drive along it every day.

I don't however spend anywhere near enough time actually down on the sand or even better still actually in the water!! Plans are afoot to rectify this but in the meantime here is an image I took yesterday from the sand in front of Joe's Kiosk at Henley Beach looking north. I loved the dramatic early morning sky so I have used HDR to really bring this out.


Photo: Robert Rath, '366 Days of 2012, Day 168 - Windswept Morning'. 1/320+1/160+1/80 at f/14 ISO100 39mm hdr

Powerful, beautiful, of form, formless, life giving, simple, turbulent, movement, life taking, breathtaking, water.

It falls, it flows, we complain there too much then we complain there is too little. We must respect it's partnership with all life on this planet.
I love being in it, under it, drinking it, watching it. From vast ocean to a tear on a cheek or just a simple glass of water it is the best photographic subject ever!

Take one Riedel wine glass, fill with water, stir vigorously, photograph then drink!


Photo: Robert Rath, '366 Days of 2012, Day 167 - H2O'. 1/100s at f/20 ISO800 100mm strobes x3 at minimum power

Batten down the hatches, get off the streets, shutter your windows and hide under the bed! Were up for a big one!

Well perhaps all is not quite so bad here but with a forecast of 60-90km/h winds and gusts I am happy not to be out in it. This image is not so much a mad dash home but an idle click through the windscreen as we drove through local Henley Beach.

Maybe I'll take some storm photos tomorrow or maybe I'll just stay in my nice warm office. We'll see.


Photo: Robert Rath, '366 Days of 2012, Day 166 - Speeding into the Weather'. 1s at f/11 ISO800 19mm

For a subject of amazing colour and form I have chosen to leave colour completely out.

This is my first truly monochrome image in this series. I generally resist the temptation to use monochrome as tool to create a surrealness where an image could not stand on its own. In this HDR image however the colour seemed so at odds with the dark and grungy feel of this street that I almost felt it detracted so for me the decision to drop it was easy. So please let me know what you think of this Blyth Street Art in HDR monochrome.


Photo: Robert Rath, '366 Days of 2012, Day 165 - Bank Street Art'. 2s+8s+30s at f/13 ISO400 24mm hdr

There is something intriguing about multiples of things.

Walk down any supermarket isle or meander through a grocery store and there are plenty multiples to photograph. The problem is most such place do not like big cameras pointed at their merchandise! Next time I visit Foodland or Coles I'll have to see what I can sneak through!

On a much larger scale, these buses at the Alberton depot with their shiny mirror-like windscreens caught my eye. These buses with no passengers are my photo for today.


Photo: Robert Rath, '366 Days of 2012, Day 164 - Not on the Buses'. 1/50s at f/14 ISO400 105mm

I have not been in deep blue for longer than I care to admit. A chance meeting with my friend Terry yesterday, some reorganisation of my schedule and before I new it I was gliding once again effortlessly beneath the dappled surface of the ocean just off Port Noarlunga.

I'd nearly forgotten how much I adore this sport and put me under those waves with a camera in my hand and I am in my element ( or should that be molecule ).

This image captures Terry gliding above me, briefly silhouetted in the morning sunshine.


Photo: Robert Rath, '366 Days of 2012, Day 163 - When Blue is Beautiful'. 1/4000s at f/7.1 ISO400 15mm


Here a few extra from today that did not make photo of the day...

There's only one thing I enjoy more than kicking back at the end of a day with a fishing rod and quiet beach. Ok, actually there are heaps of things but one of them is capturing scenes like this to share.

Just a moment or two looking into a scene brings a little of what it might be like being there. Not the crappy parts like being bitterly cold, hungry or not catching any fish. We select the parts of an image we do, or want to relate with: peace and quiet, beautiful sea and sky, no demands.

As a photographer I want to share a feeling I have when I am seeing the world in any moment. The stronger and more powerful the feeling the more I want to share and the better my chance to capture some of that feeling in an image.

Enjoy the end of one of my perfect days!


Photo: Robert Rath, '366 Days of 2012, Day 162 - Perfect Day'. 5s at f/11 ISO1000 15mm

With all the recent interest in looking up at the sun I decide to see if I could capture it with a normal lens and no UV filter. The short answer NO.

Even at 1/8000 of a second at ISO50 and an aperture of f/64 it was still completely blown out. The resulting cloud around the sun however has taken on an eerie deep space nebula like quality which could not have been captured any other way.

One of the wonderful things about experimental photography is being continually surprised in post discovering unexpected images that were never evident in the viewfinder or in the perceived subject. This image is one of those discoveries..


Photo: Robert Rath, '366 Days of 2012, Day 161 - Fire In The Sky'. 1/8000s at f/64 ISO50 200mm

After we got past the Italian bit the menu read 'house made chocolate cannoli with white chocolate mousse, dark chocolate semi freddo, baked chocolate tart & clementine compote'.

It was Jennifer's birthday after all so why wouldn't we? Enough said!


Photo: Robert Rath, '366 Days of 2012, Day 160 - Piastra Di Cioccolato Alla Rigoni’s'. 1.6s at f/11 ISO400 85mm

This would have to be one of the most amazing images I have ever made, so why am I so reluctant to share it?

I created this image today by placing a 1.2 mm diameter pin hole one metre away from the bare sensor on my camera with no lens, glass or optics of any kind in between. To do this I used a 1,000 mm length of storm water PVC pipe to keep sensor and pin-hole aligned and unwanted light out. In short I constructed a super-telephoto pin-hole camera.

Here are a few images detailing the construction of the pin-hole lens for the event.



The interesting thing about this image is not just that it actually worked - after all, I was battling with the extremes of pin-hole optics - but that it also features cloud (sky) and leaves (terrestrial). The image is an extraordinary combination of land, sky, planet and star. So why was I so reluctant to share?

Years of engineering work have instilled in me the importance of precision and attention to detail. This flows through to my photography; I am always striving to produce perfectly composed high-resolution images that are tack sharp, have balanced exposure and no image noise. So when I produce a piece like this, the engineer in me cringes and the artist gets vetoed!

It took someone else to point out to me how special this image was before I abandoned it for some other high-resolution, tack sharp, balanced exposure, noise-free, perfectly composed 'ordinary' image! Thank you Jennifer!

So here it is reluctantly offered: one of the most amazing images I have ever made.


Photo: Robert Rath, '366 Days of 2012, Day 159 - The Transit of Venus Through a Pin-Hole'. 1/8000s at f/700 ISO50 1000mm (pin-hole camera)

Cold winter Henley Beach jetty and a lone seagull all a flutter in the wind.


Photo: Robert Rath, '366 Days of 2012, Day 158 - Caught All A Flutter'. 1/1000s at f/2.8 IS1000 200mm

I do a lot of technical photography around my work. Some of it for documentation, some of it forensic but rarely for the art of it.

Here is a little project I've had more than just a hand in and now that it's being publicly offered I can can finally take and publish my own image. Just for fun, this is not one of your normal commercial product images!


Photo: Robert Rath, '366 Days of 2012, Day 157 - Stuff I Do'. 1/8s at f/2.8 IS200 100mm

Sometimes when things go wrong they actually didn't.

This image began life as I composed to take a photo of a group of workers down a pit in the city. Suddenly their supervisor came up to me from behind, yelled at me and and scared the #$#% out of me just as I was pressing the shutter. As I spun round this is the image I actually captured which I love!

For the record, as I was taking photos of roadworks from the road I was clearly doing nothing wrong however this is not the way the foreman saw it. Still best not to argue with someone much bigger and uglier so I put away my camera and moved on.


Photo: Robert Rath, '366 Days of 2012, Day 156 - Serendipity'. 1/25s at f/4.0 IS2500 28mm

So much of how we all see the world today is presented to us as little red, green and blue dots... Even Penguins!

This 5mm x 5mm image is of a 20x20 pixel area of my LCD monitor and was taken using the 100mm macro lens + 2xTC + 60mm extension. Luckily my eyes don't notice the pixels at all!


Photo: Robert Rath, '366 Days of 2012, Day 155 - Penguin Pixels'. 6s at f/16 ISO200 200mm

Like a tiny little fern garden unfolding these littel yellow fern-like fonds are not from a fern at all! Guess what these little things are!


Photo: Robert Rath, '366 Days of 2012, Day 154 - Little Yellow Things'. 13s at f/16 ISO1000 200m

Never in my life have I ever wanted to be a fireman and I am always bemused when I hear of a young boy's career aspirations to drive the Big Red fire truck.

I'm not sure what this truck was doing here tonight outside of the SA Writers Centre in Rundle St. It seemed to be in the middle of a hive of road work activity so perhaps it was just on standby to assist any incident.


Photo: Robert Rath, '366 Days of 2012, Day 153 - Big Red'. 5s at f/14 ISO100 17mm

If you had not seen the title and had thought this image was about lights or cars or Adelaide streetscapes you'd only be seeing a small part of a bigger story. If on the other hand you had thought this image was about 'time' then you'd be right up there with one of my most obsessive fascinations. Too bad I made the title so obvious!


Photo: Robert Rath, '366 Days of 2012, Day 152 - Time Trails'. 20s at f/25 ISO100 70mm

Not sure if theses were once real trees and have been decorated in lights or they were always all plastic?


Photo: Robert Rath, '366 Days of 2012, Day 151 - Plastic Blossom'. 1/200 at f/6.3 ISO1600 200mm

Two days from now this scene will be but a memory as one more blight on the suburban landscape is bulldozed into oblivion.

I only know a little about the people who last called this place their home. Not personally but from conversations with others I learned of their helplessness and despair at their lot. I don't know where they are now but I hope their new home will not mirror them in the way this place may have.


Photo: Robert Rath, '366 Days of 2012, Day 150 - Suburban Despair'. 1s + 1/5s +1/20s + 1/80s at f/16 ISO100 17mm hdr

Bravely bold Sir Robin Rode forth from Camelot. He was not afraid to die, Oh brave Sir Robin. He was not at all afraid To be killed in nasty ways. Brave, brave, brave, brave Sir Robin.


Photo: Robert Rath, '366 Days of 2012, Day 149 - Brave Sir Robin'. 1/8s at f/2.8 ISO 800 100mm