Robert's Ramblings

Before I ever thought about watches, I wanted a stopwatch!

I tried my hand at swimming competatively as a child and that hallowed silver object with its white dial and its accusatory hands would make or break me every time it was used.
On race days it was amazing to see someone standing at the end of every swimmer's lane, stopwatch in hand, ready to clock their time and declare their place. Stop watches were everywhere!

We used to borrow one of those precious instruments from a friend for training and its utility and precision was something I admired. I was always sad to give it back each time.
It turned out swimming was not my thing and I forgot my love of mechantical stopwatches until now.

I often need to time things in my work and growing tired of using my phone those childhood memories sent me looking for one of those old stopwatches and I finally found this vintage Rotary split timer.

My stopwatch now sits on my desk at work ready to grab when it's needed and reminds me of childhod race days and that precious instrument I never thought I'd own.


#rotary #stopwatch #valjoux #swiss #time #clocks #chronograph #racing

They say of marine life that if you can’t eat it or it’s got no practical use then it will never get anything other than a scientific name. Well I have a third reason, being spiked by a sea urchin and needing something pronounceable to swear at!

The long-spine urchin, Centrostephanus tenuispinus, is actually quite beautiful for something you’d take great pains not to sit on, or experience great pains if you did!

Urchin spines really are no fun. A painful spiking can result from carelessly nestling into a bit of reef to coax out a crayfish or photograph a nudibranch. If it’s a clean stab a good flushing of vinegar will usually bring relief after the initial pain. If it’s snapped off inside it needs to come out quickly!

Best advice for divers or waders is, … don’t sit on salty blue pincushions!


#Rapidbayjetty #rapidbay #seaurchin #Centrostephanustenuispinus #scuba #diving #urchin

I’d often seen snapper before on the wreck of the ex-HMAS Hobart but usually small ruggers and often large schools of them.

The occasional large snapper would cruise past from time to time but never really big and always very flighty. On this dive however we discovered several large, metre plus, fish sheltering inside the wreck down around 20m below the surface.

Attempts to approach and photograph from the outside proved frustrating as the snapper would simply move deeper into the wreck. In the end I approached them from inside the wreck coming as close as I dared not to spook them.

There was no sense of colour or detail from in here but watching their beautiful silhouettes against the backdrop of open water behind was magical enough.

I simply wished I could have lingered here longer.


#ex-hmashobart #wreck #scuba #diving #snapper #silhouette #fish #hobart

From my youth I have fond memories of this iconic building, St Johns Lutheran Church. Not Sunday services but the friends I made and the antics we got up to.

I remember climbing that incredibly high ladder up into the bell tower when someone left the door unlocked.

I remember scrawling our names in chalk on the bell. Nothing that would be damaging but enough for others to know we had been there.

None of us was game to actually ring it but a gentle knock on the bell with our knuckles and hearing that soft mellow response barely loud enough to hear was satisfying enough to know we could have if we really wanted to.

Now when ever I visit Tanunda, the town of my youth, the cross atop the steeple of St Johns Lutheran Church speaks to me with nostalgia, “we were there once”.


#Tanunda #StJohns #church #steeple #aerial #cross #barossavalley #belltower

Louey and I go way back. I’ve lost count of the years he’s been there waiting patiently in the shallows each time I come back to Edithburgh.

Sometime he’s sitting high and dry on the low tide sandy bay.

Sometimes he’s rocking gently to and fro.

And sometime, as I imagine him to night, he’s hanging on for grim life as an angry sea tests his moorings and his patience.

Louey and I go way back and despite tonight’s stormy weather I expect he’ll be there when I return.


#Edithburgh #louey #boats #water #rusty #tranquil

Of all the strange creatures that keep their own secret lives in the waters of Southern Australia, Erskin’s Basket Star is up there in the realm of ‘oh wow’!

As a starfish, and more specifically, a ‘brittle star’ they resemble some weird brain-like structure.

About the size of a pair of clenched fists they hide their true strangeness, a sight rarely seen, when at night and in strong currents they completely unfold that intricate structure in a vast feeding web.

I have never seen a basket star feeding. A logistically challenging night dive combining both strong currents and remote locations would be required. Something I am up for but not to be undertaken lightly.

On this dive off of Troubridge Point, Edithburgh we found three of the fascinating creatures, all bundled up and waiting for the cover of night.

#AstroboaEernae #basketstar #brittlestar #edithburgh #troubridgepoint #southaustralia #scuba #diving #monochrome #blackandwhite #underwater #photography

‘It stands in the air like it just don’t care!’

With the track closed due to an incident, in came the Huracan to wait it out.

The moment it came to a stop and that growling engine cut, a shot of compressed nitrogen to the four inbuilt jacks lifted the beast into the air.

With the wheels off the ground those sticky rubber tyres remain conformal in temperature and in shape ready for the track again when the all clear is given.

In the mean time, ‘It stands in the air like it just don’t care!’ says everything!


#cars #Huracan #Lamborghini #motorsports #racing #SuperTrofeo #thebend #highkey #blackandwhite

Inquisitive, opportunistic and oh so photogenic!

The wavy grubfish is just as eager to please the lens as wait for me to disturb some unsuspecting lunch!

Move a rock or disturb some weed and wavy grubfish will be there in a moment to see if you have provided lunch.

Anything you do which might drive some tiny critter into unprotected territory is what the opportunist wavy grubfish seems to be waiting for.

For me, oh so photogenic – regardless of the reason!


#Critters #Scuba #Diving #fish #Marinelife #Parapercishaackei #Reef #Edithburgh #Southaustralia #WavyGrubfish

For more than half the years I have lived I’ve looked out to the east from the seaside town of Edithburgh to see the lighthouse of Troubridge Island on the horizon.

Being a diver I had never given much thought to it as being a destination. If I was into photographing seabirds maybe things would have been different as this is a designated wildlife sanctuary.

You can hire out the island and stay there if you like. You’ll be ferried out and left in isolated peace until your nominated departure date. No way on or off unless you have your own boat! Sounds blissful to me.

Last weekend I finally got to see Troubridge Island from this new and wonderful perspective.


#Troubridgeisland #island #sanctuary #lighthouse #aerial #photography #edithburgh #southaustralia #ocean

I have no idea how many cowfish images I have but the good ones seem to elude me. Still, they make me smile every time one comes into my view.

They are bright and cheerful, cheeky, comical, just a little nervous (am I anthropomorphising too much?), sometimes curious but to me always camera shy.

Please, just a little moue for the camera is all I want!

Oh well little cowfish, perhaps next time...


#aracanaaurita #cowfish #critters #diving #fish #jetty #macro #night #paintedboxfish #photography #rapidbay #scuba #shawscowfish #southaustralia #underwater

One thing scuba divers get to experience is the curiosity of wildlife unimpeded by fear. It is something most walkers of wilderness and bush will rarely find as animal run or hide from an apex predator.

Go for a dive however and the animals pretty quickly work out how slow, clumsy and awkward we are and return to their business as if we were not even there. Then there are the curious ones.

Most fish simply come in close to check us out. Others do flybys. Horseshoe leather jackets take their curiosity to a new level. While this lot is admiring their reflections, potential partners or adversaries in the dome of my camera there is another lot behind me grabbing and tugging bits of my hair.

After a while it was simply overwhelming and I had to move on, … to the next lot of curious creatures!


#Scuba #diving #edithburgh #troubridgepoint #horseshoeleatherjacket #leatherjacket #ocean #fish #curiosity

For some people, Easter is a sacred time for remembering and being grateful. For others it’s just another habitual celebration of something long forgotten.

For some, this time has been anything but joyful – from being locked down with the dreaded ‘C’ or other serious health issues to dealing with the extremes of war, oppression and displacement. Our thoughts go out to those whose Easter has not been what it should be.

We are so grateful to have been lucky enough to spend this Easter with family and friends, and would wish the same for everyone.

Happy Easter, R&J

#Edithburgh #easter #fullmoon #moon #ocean #boating

There is a very good reason why my chest is bruised blue and yellow and yet I still can’t wipe the grin from my face...

Last Saturday I got to experience 20 minutes in this extraordinary, audacious piece of machinery completely giving all trust to a driver who now has my respect for life.

My first 10 seconds on the track was full of anticipation, pensive enthusiasm and excitement. My next 30 seconds expanded into something akin to managed (just) terror. I found myself teetering on the verge of panic and perhaps my pride more than self preservation dictated the next moments of this expanding experience.

I briefly glimpsed a similar moment as a teenager, a moment where I had to trust another soul with my very existence (thank you Simon). Forty years later for the second time ever I gave that same trust to Ben, the man behind the wheel of this beautiful yet brutal racing car.

I spent the remainder of the first lap in a kind of detached mediation, calm but aware of my corporeal body being flung around like a rag dog in a hurricane (Huracan!). By the second lap I was beginning to enjoy the very physical experience of being in a serious racing car. By the third lap I was starting to connect with the car, the track and the driver. After that it was all joy.

Thank you Ben for an amazing experience I will never forget.

#Lamborghini #Huracan #SuperTrofeo #motorsports #racing #cars #thebend

I wax lyrical about Port Noarlunga Reef at every opportunity. It is not only one of Adelaide’s closest dive sites but also amazingly diverse in what can be experienced.

One of my favourite dives here is in the deep gap that separates the north and south sections of the reef. Simply called ‘The Gap’, a complex maze like structure of limestone bommies, makes its way south from the northern reef section down to a sandy, silty base around 16m before climbing back up to the southern reef section.

The Gap is a wonderful place to explore full of large limestone boulders adorned with sponges, gorgonian corals, and algaes. Large schools of silver drummer and white trevally dazzle while big dusky morwongs more than a meter in length raise the heart rate just a little as they appear out of the gloom or from behind bommies. The gap is also a great place to get completely lost unless you are diligent with good compass work.

At night a dive in the Gap takes on an eerie other worldly nature. Bommies become giants with manes of flowing kelp lurking in the dark. Every flash and flicker of silver in the distant light of the torch-beam makes my heart skip a beat or two. The sand is alive with molluscs while littered remains of crab mark the last meals of a nearby octopuses.

On Sunday night’s dive I found nestled in a challis-like sponge this beautiful black cowrie with its shell of mottled gold. So named ‘black’ as their black mantle hides the polished shell beneath. This one is feeding on the algae that covers the cup of the sponge. I have noticed cowries feeding like this in bowl like sponge structures on previous dives. Perhaps the silt collect down deep in the gap promotes the algal growth and attracts the cowries.

I finished the dive with the long swim back to the jetty, to fresh air and to the quizzical looks of passersby as I emerged from the inky black water in the torchlight. If only they knew what was down there. Gold!


#blackcowrie #humpbackedcowrie #scuba #diving #underwater #photography #portnoarlunga #southaustralia #sponges #thegap #zoilathersites #night

This was supposed to by my first dive on January 1, 2022 but … It is true that no plan survives long into its enactment and on this occasion technical issues delayed things and I finally got into the water 6 minutes after midnight.

I had two objectives for last night’s dive. Find an Apple watch rumoured to have been lost off the jetty during the day and find some interesting things to photograph.

After about 20 minutes of serious watch hunting I gave up and reverted to critters. The first really interesting encounter was a common octopus about the size of the two of my hands together. We entertained each other for about 5 minutes before she invited me back to her lair. Unfortunately without a bite from Wonderland Alice’s cake I was never going to fit through the tiny entrance.

Then I noticed a baby Port Jackson shark resting on the sand and the photo session was on. For the next while I discovered 3 more baby sharks, flounder, flathead and numerous crabs of all shapes and sizes.

Later I found myself enamoured by a massive school of small bait-fish which shimmered and flashed in my torchlight as they moved like a murmuration of silver starlings in the dark and led me to … an Apple watch lying quietly in the sea-grass. Imagine my surprised when I picked it up to be greeted with its wallpaper image, the time and battery remaining!

Post dive, Apple watch and owner have been reunited and I got my ‘Baby Shark’ photograph.


#portjacksonshark #juvenile #shark #portnoarlunga #night #scuba #diving #underwaterphotography

There is something both beautiful and terrifying about comet Leonard’s appearance in our evening sky. This time last year no one knew it even existed.

For the last 40,000 years the comet has been hurtling inbound from the depths of our solar system on its 80,000-year orbit. Greg J Leonard discovered this expectant visitor back in January and his namesake finally became visible to the naked eye this month.

Beautiful because visible comets are a rarity in our night skies. Terrifying because we had no prior knowledge of its inbound journey and then how terribly close to earth it came. It is a reminder that we have no idea what is out there coming for a visit and very little time to react when discovered.

This time, astronomers and stargazers around the world got to see comet Leonard as a delightful visitor to our solar system and to our night sky.


#landscape #astrophotography #comet #leonard #c/2021-a1 #palmer #southaustralia #darksky

It’s the night before Christmas and a man walks alone along a solitary Galway alley. The lights in the shops now display gifts that could have been. More likely they will be snatched up in the post-Christmas sales when their value as tokens of love and affection has passed by for another year.

Whenever I see someone walking alone on Christmas Eve I wonder what their story might be. Is there a loving family somewhere waiting for them? A friend perhaps, or some other welcoming destination just a little further on. Or maybe they are just biding time before Christmas day.

I wonder because as long as I can remember, Christmas Eve has been my family’s time to get together and enjoy each other’s company. I am so grateful we have always been able to do this.

So on Christmas Eve I would like to take this opportunity to thank every one of you – family, friends, acquaintances and passersby – who, despite another difficult year, have made our lives just that little bit richer and given us the opportunity to do the same.

Happy Christmas and may the New Year bring hope, joy and happiness to you all.

Robert & Jennifer


#christmas #galway #ireland #christmaseve #alone #solitary #alley

Well actually if you go hunting you will find quite a few more! Yes I’m back at the Gilman Wetlands again on a typical evening home commute.

I am drawn to these abstracts, the hidden perspective that thousands of people drive past everyday without ever realising its there.

Sometimes I come here and see nothing out of the ordinary. This time two pelicans and their sunset shadows caught my eye.

Regardless, it’s always beautiful.


#gilman #wetlands #pelicans #aerial #abstract #drone #goldenhour #shadows

The planet ‘Kelp’ is hidden to the sight of most as it hides just under the waves that kick up on Aldinga Reef. Divers know it but often overlook it’s beauty seeking instead the grandeur of the nearby ‘Drop-off’ down to the sand below.

I have always loved this part of the Aldinga Reef system with its torturous maze of ledges, swim-throughs, holes and tunnels. The limestone structures provide refuge for fish nurseries as well as habitat for critters that need the cover of cracks and kelp.

You can linger here protected, exploring all those nooks and crannies, even as the fierce gulf current picks up making the outer reef challenging. The shallow water makes it possible to spend a long time before needing to return to the ‘dry’.

Planet Kelp’s crowning glory though is that amazing canopy of yellow-green kelp. It’s just gorgeous making this place come alive with movement and colour.

Can’t wait to visit again soon.


#scuba #diving #fisheye #ocean #photography #aldinga #kelp #underwater #wideangle #southaustralia #aldingareef #silverdrummer

By all accounts it was one amazing day out on the ocean. Our first real day of summer and sea conditions that were nothing short of perfect.

Our plan had always been to venture South to the incredible Aldinga Reef system and dive that infamous drop-off if conditions permitted. Not only did the conditions permit, they invited!

Dive shots with 15m visibility to come later but I had to share this image of our tiny section of drop-off.

To give a sense of scale here the yellow green kelp is at 5 meters, the dark blue-green shadowy band behind us is around 12 meters deep while the pale white sand lies around 17 meters. The drop-off is not deep by many standards but perfect to create an immensely grand sense of scale underwater.

Every South Australian diver would be very aware of Aldinga Drop-off’s ‘infamous reputation’ so I will not go into the details but for my land locked friends this site has had two high profile Great White Shark attacks. One attack resulting sadly in a death and the other one very fortunate survivor.

I love this place and will be back soon, I just need to put in my order for these amazing conditions again.


#Aldinga #aldingareef #aldingadropoff #reef #sea #ocean #boat #scuba #diving #boating #southaustralia #aerial #drone

The remaining pylons of the old Port Willunga Jetty would have to be one of the most photographed iconic features of the greater Adelaide coastline.

‘Most photographed icon’ often translates into kitsch so I looked for a different perspective in those last rays of sunlight and found one.

You’d never even know there was once a jetty here except for those shadows of the past.


#portwillunga #jetty #beach #aerial #drone #coastline #shadows #goldenhour #sunset #southaustralia

Indistinct shapes move among indistinct forms.

The large forms wobble, snap back; wobble, snap back; wobble, snap back. As if they are trying to escape some invisible force holding them in place. They have been trying a very, very long time.

The smaller forms wobble, drift; wobble, drift; wobble, drift. The force that brings them here is less obvious, more fluid but still there. A force as ancient as the stones themselves.

Stony Point in winter relives this dream year after year, decade after decade, perhaps century after century and possibly unaccountably longer.

No one knows how long the Giant Cuttlefish have been coming here.

Let the dream last.


#abstract #water #motion #fluid #critters #cuttlefish #giantcuttlefish #marinelife #molluscs #pointlowly #sepiaapana #southaustralia #stonypoint #whyalla #aerial #drone

More often than not when you want to capture an image of some particular critter they have other ideas. That’s how it usually is with Shaw’s Cowfish, (Arcana aurita).

I have countless images of cowfish where as get my camera into position they turn adding yet more backsides to my collection.

I was expecting things to go the same way again on my last Rapid Bay night dive. Just to rub it in this little guy joined me almost as soon as I got in the water.

I tried an initial few shots and was immediately rewarded with more backsides. At that early snub I lost patience and proceeded on my dive to the jetty’s T-section. Several times this little guy kept swimming in front of me and I refused to make even an attempt! On I went.

On reaching the T-section I turned on my red lights, started hunting for photo opportunities and discovered I’d been followed all the way to the end. This time the little cowfish was happy to swim in circles in front of my camera and I finally captured that cute little face.

I am glad she had more patience than I did.


#Aracanaaurita #Cowfish #Critters #Fish #Jetty #Paintedboxfish #Rapidbay #Scuba #Diving #Shawscowfish #Southaustralia #Underwater #Photography #night #macro

I think Lady Beetles are my favourite of all the insects that inhabit my experience. For reasons I have never been about to fathom, every time a Lady Beetle flies into my world I smile and am happy.

For as long as I can remember I have been entertained and delighted by their clumsy antics. Often landing on and exploring the most absurd of things I have always been at the ready to rescue and repatriate them back out into the garden again at the slightest hist of distress.

Lilies too have a special place in my memory with their affinity for creeks and streams and their regal slenderness. Unlike the pretty flowers mum grew in her garden, these denizens of bracken fern spring watered gullies were mysterious, exotic and compelling to be near.

Here in a little Adelaide Hills creek where I was drawn by the lilies, I was delighted to capture two of my favourite things in the one moment.


#insects #critters #flowers #lilies #lilly #ladybug #ladybeetle #beetle #nature #adelaidehills

A thing of childhood nightmares lies before me, mouth agape. Like the edge of a precipice I am drawn inexorably towards that perilous abyss beyond. Every fibre of my being screams ‘don’t’ while body inches forward regardless.

After all this Doughboy Scallop is only a few centimetres across and I want a really good close up shot!

Scallop’s are actually quite interesting critters in more ways than just a favourite menu choice. You’d never find one of these on your plate though as the Doughboy Scallop forsakes a mobile life on the sea floor and settles instead for a permanent niche amid the sponges and other benthic life. Once a permanent home is found this guy will never move again unless his home is wrenched away by storm or other trauma.

As for those amazing blue eyes. They are a marvel and what always draws me inexorably towards another image!


#Animals #critters #Scuba #Diving #Rapidbay #Jetty #Life #Macro #Marine #Night #Ocean #Sea #Underwater #Doughboyscallop #Eyes #Mimachlamysasperrima #Nature #Scallop #Southaustralia #monster

Sorry I did not cover my mouth, said the gurnard perch, but we have no mask wearing restrictions down here! That spray of particles in the water is not Covid but the chewy bits of my last morsel!

I watched this little guy for some time, curious he was not at all perturbed by my up and personal presence. After all I was at least a thousand times bigger and wielding mini Suns to boot!

Soon it became obvious. My lights attracted small swimming crustaceans, like insects swarming to light on a warm summer night. My little gurnard friend had suddenly found for himself a mobile food truck and was settling in for a feed.

After any decent sized morsel was sucked into that gaping pout, out spat a shower of debris! Bless you I said as I packed up my truck and moved on rather than put on a mask of my own.


#Animals #Critters #Scuba #Diving #Rapidbay #Fish #Gurnardperch #Hunting #Jetty #Life #Macro #Marine #Night #Ocean #Photogenic #Portrait #Sea #Ugly #Underwater

The first public performance for any new band can be a nerve wrenching experience, or so I have been told, and told and told again during the lead up to last Sunday’s gig at Littlewood Agapanthus Farm.

Even for my amazingly talented wife, being her debut as lead singer, it took ‘anxious’ to a new level.

All those nerves however evaporated in an instant when these six accomplished musicians launched into the first song of their set and confidently introduced ‘Talk On Corners’ to us all.

For a solid 75 minutes they rocked and sang and entertained us. They got us tapping, they got us singing along and they might have even got some dancing, a fact I can neither confirm or deny.

Congratulations Sara Sizer, Nick Carroll, Jennifer Liston, Peter Franche, Christine Morphett and Robbie Lennox on an awesome debut performance.


#livemusic #performingarts #jenniferliston #talkoncorners #littlewoodagapanthusfarm #thecorrs

Diving under the old Rapid Bay Jetty is often just like catching up with old friends, mostly good fun but sometimes leading to unexpected and beautiful surprises.

Normally divers avoid currents, the biggest risk being swept off a dive plan and getting lost. Diving with a reference like a reef line or jetty pylons can restore safety in even moderate currents although you have to work for it. So it was last Thursday evening as I entered the water and was quickly carried by the current from the new jetty to the old where I began my dive – and that’s when the magic started.

The water was alive with light! There was so much light I didn’t even have to turn on my torch. From the sea floor to the surface every jetty pylon was flashing with fairy sparkles. It was like walking one Christmas evening through a suburban street where all the houses were competing for Christmas-light bragging rights.

That supernatural underwater light show was produced by large quantities of bio-luminescent algae from the nutrient-rich gulf waters being swept out with the ebbing tide. As they jostled and swirled around pylons and other structures they sparkled with tiny outbursts of light.

As I swam under the jetty northward every object twinkled. Every pylon shimmered with flashes of mostly white mingled with yellows and the occasional reds. Streams of fairy dust swirled off the pylons and streamed in the current.

Even my own progress through the water was showered in this magic – specks of light erupted all around my camera, flowed up my arms and swirled around my mask before disappearing behind me.

This was the most amazing display of marine bio-luminescence I have ever experienced. What a pity I was only prepared for macro photography and could not capture the spectacle. So it was I arrived at the jetty’s T-section, reluctantly turned on my torch and banished the fairy lights into the darkness.

So back to macro photography and old friends, this nudibranch (Ceratosoma brevicaudatum), a Rapid Bay regular, appeared right on queue for our regular catch-up.

Wow, what an amazing evening. One I will never forget.


#nudibranch #seaslugs #Ceratosomabrevicaudatum #bioluminescense #creatures #critters #scuba #diving #rapidbay #night #ocean #southaustralia #underwater

Anyone who as taken a flash photograph while it is snowing would know just how annoying those fuzzy white blurs of light can be.

It’s like the physical world is conspiring against you. You see your subject fine through the rain or snow yet in the captured image the main even is upstaged by a flurry of bright white fuzzies, back-scatter.

Back-scatter is a very real problem for those of us who dive in turbid water. It is caused by the light from our flash or strobes hitting tiny particles in the water closer to us than to our subject. The result is usually white fuzzy mess.

There are techniques used to minimise this effect such as moving strobes or flashes well off to the side or far back behind the camera lens. At the end of the day however, removing back-scatter usually becomes a tedious post production activity. A necessary evil of underwater photographic post-production.

I have removed most of the back-scatter in this squid image leaving just enough to remind that dive conditions, especially for photography, are never perfect.


#animals #cephlapods #chromataphores #creatures #critters #diving #edithburgh #juvenile #night #ocean #scuba #sea #sepioteuthisaustralis #southaustralia #squid #underwater

As beautiful as my last dive was I was a little disappointed that I was not able to find and photograph more critters.

What else could I photograph while on the last of my air? A selfie or something way more interesting? My dive watch!

So here it is buckled to an unsuspecting ascidian. Not so fishy.

And yes it really is just after midnight!


#Scuba #Diving #RapidBay #Jetty #Yema #Superman #bronze #watch #divewatch #Macro #Nightdive #Ocean #Underwater #Photography