Entries by Robert

A few weeks ago we visited the Jam Factory, in Seppeltsfield, and took our time enjoying the work of the various artists and craftspeople being exhibited.

Time and time again I am drawn to glass. I love the way light plays on and through the medium.

Unlike the colours of a painting or sculpture I love the way colours in glass seem to be projected out from somewhere magical place inside.

These hand blown bottles, titled ‘Transition’ by Australian artist Eileen Gordon, were presented so beautifully I felt I had to at least try and capture some of that magic.

Sadly you had to be there!

#Jamfactory #seppeltsfield #art #glassware #glassblowing #eileengordon #gordonstudio #craft #barossavalley #bottles

How would you feel if a face like this emerged from the darkness late into the evening where a gathering had come together to celebrate a ritual rite of passage?

Actually we were all pretty impressed by this amazing cake as we celebrated Rachael’s 21st birthday.

Happy birthday Rachael!

#Dragon #icing #birthdaycake #cake #birthday #medieval #creature

Just an hour’s drive south of Adelaide is a dive location which evokes adventure, mystery, wonder, danger and awe!

Arguably the location of Australia’s most famous shark attack survived by Rodney Fox back in 1963 and the subsequent fatality of Jonathon Lee in 1991.

I have dived here many times and just a little anxious respect precedes each dive. However the rewarding moments I have had exploring this incredible reef structure will always be worth it and are experiences I treasure.

So it was with that same anxious respect we headed down to ‘The Dropoff’ a few weeks ago. After a while motoring back and forth over the reef precipice we finally chose to anchor on top in 6m of water allowing us to both get to the bottom quickly and to shape our dive profile for safety.

Wow, wow, wow! Bluethroat Wrasse and Herring Cale everywhere as well as Queen Snapper, Blue Devils, Longsnout Boarfish and Port Jackson sharks. Gorgornian corals adorned ledges and swim-throughs while huge sponges at 20m dwarfed the ones normally encountered on other local dive sites. Lush dense kelp smothered the entire top of the reef.

At one point in our dive the visibility opened out to more than 12m and the sight from the sand at 20m of the reef reaching up to near the surface face was breathtaking.

We spent over an hour underwater before retreating to the sanctuary of our little boat. Full of exhilaration from this incredible dive I’ll still admit to being just a little relieved being back in the bot again!

#Aldinga #aldingadropoff #scuba #diving #southaustralia #seascape #gorgonian #coral #ocean

Finally the days are getting long enough for me to capture some of the images on my daily commute.

Through winter I drive home in the dark. And well mornings, they’re too focused on other things for me to get my head into it. So now I have light a time on my side my travel home has become so much more enjoyable.

Here’s just one of my favourite spots, the Gilman Wetland windmills.

#Gilman #GlimanWetlands #goldenhour #landscape #silhouette #sunset #wetlands #windmill

That ‘pot of gold at the end of the rainbow’ might just be more than a myth in this freshly watered desert landscape.

The rain now over, snippets of blue appearing in the north and then a beautiful rainbow as the weather’s parting gesture.

It would all be dry again soon so we took note where that rainbow ended so we could head off in search of that gold.

#southaustralia #bush #outback #camping #rain #flood #drought #landscape #flindersranges #rainbow

“I’ve been coming up here most weekends for the last 8 years”, he said, “and I’ve never ever seen any water in these creeks!”.

What are the chances, we all thought? The one weekend we chose to camp out here in the rugged outback east of the Flinders Ranges is the one where 8 years of drought came to an end with 70mm of rain in less than 24 hours.

Our tents got flattened in the strong wind, we were woken at 4am to the roar of a wall of water barrelling down the main creek while another stream flowing under my tent turned it into a water-bed. After a morning spent attempting to dry everything the afternoon brought tent flattening winds again followed by a burst of torrential rain and hail. Another wall of water came down the creak again and hour or so later.

Not being fully prepared, there were some miserable moments in those 24 hours but in hindsight I feel very privileged to have been there and so grateful to witness such a life giving event.

#southaustralia #bush #outback #camping #rain #flood #drought #landscape #flindersranges

The MV Seawolf lies in 20 meters of water just off the South Australian coastal town of Port Noarlunga; its resting place for the past 18 years.

I love the ironic twist of fate that this Japanese fishing trawler has become a home for local reef fish, a host of other marine life and an underwater haven for divers to explore.

Last weekend’s conditions were still pretty gloomy following the recent heavy rains and runoff but the flat sea, blue sky and slack tide made for a sensational diving adventure all the same. Thank you Andy and Jess for being my buddies for this one.

The Noarlunga artificial reef system including its two wrecks is a vibrant dive site full of aquatic life and surprises. It’s worth the effort to get out there.

#Wreck #scuba #diving #seawolf #noarlunga #southaustralia #blackandwhite #underwater #oceanscape #ship #sunk #artificialreef

From gentle white sand through to dark sinister waves. It would seem the life of the beach captured in a single image.

What’s missing are the people, the runners, the bathers and the sun lovers. I don’t blame them. It’s cold, its winter, and the wind is blowing a chilly gale.

Perhaps life is a beach but never in a single moment.

#beach #waves #winter #windswept #grange

There’s something not quite right about Whyalla’s amazing new jetty. There’s no one on it!

To be fair it’s pretty new, having been completed in the midst of COVID-19 lock down. Apparently the council is concerned about social distancing but after a dinner evening at Whyalla’s Westland Hotel I am not convinced that social distancing is the issue.

So what’s really going on? There are no ladders, and no safe way to assist anyone who might fall into the water!

Local community members are concerned and on raising the issue have been told by the Whyalla City Council that a safety ladder would encourage bad behaviour like jetty jumping! That’s like saying we wont install airbags in cars because it might encourage reckless driving.

I’ll speculate that someone just forgot and is now red faced making excuses while it remains closed until the safety issues have been resolved one way or another.

#whyalla #jetty #sunset #goldenhour #safety #ladders #southaustralia

Far up into South Australia’s Spencer Gulf, in the rocky shallows of Stony Point near Whyalla, is a very special place where once a year, in the depths of winter, our Giant Cuttlefish congregate to mate and renew.

The ongoing struggle between fishers demanding their right to catch and the divers, the snorkellers and environmentalists, ebbs and flows with the seasons. In recent years the plans for a local desalination plant have been derailed though the ever present spillage risk of the Port Bonython Fuels facility on the Point Lowly peninsula remains.

This place is special because the cuttlefish have chosen a location so shallow and so accessible that even snorkellers (as long as you are not afraid of the cold) can enjoy the mating rituals, the male melee brawls, the shapeshifting subterfuge and their absolute aquatic grace.

This, our first visit back here in nearly fifteen years, shared with a couple of life long friends, was a wonderful chance to renew my fascination and awe of these beautiful and intelligent creatures.

#cuttlefish #sepiaapana #molluscs #critters #wideangle #stonypoint #whyalla #pointlowly #scuba #diving #southaustralia #marinelife #giantcuttlefish #sunburst

Head out onto the seagrass beds on a Port Noarlunga Night dive and there will be crabs everywhere.

At first they will hold their ground, threaten with claws and appear stalwartly menacing.

Get a little closer and they will scurry away to stand their ground again from a safer distance.

The challenge is not one of getting chomped but simply getting close enough for a photo.

#crabs #critters #macro #portnoarlunga #reef #scuba #diving #southaustralia #crustaceans #marinelife

If I had to choose two words for the wavy grubfish they would be ‘inquisitive’ and ‘opportunistic’.

Move a bit of weed to one side and out will come a wavy grubfish to see if you have dislodged some tiny morsel.

Lift a rock to carefully peer underneath and quick as a flash a wavy grubfish will be there to investigate with you.

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

Simply rest motionless on the bottom for a minute or two and you will soon find at least one or two coming to check you out.

#WavyGrubfish #Parapercishaackei #critters #macro #seacliff #reef #scuba #diving #southaustralia #fish #marinelife

The ocean calls and calls and calls.

It fills our dreams,
it nurtures our souls,
it pushes busy elsewhere,
it draws the world of nature close.

Where ever we go or choose to live the ocean will never be far away.

… always calling.

#Goldenhour #sunset #ocean #silhouette #seascape #halletcove #southaustralia #aerial #drone #coastal

Sunday’s dive on Seacliff Reef had some of the best visibility I have seen here in our local waters for months. There was almost no need for the sounder as the bottom was perfectly clear 12 meters down beneath the boat.

I wished I’d brought a wide angle setup for this dive as the underwater landscape across the reef was just wonderful with schooling old wives, leatherjackets, dusky morwongs and silver drummer, to name just a few of the usual suspects.

Here atop a sea sponge outcrop, a community of blue throat ascidians (Clavelina australis) with mouths agape relish in the clean cold waters of the incoming tide.

They almost look like they are singing.

#Bluethroatascidians #Clavelinaaustralis #ascidian #critters #macro #seacliff #reef #scuba #diving #southaustralia #sessile #benthic #marinelife

How do you describe the moon rising above the mangrove swamps of Garden Island behind the silhouette of the Torrens Island transmission towers?

A ‘3M’ moment perhaps!

Or perhaps just the three things I captured in the frame.

#Moon #pylon #mangroves #silhouette #evening #moonrise #fullmoon

I recently spotted a marketing slogan for Adelaide that went something like ‘where the sun sets on the sea’. Funny how I never think of it any other way.

I find it oddly disturbing anywhere else to experience an ocean sunrise or worse, a sunset that can't quite make up it’s mine who’s side it’s on.

The evening golden hour and Grange Jetty, with its sun setting on the sea, feels the way it should be.

#Sunset #goldenhour #grange #jetty #grangejetty #silhouette #winter #seascape #ocean #southaustralia #aerial #drone

It might 12 degrees in the water but winter diving in South Australia is worth a little chilly inconvenience.

Today we headed out to the wreck of ‘The South Australian’, a.k.a ‘The Dredge’ and pretty much had the wreck all to ourselves.

Visibility was very good at 10 meters, as it often is in winter, giving a great sense of presence in seeing so much of the wreck at once.

My mission for this dive was to pay attention to the sessile marine life attached all over the decaying structure. My overwhelming experience was colour, colour, colour! So much beautiful marine life to take in that’s not even swimming!

One of the many highlights was this spectacular Western Longspined Sea Urchin on top of the deck on our way back to commence our ascent. It amazing how a little critter like this can completely take you mind of the cold. At least for a few moments!

#seaurchin #thedredge #thesouthaustralian #scuba #diving #sessile #critters #centrostephanustenuispinus

At least once in the meanderings of experimental imaging, a photographer will stand or even lay in the middle of a train line to experience one of the most cliched forms of visual perspective, vanishing tracks.

The more adventurous might even have waited for an oncoming train to provide both context and action. The sensible ones will have used a tripod and a radio controlled shutter release just to be on the safe side.

I’ve visualised this shot for nearly 8 years from when construction of the Onkaparinga Valley Bridge construction commenced. As cliched as it is, I never thought it would ever be realised.

#Viaduct #onkaparinga #river #bridge #trains #tracks #railway #perspective #vanishing #electric #aerial #drone

Tidal creek mangroves cast elongated shadows across the low salty marsh of Garden Island in the last light of the day.

These salty rivulets, now full during one of the highest tides of the season, will in a short time begin draining back out to sea.

#aerial #goldenhour #landscape #mangroves #marshes #nature #pristine #salt-marsh #southaustralia #torrens #torrensisland

It’s cold in the water down down here but there is no shortage of colour on the hull of the Seawolf and every reason to keep on diving through the South Australian winter.

One thing the cold does is to keep our dives quite short. Not long after reaching the sand and beginning the swim around the hull I’m already starting to check my time. Not checking my time in case I’ve been down too long but hoping I’ve been down longer than I think.

The cold aside. Cold water is full of life and the colours on our wrecks and reefs are just amazing.

#ascidians #diving #portnoarlunga #scuba #seascape #Seawolf #shipwreck #sponges #wreck

I wonder the leagues of ocean she’s traversed.
I wonder the storms she’s braved.
I wonder the lives transformed through her employ and the goods she’s delivered.
I wonder the crews she’s kept safe at sea.
I wonder if she still sails in dreams.

#santiago #shipwreck #southaustralia #dolphinsanctuary #Gardenisland #highkey #wreck

There was a big tide this evening and I was eager to see just how much of Garden Island became submerged.

From my limited vantage it was really hard to tell. If I were to offer a guess I’d say two thirds of the swampy landmass was underwater.

Garden Island continues to intrigue, delight and inspire me. So beautiful and so wild a place so close to home is like a secret garden oblivious to its industrial boundary of shipping wharfs, power stations and shipyards.

So inviting was the view of this garden in flood that I’m inspired to paddle in here in a kayak and to experience this close up.

#Gardenisland #mangroves #sunset #goldenhour #landscape #outerharbour #southaustralia

The colours on the sunken hull of the Seawolf off of Port Noarlunga are are just stunning. But at 15-20 meters down without bringing your own light you might be disappointed in the almost monochrome blue green landscape.

In the light of my strobes or a super bright torch you’ll see reds, and purples, and oranges, and yellows. Like a colourful spring garden tended by an aquatic gardener.

#Seawolf #portnoarlunga #wreck #shipwreck #ascidians #sponges #seascape #scuba #diving

Is there such a thing as being lucky? I’ve heard from seasoned boaties that every now and then a sea turtle, normally a tropical creature, finds its way down to the southern coastline of Australia.

I’ve listened to these stories over all my diving years with a grain of salt and a handful of scepticism; content to imagine, maybe, but something I never expected to see.

Today, out on a local Adelaide waters dive site in about 20m of water, Andy and I rounded the stern of the wreck and there he or she was. In my 30 years of diving in South Australia, including hundreds of wreck dives, the last thing I ever expected to see was a hawksbill sea turtle.

Was this really our lucky day, year or decade? or just a happy coincidence of time, effort and persistence?

I feel so privileged to have seen a sea turtle while diving in South Australia – an experience I will never forget.

#hawksbill #turtle #seaturtle #rare #SouthAustralia #scuba #diving #underwater #photography #wreckdive #wreck

Here’s another biscuit star from Sunday’s dive at Rapid Bay.

This little guy was as obvious as a red giant in a dark sky. Its bright orange stood out from the edge of my vision only to become so much more vivid in the white light of my strobe.

Not much colour variation here, just and lots and lots of orange!

#Rapidbay #starfish #seastar #critters #biscuitstar #SouthAustralia #scuba #diving #underwater #photography

The number of and variety of seastars we saw at Rapid Bay on Sunday was just wonderful. The biscuit stars alone were both numerous and incredibly varied in their colours and patterns.

This little biscuit star perched atop an old pylon stump could not have found a better place to get its portrait taken while munching on lunch.

#Rapidbay #starfish #seastar #critters #biscuitstar #SouthAustralia #scuba #diving #underwater #photography

After a week of cold, overcast skies and rain the sun finally came out and made our trip to Rapid Bay Jetty to dive with Jess and Andy all the more delightful.

The visibility was pretty good in that milky non-committal way that we all know and love about Rapid Bay. Here rough weather will leave gypsum particulates suspended for days making the visibility look tantalisingly good from the shore only to discover the real state once in the water.

Still, four meters of visibility is not bad and was plenty good enough to enjoy the dive and all the amazing fish and critters we encountered.

I’d captured a few shots of ‘Shaw’s Cowfish’ before Jess unexpectedly rounded the pylon so, photo bombed or not, I decided to go with this one.

#Rapidbay #jetty #shawscowfish #fish #critters #cowfish #SouthAustralia #scuba #diving #underwater #photography #Aracanaaurita #paintedboxfish

Her life was so short, not even ten years since her timber hull and six proud masts came together in the shipyards of Portland, Oregon, USA.

She never fell victim to tide nor reef nor storm and in 1929 dutifully delivered her last cargo of oregon pine to South Australia.

She had fallen victim to the great depression. The owners had ran out of money and her captain and crew were forced to abandon this once proud 80 meter schooner in the docks of Port Adelaide.

Eventually the US consul repatriated the crew and the Dorothy H. Sterling was towed away to rot in the ship’s graveyard of Garden Island.

#SouthAustralia #shipsgraveyard #gardenisland #DorothyHSterling #shipwreck #aerial #drone

While my dive buddy was busy wrestling her GoPro back from an eleven armed seastar this little guy was swimming around her content it was hiding in plain sight. It was being as cute as it was being ridiculous.

On a typical southern coastline dive you will often come across a pygmy leatherjacket hiding next to a stalk of kelp or algae. For while it will sit there looking nervous but pretty soon it will slowly edge its way around to the other side.

In its quest to remain hidden the pygmy leatherjacket will just keep on circling its stalk of kelp, or some conveniently distracted dive buddy.

#SouthernPygmyLeatherjacket #PygmyLeatherjacket #Leatherjacket #fish #scuba #diving #critters #southaustralia #portnoarlunga #night #underwater #photography

Just off of Grange beach is a big cage protecting the tidal outflow from West Lakes. It’s also the evening’s roost for a gathering of Australian pied cormorants.

I’ve wanted to capture them here in their little sanctuary for quite a while now. Finally the sea and the sunset were on my side.

#Cormorant #piedcormorant #seabirds #birds #waterfowl #shags #Sunset #goldenhour #sea #ocean #grange #aerial #drone #twilight