Entries by Robert

There’s a lot to like about living in our little corner of the world. One reason amid many is how our setting sun draws my eyes westward at the end of every single day.

Looking to the west the sea extends to the horizon. The sun sets on a vista untainted by humanity. There is just ocean, sunset, twilight and then the darkness of night.

What could be more beautiful than going west.


#Adelaide #twilight #goldenhour #sunset #ocean #sea #seascape #aerial #grange

Surrounded by vineyards a rainbow has fallen on a fallow field lit by the sun through a rent in the clouds.
Misty rain falls elsewhere giving this Barossa landscape a dreamy feel.

It’s not a full rainbow, and the gold at its base is just stubble. The surrounding vineyards are the true gold of the Barossa.


#Rainbow #vineyards #marananga #barossavalley #wine #clouds #stormy #gold

There is time between sunset and nightfall where the light of day ebbs and darkness flows in from the eastern sky. The lights of the city begin popping into existence as people go about their last outside work for the day.

This transition is known as civil twilight and used to be the final opportunity for outdoor workers to complete their business in the failing light. Although this idea is somewhat meaningless today in our world filled with artificial light, it is still evident in the chorus of suburban lawnmowers that fire up at sunset on a Sunday night before the weekend’s light is gone.

From my vantage point the city has become dotted with light. I can see all of it – for a while at least. I see the homes, the beaches, the parks, the waterways, and the roads framed by Adelaide’s hilly backdrop, all painted in lights of white and yellow...

...at least until the end of civil twilight, when the day that was has fled west.


#Grange #jetty #Adelaide #aerial #panorama #stormy #southaustralia #photography #cityscape #twilight

Bird hides are a great place to observe wildlife behaviour but as a photographer you are stuck in a fixed location. Wearing full camouflage over a wetsuit and risking gear in the water is one option but not something you pop out and do during a lunch break.

This is my first opportunity to try out a telephoto lens mounted to a drone as an option for wildlife images and even though the image quality is not amazing from my 12MP ½ inch sensor, the results are still quite stunning.

This image was captured with the drone hovering just above the water quite some distance away from the swan’s nest. At a full frame equivalent focal length of 162mm, the fact that the camera is being held as stable as a tripod is nothing short of an engineering marvel and I can wait to explore this new found capability.

Back to that quip about popping out for a lunch break, well yes this was indeed just such a photo opportunity.


#Magazinecreek #blackswan #nest #swans #aerial #telephoto #wildlife #birds #waterbirds #nesting #southaustralia #photography

With over 300 hectares of fresh water ponds, the Barker Inlet Wetlands is one of the largest wetland constructions in Australia and I drive right through the middle of them nearly every day.

Being at road level most of my fellow commuters have no idea of the beauty around them. They see asphalt, concrete, trucks, bridges and cars. Some pull over and take the time to visit the various walks and bird hides scattered along the way but they are not so obvious. No one pulls over to explore when they are in the autopilot daze of habitual work life.

My pelican’s eye view paints a different, bigger picture. I get to see the scale of these watery gardens. I notice the way the expressway cuts off suburban crawl almost right up to the coast. I see the opportunities to explore at ground level normally hidden form view.

I am fortunate to enjoy the Barker Inlet Wetlands being part of my daily travel.


#Barkerinlet #wetlands #gillman #twilight #sunset #southaustralia #portadelaide #aerial #panorama

What a modern marvel is the ubiquitous ‘Smart Watch’ we see adorning the wrists of our friends, work colleagues or strangers in the street. More than ten years ago most of those same wrists were bare, ‘Smart Phones’ have long before taken care of our personal awareness of time.

I know what that spell is like. My own quantified self continuously measured, tracked, analysed and reported back to me and God knows who else thinks even my doctor did not know.

For a time I slept with my smart watch, eager for the morning when I would analyse my overnight heart-rate, my breathing, my blood oxygen levels. My watch would tell me the state of my ‘Personal Battery’ and make suggestions on when I should slow down and take it easy or when I was energised to take on the world, … and then the novelty faded and I was left wondering what all the fuss was about.

Funny though, I realised that I liked having the time on my wrist and not my phone. It was hard to remember a time before quartz crystals, stepper motors, micro-circuits and liquid crystal displays. I became curious about mainsprings, gear-trains, escapements and balance wheels. I began noticing the artistry, the geometry, the mechanical complexity and artisan-ship that has been patiently doing its own things for the last couple hundred years.

I discovered that you don’t need a battery or solar power to keep personal time, just a piece of time honoured watchmaking and a few turns of the crown each day;

… tic, tic, tic, tic, tic, tic.


#Watch #mechanical #omega #macro #calibre1869 #speedmaster

This image has been 122 years in the making, 113 of those quietly resting on the sea floor off the South Australian York Peninsula. Forty souls lost their lives that fateful night back in 1909, more than two thirds of her crew.

The SS Clan Ranald is one of my all time favourite South Australian dives. Even today her substantial bulk remains creating a significant underwater habitat for local marine life. Here in this image the still intact boiler looms to the left while the hull structure to the right rises more than six meters from the bottom.

Every time I dive here I am surprised and delighted by the marine life that have made her their home. Blue devils, dusky morwongs, queen snapper, long snout boarfish, harlequin fish, leatherjackets, bullseyes, magpie perch, silver drummer, yellowtail whiting, sweep, talma and the list goes on. It is not uncommon to see all of these on every dive.

The wreck of the SS Clan Ranald is an exciting and humbling dive. She takes a bit of boating prowess to reach her but worth the effort and I cherish every time I get to dive her.

#Scuba #diving #deep #wreck #clanranald #fisheye #edithburgh #southaustralia #ocean #sea #marinelife

Somewhere above that lifeline leads to a tiny little boat waiting in a vast ocean for us to return to light, to air and eventually to dry land again.

To divers this is a familiar experience. Follow the rope down, experience an ever so brief encounter with life on a wreck, a reef or just the bottom of the ocean. We do this believing that lifeline will be there at the end of our dive. Trusting it will bring us back up to the safety of our sanctuary on the surface.

This why I have so much respect for free divers. They have no lifeline. They go down with both the freedom of no constraint and the discipline to find their own way back. As a novice free diver I have never been very deep, perhaps 22 meters or a little over 70 feet, unlike some of my friends. Even at that depth I have the most profound sense of the aloneness of being down there, looking up into that blue-green nothing, and knowing that it will take personal effort to swim back up to the surface and that precious air we can’t do without for long. No lifeline.

Now as a diver I often feel lazy or guilty if I grab that lifeline to the surface. It’s like I’ve given up taking my own responsibility for adventuring into that realm. Most of the time I’ll simply follow it up, keeping a distance but never venturing too far. Just in case I really need that lifeline.


#scuba #diving #deep #dark #rope #hobart #wreck #ocean #sea #lifeline

Some South Australian scuba divers love doing it on the bottom! That’s where all the benthic action happens and is a treasure trove of sights and wonders most missed by pelagic divers.

Here on the bottom amid the sponges and ascidians a world of macro activity is constantly taking place. In this image a grazing nudibranch crests a sponge sporting tiny yellow communal ascidians. Meanwhile a little three fin lurks ready to photo-bomb.

While waiting for the perfect movement the little three fin must have done at least five circuits and was just not going to rest anywhere photogenic. Oh well, just capture the image and move on.

Here under Edithburg Jetty is one of South Australia’s most diverse, interesting, and beautiful benthic habitats where the action never ends.


#Edithburg #scuba #diving #nudibranch #ceratosomabrevicaudatum #benthic #critters #southaustralia #underwaterphotography

We were treated to an amazing laser light show, ‘Monochord’, while in Melbourne for the June long weekend.

Monochord is the work of laser and audio artist Robin Fox who states that there no deeper artistic messages here other than “it’s just really cool”. And yes I agree as it created an extraordinary Yarra River foreground to the lights and of Melbourne’s Southgate and the city skyline.

To bad we missed out on the audio!


#Monochord #melbourne #risingfestival #laser #yarrariver #southgate #birrarung #robinfox

Well maybe not the sky but a great deal of rain. It seems to be the theme of the month; rain, rain, rain and more rain keeping me ironically dry and out of the water.

I am missing the diving but not the pea soup that is our local coastal waters. It’s going to take a couple of weeks of clear weather of to clear it all up. When and if the sky stops falling.

In the mean time at least there are dramatic cloudscapes to enjoy. The silver lining.


#Clouds #sunburst #landscape #barossavalley #rain

A diver’s watch was once that life preserving instrument that made sure we did not spend too long underwater and risk a life threatening diving injury on our return to the surface.

Big names in watches like Blancpain, Rolex and Seiko led the way from the early 1950’s creating reliable ‘tool’ watches that divers could rely on with their lives. From the mid 1980’s the first dive computers started appearing on diver’s wrists or in their instrument consoles. Today it is rare to see a diver wearing a simple dive ‘tool’ watch. Even rarer for that watch to be completely mechanical and powered by a wind up main-spring just like those watches from the 1950’s.

Today I take my Yema diving with me for the nostalgic buzz of having that tiny mechanical heart ticking away the time of the world above.

And yes, I dive with computers as well. Two just to be safe!


#bronze #divewatch #scuba #diving #ocean #photography #portnoarlunga #yema #superman #underwater #watch

Actually it’s Autumn in Edithburgh when I captured this image but I won’t tell if you don’t.

We spend a bit of time every year in this idyllic seaside town and almost always there is a yacht or two moored in the bay.

I’d been debating with myself as to the merit of showing this image. Is it any better than any other idyllic scene? Perhaps not, but maybe there is a story here to share.

The boat here is a Bruce Roberts Mauritius 44 and it has open my eyes to the world of amateur boat building. Bruce Roberts-Goodson was an Australian yacht designer who made a business out of helping amateur constructors build the boat of their dreams with their own hands by designing boats and selling the plans that people like ourselves could build themselves.

The boat in this image, ‘Maluka’, is the labour of love of someone’s dream come true at the personal effort of their own hands. It’s the idea of a ‘maker’ taken to a new level and an idea I’d never considered. Now knowing this boat was not constructed in a factory and not sold as a luxury item has given me a new found respect and painted this image and it’s untold story in a new light.

Most likely I will never learn of Maluka’s past but at least I now know there is an extraordinary story hiding in plain sight in this idyllic image.


#Maluka #edithburgh #summer #southaustralia #ocean #aerial #bruceroberts #mauritius44

Here, several kilometres off the coast of the Fleurieu Peninsula lies the wreck of the ex-HMAS Hobart. It is a treasured gift to divers local and from elsewhere alike. She’s not that old but has made this spot hers as if she had always been here.

The Hobart “is big, really big. You just won't believe how vastly hugely mind-bogglingly big it is”, well perhaps I am exaggerating a little but could not help drop a favourite quote from a favourite book. With bigness, with expanses of endless blue, bottomless drop-offs, or massive vessels at rests end comes a deep and profound emotional connection with the surrounding space.

For many divers, this experience comes sooner or later as the aquatic world changes from novelty to respect and finally a deeply humbling sense of privilege and gratitude. A dive on the wreck of the ex-HMAS Hobart gives an inkling. Year’s of diving grows this into something beautiful until one day you find yourself 25 meters down, in the murky low light of the vessel’s midships and simply know what being happy in the moment is really like.

I can’t speak for Jess or Andy above me but in this moment I could not have been happier.


#Ex-hmashobart #wreck #shipwreck #scuba #diving #jess #andy #blackandwhite #Ocean #deep #murky #southaustralia #wirrina

Back in Autumn before the winter rains settled in and the sun was still shining, Andy and I took the boat down to dive the beautiful but infamous Aldinga Reef.

It was one of those special flat calm days when the universe seems to just say, enjoy. Schools of trevally followed us around the drop-off. Blue-throat wrasse abounded amongst the deep ledges. The diversity of fish variety was incredible and we just had the best day out on the ocean.

Months on now, in the midst of what seems to be the dreariest Adelaide winter I can remember in ages, I find myself hankering for a few days of slight seas and sunshine coinciding with a weekend. Adelaide gets periods of beautiful sunny, calm and cold winter days so I will just have to be patient.

Hopefully the passing of the solstice will herald some good weather again and get me back out into the ocean.


#Trevally #pelagic #aldinga #reef #dropoff #ocean #southaustralia #underwater #scuba #diving

Here’s a follow up to my last image that may interest a few of my my technically inclined friends.

Not long after I received this stopwatch I watched it stop! And it stayed stopped. I'd peeked inside by opening the cashback a few times to admire that vintage Valjoux 330 movement but now it was time to start poking around in there.
I quickly found that the gear train had jammed somewhere between the mainspring and the escapement so decided to tackle this one myself.

To cut a long story short this is the very first movement I've completely disassembled and rebuilt successfully and has since not missed a beat.


#rotary #stopwatch #valjoux #valjoux330 #swiss #time #clocks #chronograph #gears

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