Robert’s Ramblings

The Marrakech Medina was insane. A madding chaotic mix of tradition, tourism, markets, hawking and seeming managed confusion.
Initially I found my senses quite overwhelmed. I wanted to capture everything but everything was too big, too fast, too busy, too smelly and too colourful and it took spending time with a guide to begin making any sense of it all.
After a while it became clear this was a place of protocols and rules, a place of bending rules when they needed bending and being told one one thing while observing another. There was nothing black and white here! When asked about these indiscretions of form our guide Abdul simply laughed and said, “and that’s why we love Morocco”.
Just like the amazing colours of the spices in the markets of Tinsmith Square, black and white will never do.


#Spice #markets #colour #morocco #marrakech #travel #food

3 weeks ago I was in Morocco and experienced first hand the devastating earthquake that took thousands of lives. Since returning I have found it difficult to work on my images and uncomfortable to talk about my trip. This is my first posted image.

A birds eye view of this Marrakech riad’s courtyard reveals a colourful living space completely open to the sky above. What happens when it rains I asked? It gets wet was the answer! Who would have thought. 😉

I would so love to see this space at night lit by a full moon. Perhaps the day, I dream of returning.

#courtyard #fisheye #marrakech #morocco #riad #travel #wideangle

I captured this image on my way home yesterday during the last minutes of civil twilight where the lingering colours of sunset blend with the emerging lights of Adelaide’s north-western suburbs.

Here, the northern terminus of South Road ends in a spectacular set of loops feeding the Salisbury Highway to the east, the Port River Expressway to the west, and the Northern Expressway in the direction you might have already guessed.

Like riding some fantastic Scalextric set I find myself regularly enjoying those sweeping curves at speed (under the limit of course) and enjoying the surrounding landscape.

I really like the integration into the Gilman, Wingfield and Magazine Creek wetlands. I wonder though if the effort to restore those natural resources would have taken place if not for a major infrastructure project bringing them them to attention.

Yet again I am so fortunate to make more of my daily commute than just another drive home from the office.


#aerial #expressway #roads #twilight #sunset #wingfield #gilman #commute #scalextric #welands #adelaide #southaustralia

Every diver who has spent any time under the Rapid Bay Jetty’s ‘T-Section’, or lately as I’ve heard it called, ‘The Aquarium’, will recognise this spot.

And almost always perched at the top if this broken piece of pylon will be a magpie perch. You could be forgiven thinking it’s the same magpie perch every time.

This spot is a cleaning station and magpie perch wait their turn to sit here and have tiny little wrasse cleaner fish scour their bodies for parasites. The tiny ones even swim in via the mouth and out via the gills cleaning anything inside as well.

When the jobs done this guy will swim off only to be replaced with the next in line. When another magpie will be perched.


#Pseudogoniistiusnigripes #magpieperch #rapidbay #jetty #southaustralia #scuba #diving #sealife #critters

Lady in red, she’s dancing with me beneath the waves, on the dance floor of the sea.

Our giant cuttlefish are beautiful, gentle and curious creatures. When diving with them you never know how an encounter will go. Sometimes they retreat under a ledge or into some hideaway. Sometimes they linger just out of reach. Sometimes you will be completely ignored and other times they will play and interact in the most amazing of ways.

I have had them try to pull off my mask, or breath through my regulator. On one occasion I am convinced I was challenged to dual of rock-paper-scissors. The cuttlefish won!

On this dive in the shadow of Rapid Bay Jetty, this lady in red just wanted to dance with me.


#Sepiaapama #giantcuttlefish #cuttlefish #mollusc #rapidbay #jetty #southaustralia #scuba #diving #sealife #critters

The unmistakable effect of ‘shallow depth of field’ can bring the most mundane scene into dramatic relief.

Looking around at the world, our eyes and our brains remove this effect and in our minds we imagine we see everything in sharp detail. Nothing could be further from reality.

The uncomplicated view of a camera and lens, laying in the grass with daisies, brings to life the beauty and the drama of even the simplest scene.


#Daisies #heather #grass #nature #bokeh #depthoffield #dof

This gal does not miss a trick. She’s on to me.

She knows I am likely to dislodge a rock accidentally with my fin. Or perhaps I’ll peer under a bit of fallen debris. Either event might deliver some poor morsel into view and unwittingly I’ll have delivered dinner.

Wavy grubfish are masters of this game and divers attract their attention like a grumbling stomachs to a free lunch.

This gal’s not missing a trick and I’m sure she’ll be sated by the time I move on.


#critters #fish #macro #marinelife #parapercishaackei #jetty #edithburgh #southaustralia #wavygrubfish #scuba #diving #southaustralia

Twenty meters down colours are not what you’d think they might be. Reds are the first to leave followed by orange, then yellow and finally green.

The world down here amid the broken bones of the Clan Ranald wreck is blue and grey and shadow. A fantastic monochrome world of detail, texture and landscape.

Shine a bright light on coral or sponge or on curious school of bullseyes and moments of red, orange, yellow and green remind that there is so much colour down here, just hidden.

Take out even the blue and this imposing gorganian coral is just as beautiful in monochrome as the deep red it hides from the world.


#Balckandwhite #clanranald #wreck #scuba #diving #southaustralia #bullseyes #diver #gorgonia #coral #monochrome

Noticing a run of salmon cruising through the upper realm of the pylon forest of Rapid Bay Jetty I gently rose into their midst.

This stunning school cruised through and around me before disappearing into the open water gloom. A little patience paid off and they came back through again for a second run.

Then I noticed the impostor, the masked bandit amid the crowd. Of all places, here under the waves I could hear that childhood Sesame Street song, ‘One of These Things’.

To be fair that solitary kingfish swam like the salmon, was shaped like the salmon and probably believed itself to be a salmon. Who am I to judge if a kingfish chooses to be identified as a salmon.

Just another amazing experience under Rapid Bay Jetty.


#Rapidbay #jetty #scuba #diving #southaustralia #pylons #salmon #kingfish #wideangle

At first I thought I had come across a couple of dropped cuff links on the ocean floor. Then I thought, what an amazing pair of earrings.

I am still not sure what they are and why there are two of them anchored to their sea bed like lovers betrothed for life. I hope they get along well together!

If I were to guess they look like some species of anemone and perhaps this is some dormant time between feeding or other activities.

Regardless, what amazing inspiration for some designer to create an awesome set of cuff links or a stunning set of earrings.


#edithburgh #jetty #scuba #diving #southaustralia #benthic #anemone #critters #macro