Being in a certain fiftyish age group, I’ve started asking the big questions; Where do we come from? How did I get into photography? What’s for dinner? And with both parents passed on, it’s old family photos that help fill in some of these gaps. Dad was a keen photographer and so our family is well documented in that regard. My earliest memories of a family camera are the type where at the press of a button the lens would unfold on a concertina bellows from the camera body. The pleats of that bellows were just crying out to be poked inward by a pudgy digit. So I did. Strangely I cannot remember the camera in the photo below. The view-finder is on top and light enters the upper lens (the one I am NOT covering with my fingers) strikes a mirror and is reflected upward to form an image on a ground-glass panel. You can see that some light has continued on to pool on my forehead. What I seem to be doing, by covering each lens in turn, is working out which hole at the front is ‘making’ the image that I can see in the view finder. And I like to think that Dad both saw the dancing highlights on my face AND heard the whirring of tiny cogs in my head when he made this picture.
Bob’s a Coolum personality, inventor, musician & surfer who in a very practical way makes a real difference to our coastal water quality. Bob designs, builds and maintains efficient low cost stormwater filtration devices. A single unit intercepting runoff from a hotel carpark will prevent many kilograms of trash and hydrocarbons each month from entering waterways such as Coolum’s Stumer’s Creek.
I met Chris and pooch this morning. The Stumer’s lagoon had broken through and was flowing to the sea so we hung out down at the water’s edge where the wet sand reflected the dawn colours.
It’s already noticeable that the sun is rising that little bit earlier each day. Which means I will also have to be rising steadily earlier each time I want to see the sunrise. 1st Aug – 0630. 1st Dec – 0445! OMG 8-o
Today’s photo is not from the vault. It was actually taken this morning at Stumer’s Creek, fast becoming my favourite location. It is popular with walkers and their dogs (joggers don’t stop for a photo), the lagoon beautifully mirrors the colours in the sky and I can set up within 20m of my car.
It was gratifying to see The SC Daily and Coolum News pick up on my dawn portrait story. Of course I should have been up and at ’em soon after publication to maintain the momentum, but had 2 late nights playing with my band The Remedy. So rising at 5:30 was not going to happen. But I will be at Stumer’s Creek early Monday morning.
Stumer’s…doggie heaven! It’s a great spot to engage people and their pets. The pooches usually come and break the ice first. And if they bolt past, there’s always the squeaky toy!
…due to equipment failure yesterday. A lousy wire! So lets dip into the archive again. This was taken at Stumer’s Creek 11 days ago. Shortly thereafter, I bought myself a squeaky toy to get the pooches to look at the camera. Their owners seem to like it too!
OK – I didn’t actually make it down to the beach this morning, so this one is from a few weeks ago. But it is historic in being the first dawn portrait I made. It helped that Greg & Steve are friends and were nice enough to humour my request.
As a change of pace from shooting property I’ve been getting onto the local beaches before sunrise and offering other early birds a complimentary dawn portrait. Really, I’m on the beach for much the same reason as other folk – it’s a spectacular time of day! But I also get to practise my craft and meet people. Look for the bloke with the camera and come and say “G’day”.
