Just got back from a road trip to the Flinders Ranges, Wilpena Pound, Arkaroola and Marree in the north of South Australia.

I hadn’t been up that way before and I was very pleasantly surprised by the variation in the landscape, the vegetation, the colours and the light, much much more interesting than I was expecting. I might not have to go to Iceland for the wilderness experience after all.

Stayed at Rawnsley Park Station, Blinman, Arkaroola, Marree and the Wilpena Pound centre, even had lunch at the William Creek pub.

Arkaroola was a highlight, the landscape, colours and history makes this a great place to visit. And a return visit is definitely going to happen.

But, after spending 13 days in the outback, I still don’t get this 4WD thing. The beasts were everywhere, but I don’t understand why. You can go anywhere you want in a normal car. And a Cessna.

A little while ago I produced my first book and ebook via MagCloud. The topic was the wonderful churches I saw and photographed while in Iceland. These buildings are simple, beautiful and usually in the most amazing places.

I was very pleased to receive a marvelous review of my work from the excellent (and funny) French photographer and fellow Iceland tragic, Anthony Le Bourlier. Read it here: When Australians Goes to Stykkisholmur.

You can follow Anthony on Twitter: @LeBourlier.

And my book and or PDF download is available here:

Churches of Iceland

Another poem by Russell Boyle, based on one of my images.

Birds over a Lake

The original image is here.

The multi-talented Russell Boyle, poet and good friend, had a response to my image of a man walking up Duckboard Place in Melbourne. (The image is in the last post)

Duckboard Place

Steady pace up
Duckboard Place
Toward the sun
Grey pencils run
Buildings glare
Lenses flare
Light, time
and moment

(c) 2011 Russell Boyle

Visit Russell’s website.

One of my early photographic heroes was Melbourne photographer Mark Strizic. Mark documented the changing face of Melbourne in the 1950s and 1960s as it moved from ‘Marvelous to Modern’ A number of these images were eventually collected into a book.

Mark’s graphic black and white photos and his technique of shooting toward the sun inspired my love of urban landscapes. Many times over the years I have tried and failed to produce that strong, contrasty, graphic look. It is a hard technique to pull off. Buildings create glare, lenses create flare and aiming any where near the angle of the sun blows out highlights and gives you a dynamic range the camera just shrieks at.

Last week, in Duckboard Place, Melbourne, I produced my best attempt at this yet. Hey Mark, I’m still trying.

Walking up Duckboard Place

Larger at ipernity.

Australia has been experiencing the worst floods on record and this has been occurring over vast areas and in several states.

By far the worst hit has been Queensland where whole towns have been washed away and large areas of the capital city of Brisbane have been metres under water. The media has done a good job of reporting on these catastrophic events but…

Here in my state of Victoria we are now experiencing serious flooding in a number of country districts. A number of country towns are under water and others have been evacuated. Just about all roads to the north and west of Melbourne are cut, severely restricting movement and the ability of help to get to where it is needed.

The local media (such as it is) is not doing much of a job reporting on these issues. Most of our media is nationally owned and is still concentrating on the Queensland disaster. It is difficult to find out where floods are rising, where waters are falling and what roads are open and which ones are closed.

News sources are failing badly here, except one. By far the best source of local flood and traffic information is the Victoria Police twitter feed (VictoriaPolice). Excellent work guys!

For many years I have been doing my own work under the name of my old company; Interface Publications Pty Ltd.

But the time has come to move on. I am now producing photography and writing under my own name.

I will leave the history of Interface Publications on the site for those ageing computer tragics who still remember. And because I am proud of what we achieved in those early days of computing before it all got easy.

And in memory of Tim Hartnell, a close friend who is still missed.

We went to Iceland.

I drove 3700 kilometres and saw; fjords, waterfalls, sheep, mountains, beaches, sheep, turf-covered houses, big four-wheel drives, ducks, sheep, skuas, fulmars, sheep, horses, sheep, volcanoes, waterfalls, sheep, waterfalls, sheep, sheep, and swans. And puffins.

We met many charming people who wanted to tell us about Iceland and wanted to know about Australia. It is a fantastic place.

Did I mention the puffins?

Puffin

I have been conducting a survey of all the email that comes to my private email address. As a result, I have reached the conclusion that:

97% of the world’s manufacturing economy consists of Viagra and fake watches.

82% of the world’s money is locked up in forgotten bank accounts owned by dead people.

99.9% of the women in the world who want to get married are Russian.

Take a look at Melbourne from the air. And have a bit of a wander about.

Melbourne from the Air