In June I got away on the first long road trip for several years. This one took me into the depths of South Australia.
The first image I took was of a window and fence opposite my motel in Murray Bridge. The setting sun added a level of light and colour that lasted only for a few minutes.
I have been fortunate to get out on a couple of short road trips recently. One was to the wheatlands area in north western Victoria. I visited my favourite wheat silos at Lah.
This image even made it into Explore on Flickr.
While in Samakand, we visited Registan Square at sunset to watch the lights come on. This is a spectacular sight.
Recently I was fortunate enough to spend a few days in Uzbekistan. One of the major sites is Registan Square in Samarkand. The square is open on one side and flanked by Madrasah buildings on the other three. The oldest Madrasah dates to 1417.
We first visited the square at sunset. There were quite a few people there and the sunset was far from spectacular, though there was a short period of twilight before the flood lights came on.
We returned early next morning for the early light. However it had been raining and the square was deserted, except for a cleaning woman sweeping up the leaves on the wet pavement.
During our stay in Longyearbyen, Svalbard, we took a boat trip to the almost abandoned Russian mining town, Pyramiden, on the island of Spitsbergen.
The boat was met by a Russian guide who took us on a walking tour of the town and let us into a few of the buildings.
The town was originally established to mine coal and provided an ‘ideal’ lifestyle for the townspeople far from home, many came from Siberia to work.
The Russian company still maintains the small airport (helicopters only) and the hotel so that they can maintain a presence on the island under the terms of the Svalbard Treaty.
We finished the tour in the hotel and had a shot of Vodka in the most northern bar in the world.
Expedition leader Martin knocked on our cabin door just after 3.00 am.
“Polar Bear, we have a Polar Bear”.
A mad scramble followed, thermals, (how many layers?), waterproofs, boots, gloves and a woolly beanie.
Grab the camera gear and rush up to the deck to join 10 other photographers, all trying to catch sight of the first polar bear of the trip.
We were above latitude 82 degrees North; it was full daylight and cold.
And there was the bear.
We were on Joshua Holko’s Polar Bears of Svalbard expedition, 10 days on a small ice hardened expedition ship. As well as the lifetime experience of seeing Polar Bears up close on sea ice, we also had close encounters with walrus and were able to watch Arctic Fox cubs at play.
A memorable holiday.
I am very pleased to announce that I am a part of this year’s LOCAL exhibition at the Wyndham Art Gallery, 177 Watton Street, Werribee, Victoria, Australia. I am sharing this exhibition with local sculptor, Jonathan Mendez Baute.
I will be exhibiting large colour prints from Iceland and Coffin Bay National Park in South Australia; from my ‘Shifting Landscapes’ series. For the first time I have had the prints made for me, being too big for my printer. The prints were made by the fantastic team at Image Science, North Melbourne.
If you can make it, please come along to the opening at 6.30pm, Thurs 30 August. The exhibition runs from Friday 31st August 2018 until Monday 29th October 2018.
I visited Brighton in England for a few days in May this year. This coincided with the Brighton Festival which had the town buzzing. with music and the artists’ open day. Visiting and talking with artists in their workspaces, often their home) was an entertaining way of spending a weekend.
Another feature of Brighton that I had wanted to see was the tradition seaside entertainments. Unfortunately it was early in the season and not all were open, but it did make for an interesting evening walk.
I have added a new set of photos under the Gallery menu. This set of images, titled Time & Ice, were taken early one morning on the black sand beach at Jokulsarlon, the ice lagoon in the south of Iceland.
A soft misty rain was falling which gave the images, along with the long exposures, a sense of time and movement.
While in Brighton (England, not Melbourne) earlier in the year, I noticed a number of large bins, or maybe dumpsters dotted about the foreshore and some of the streets.
These bins were often very artistically placed and made for some nice images.
Thanks Brighton council.
