As I briefly mentioned in my previous post in September 2023 this low key littoral zone project, with its grounding in Japanese aesthetics, went into a hiatus in 2023. The basic understanding that I had been working with up to that point was that a central tenet of Japanese aesthetics is the transience or impermanence of life with its sorrow for the loss of transient things. The relevant concept is mono no aware.
The close-up or macro picture of seaweed is from the 2022 archives. It was made before we got Maya, our standard poodle pup, who arrived in February, 2023.
After Maya came the hiatus in the littoral zone project took the form of the project grounding to a halt. I only walked along the coastal rocks between Petrel Cove and Kings Beach infrequently for most of 2023. What I lost in this period was the ritual of daily walking the path across the rocks with its mediative processes that focuses on the presence of things, the moment of now.
There were multiple reasons for staying away from the rocks along the coast. It was probably a mixture of reasons --- such as Maya when she was a puppy, the rugged weather conditions (the frequent rain and strong coastal winds), and my concentrating on seascapes. I realized that I wasn't open to what was around me when I was walking -- I wasn't aware of of the light of the sun and the forms and patterns of the shadows that soften everything --- as I was too busy keeping an eye on Maya I missed the nuances of perception in the shadows which are not permanent.
]]>The Littoral Zone project has been on hold in 2023. The previous Ephemeral post was in May 2023 after a 5 months hiatus. Then there is nothing until September -- a 4 month gap. So that is one post in 9 months. What's more there were large gaps between posts before that.
The two pictures in this post, which were made in May 2023, pick up where I left off through reconnecting with the Japanese aesthetic concept of mono no aware. It's a return to familiar ground.
The basic reason for the hiatus in 2023 is that I lost my way - or ran out of puff. The initial motivation was a blog of photos and text linked to poodlewalks as a supplement. Over time it slowly evolved from a blog to a project that connected the photos of the littoral zone that I made whilst on my daily poodlewalks to Japanese aesthetics. The blog became a way or means for me to work out how to do this.
What appealed about Japanese aesthetics was that it was based on the world of flux that presents itself to our senses being the only reality: there is no conception of some stable Platonic realm above or behind it.This appealed because the littoral zone was a world of flux and it connected with the process metaphysics in western philosophy -- eg., Nietzsche's rejection of Platonism's two worlds and his idea of the will to power that sees the world as comprised of dynamic active and reactive forces in tension.
]]>As it has been a while since I posted here -- around 5 months ago. I've posted a couple of images of ephemeral and transitory subject matter from around December 2022. The foam would last a minute or so before evaporating with the tide and the wind.
This picture was made was on an early morning walk along the coastal rocks from Petrel Cove.
]]>This photo was made in December 2022 whilst I was on a late afternoon poodlewalk with Maleko along the coastal rocks in Waitpinga:
The shells and feather were there one day, gone the next. They vanished due to the high tide and the surging waves from the strong south westerly wind.
]]>The macro picture below was made in the early autumn of 2022 when an occasional low tide made it possible to walk with the poodles along the coastal rocks of the southern Fleurieu Peninsula in the late afternoon. It is a followup to the picture in this post which was made around the same time.
It was not often in autumn that this kind of seaweed was left stranded on the rocks from the tide. The rocks are usually clean.
These coastal walks were micro ones that are similar in form to the micro bush walks. An hour's duration, slow walking, concentrated seeing, making photos.
]]>Autumn has arrived at Encounter Bay. I've started to return to walking amongst the coastal rocks with Maleko on the late afternoon poodlewalks. This return happens when there is some cloud cover, the light is soft and there are photographic possibilities.
These walks are still infrequent. The morning cloud usually disappears during the day and the afternoons are clear and sunny. The strong coastal winds that marked the summer months have eased.
]]>The winds along the coast of the southern Fleurieu Peninsula have been gale force before and since Xmas --south-westerlies with gusts that are often over 50 kph. So I have avoided walking along the coastal rocks apart from brief excursions:
These coastal excursions have been in the afternoon with Maleko spite of the winds as I avoid walking in the local bush to avoid the brown snakes.
An exception to the above routine is walking with Kayla along Esplanade Beach from Kent Reserve to the Granite Island causeway in the early morning. This is either prior to the wind coming up or when the coastal winds are lighter.
Then the focus is on the textures of the seaweed and the sand.
]]>I have stayed away from walking amongst the coastal rocks. The cold, south-westerly winds have been continual and persistent. Some of the gusts have been close to gale force. I haven't been making many photos along the littoral zone as I have been walking in the bushland to shelter from the wind.
It was only occasionally during the late spring month of November that I would do the coastal littoral zone walk with a camera in the late afternoon: --- the conditions were that the wind had dropped, it was overcast, and there was some warmth.
]]>From an early morning poodlewalk with Kayla along Esplanade Beach in Victor Harbor.
I was walking along the beach from the mouth of the Inman River to the Granite Island causeway. The new concrete causeway is nearly finished.
]]>I saw these two cuttle fish shells yesterday morning when I was walking with Kayla near Petrel Cove.
I went looking for them this morning when I was walking with Maleko but they'd gone. The tides had washed the shells away.
Another seaweed form in low light:
It was made in mid-winter--in July-- when it was wet and stormy.
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I haven't been able to walk along the coastal rocks between Petrel Cove and Kings Beach this past week. There have been huge swells, large waves, and very high tides in the late afternoon. There has been no access to the rocks on the afternoon poodlewalks.
It's a pity because Suzanne has been travelling around the Eyre Peninsula this last week and I have been walking the 2 standard poodles. The coastal rock walk would have been ideal as the poodles are contained by the sea and cliffs and so there is no racing off chasing rabbits, foxes or kangaroos, which is what happens when we walk a back country road.
]]>This picture was made whilst on an early morning poodlewalk with Kayla near Dep's Beach in Waitpinga:
It was lying close to some rocks, protected from the coastal winds.
]]>The macro picture below of cuttlefish shells is from a recent poodlewalk amongst the coastal rocks with Maleko. It was in the late afternoon just prior to the Xmas/New year holiday break.
I was on the lookout for dried out salt ponds amongst the coastal rocks at the time. However, as the weather had been cool, overcast and windy, with only the odd bright, sunny days with high temperatures, the salt ponds were few and far between.
]]>I've been going the archives of what I call my macro photographs.
The picture below was made about the same time (circa 2019) as the images on this post on Thoughtfactory's photo blog and with the same macro camera equipment. It was the colours of the quartz that initially caught my eye. Then I saw the seaweed strand lying across the quartz vein.
I thought that this moment wouldn't last very long, as the coastal wind would quickly move the shape and the line of the seaweed strand, then eventually blow it off the quartz. So I quickly made a photo.
I was on a poodlewalk at the time, and I was looking for some dried salt ponds among the granite rocks to photograph. We would have been walking in the late afternoon.
]]>On the Esplanade Beach in the early morning around sunrise.
It has been a while since kayla and I have walked along this beach. We have returned because the grass seeds in the bushland are all pervasive.
]]>This granite formation on the foreshore is just west of Dep's Beach, which in turn, is west of the more well known Petrel Cove.
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It has been a wet and stormy spring during September, and we have tended to avoid walking along coastal rocks because of the gale force winds and the frequent squalls. The poodlewalks have been driven by the need to seek shelter in the local bushland from the squalls and wind.
On the few fine days we have had we have walked along the coastal zone. The light has changed with daylight saving and the light is still intense and bright at 5pm. This photos was made just before daylight saving. I sat on the rocks and watched the big waves surge across the rocks
It was only the occasional large wave that surged over the rocks. So I had to be patient, wait, and watch the sea.
Winter is now easing into spring.The light is changing, sunrise is much earlier, the sun is shifting more to the south and the light is becoming much more intense and contrasty earlier in the morning.
We continue to stay close to home apart from going on the Lavender Trail camps. The final one is one is in September at Clare.
We experienced a big storm front that swept across South Australia in late August bringing rain, wild seas and gale force winds. Maleko and I wandered along the coastal rocks on the afternoon after the storm had passed.
The sand on the beach at Petrel Cove in Victor Harbor comes and goes, and it does so quite regularly. When the sand is washed away during the winter months and only the rocks remain, an old, rusty engine is exposed.
My guess is that the engine was dumped over the cliffs as rubbish quite some time ago. It's more than likely that it is an old car engine, rather than a tractor engine due to its size. Then the sand returns and the engine disappears from view. The dumping of household rubbish on the side of the back country roads is still quite common around Victor Harbor and Waitpinga.
]]>This picture of lichen and rock study in low light was made just before sunset in early June-- the day after the storm on June 1.
The wild weather had eased:--the wind had dropped, the clouds were lighter and the showers were infrequent. So it was pleasant walking amongst the coastal rocks with Maleko.
]]>Below is a picture of foam and granite along the coastal rocks just west of Petrel Cove on the southern Fleurieu Peninsula.
It was made on a day after the big storm in early May. Though the storm had passed the seas were still surging and they were too rough for the surfers. The 2 metre high waves dumped, rather than rolled into the shore.
The picture above refers back to this earlier picture of foam as well as to this one. This is what the littoral zone looks like during, or just after, a big storm from the south west. The foam quickly vanishes.
]]>I have started to go through my archive of the macro images that I made whilst I've been on the poodlewalks.
I need to start doing something with these images with their connection between walking and photography. This has emerged or come to the fore during the Covid-19 pandemic, and it has got me motivated to start looking at this body of work.
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It was in the late summer and it is a constructed still life. After I had come across the crab lying amongst the coastal rocks I looked for a suitable background to photograph it. I looked for a site that would be protected from the tide and wind so that I could return and re-photograph it if necessary.
This macro photo was made yesterday morning whilst I was walking along Dep's Beach in Waitpinga with Kayala towards Kings Beach.
The recent mornings have been soft, with little wind and a soft haze. Surprisingly so, for late summer. It has been a gentle summer so far. There have been no 14 fortnight long heatwaves.
]]>The picture below was made whilst I was on a recent late afternoon poodlewalk along the granite rocks at the foot fo the cliffs near Kings Beach. Maleko was with me:
There was some cloud cover that afternoon, due to a strong south westerly wind blowing. The sun kept popping in and out of the clouds. There were a few drizzly showers the following morning when I was walking the poodles along a backcountry road.
]]>My recent early morning walks with Kayla have been on sand to gently strengthen my leg after the infection. I usually walk from Kent Reserve to the Granite causeway along Esplanade Beach, then back again along the footpath path.
It's usually sunrise when I cross the mouth of the Inman River near the caravan park:
I still need to avoid walking amongst the coastal rocks west of Petrel Cove because if I trip and fall I may damage the just healed infected skin graft. It is best to be overly cautious. Walking to Dep's Beach or to the rocks at the bottom of Kings Beach Rd are off limits. It is walking on the flat, hard sandy surface of the beach for the moment to build up the muscle strength in my leg.
]]>This pile of cuttlefish shells was at the western end of Dep's Beach on the southern Fleurieu Peninsula. I stumbled upon them whilst I was on a late afternoon poodlewalk with Kayla and Maleko. I presume the shells had been collected and piled up by kids during the recent school holidays.
I came across the shells around the time of this excursion to Granite Island. The shells were packed up between the rocks in deep shade.
]]>This picture was made on a recent afternoon poodlewalk with Maleko during October 2019. Maleko was looking for golf balls and I was wandering around the rocks with a camera. The location is just east of Kings Beach Rd on the eastern edge of Waitpinga.
It was a calm evening, with soft light and low tide. This combination doesn't happen very often. So I spend some time sitting quietly the rocks. I haven't been able to return to the location since because the tides have been too high.
]]>I wandered around exploring the western edge of Deps Beach whilst waiting for Suzanne to finish chatting with a friend one Sunday morning. I started photographing the various strips of seaweed lying in the sand with my makeshift macro camera:
I was fascinated by the colour of these seaweed strips in the early morning light. I had never seen this type of seaweed before. It was all over the sand at the western edge of the beach.
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