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.  

Read more

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. 

Read more

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. 

Read more

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. 

Read more

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.  

Read more

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. 

Read more

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.  

Read more

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. 

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.  

Read more

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.

Read more

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. 

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.

Read more

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.  

Read more

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. 

Read more

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.  

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.  

Read more

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. 

Read more