gymeagary-blog
Timely Light
A Blog that features many Images and some Words.
80 posts
Don't wanna be here? Send us removal request.
Last Seen Blogs
Text
Wildflowers in the Jandakot Regional Park
When in WA at this time of the year, it is hard not to find colorful wildflowers growing in the most amazingly hostile conditions.
This regional park, 500 metres from Stuart's home offers a range of natural landscapes including banksia woodland, wetlands, and rural remnants of bushland. The area is rich with interesting plants and wildlife. Remarkable considering the many suburban developments and rural lots surrounding the park!
There are over 400 species of plants including beautiful banksias and paperbarks. Swamp cypresses thrive in the park’s wetlands and only live in this part of the world. Flowers start in August and were early this year for my visit. Bushwalking with a camera is the best way to get amongst it and explore.
This blog features the flowers, and the next one will display the trees and shrubs.
0 notes
Text
Truth-telling in Landscape Photography. Using a Camera in a Chaotic Landscape.
The twenty-first century has a real problem with Truth, and not just "fake news". We all know the "camera doesn't lie" was never true. Where it was just "Fine Art" and some judicious Photoshop removing a few wrinkles, pounds, or years, now we have AI making images and words via computers compounding portions of reality into things that have no realism at all.
Photographers make choices every time they open the shutter. Landscape Photography practices use the "rules of composition" to simplify an image to make it visually pleasing. They aim to minimise distractions, while leading the eye progressively toward the subject. It is easier to find these things in man-made structures, like this boardwalk than in nature.
Nature mostly isn't like that - it is complex and chaotic. To make it visually pleasing landscape photographers use techniques like zooming into details, intentionally blurring or darkening the surroundings - or looking for man-made order - that iconic Lone Tree.
Is there truth and beauty in complex nature? I think so. It's just not what we are trained to look at.
These images are taken of the Spectacles, one of many Ephemeral lakes and ponds in Western Australia. These are basins that remain flooded for short periods of time during the year but dry out in the hot Summer months. In three months this will be dry cracked mud and the lake itself will be grassland with isolated pools of water.
This an incredibly rich environment - there are more than 100 species of birds regularly visiting this lake - hence the Hide for photographers. There are reptiles, amphibians, insects, and small mammals, everything designed to move away or survive through the waterless harsh hot periods.
The water meets the sky in a tangled mess of vegetation. On the lake it is reed beds that become grasslands but here on the edge are massive trees whose roots spend half the year immersed in the living liquid and the summer surviving on that they have stored.
0 notes
Text
THE ROYAL BOTANICAL GARDENS SYDNEY - a photographer's view by Gary Lawrence 12/8/2023. Nikon Z8 24-200 mm lens.
On a Winter morning near the Morshead Fountain Gate is this memorial to the horses taken to the Middle East Battlefields in WW1, who never returned to Australia.
This statue is of Arthur Phillip, the far-sighted governor of NSW for the four years after the First Fleet sailed in to set up the penal colony that became Sydney. Behind the statue is the city of today, leading down to the wonderful harbour they settled in. In front, a botanical garden has replaced the tent city of convicts and soldiers and the encampments of local indigenous people
A seat in the shade, with a sign "BEWARE SWOOPING BIRDS" looks down over manicured lawns.
Around the corner behind a garden screen is one of the transients who shelter here in the Gardens. The Park is locked overnight but in the early morning sun, this is a refuge.
Colourful garden beds.
A copy of a French sculpture of a hunter with his two dogs. The original is bronze, this one is still with an electrolytic copper coating.
Definitely a symbol that Sydney was part of the British Empire - the Lions
A massive Moreton Bay Fig Tree.
More colourful gardens.
A whale of a statue with a covering of vegetation.
The high-rise buildings that fringe the Gardens must have magnificent views over the trees and lawns to the Harbour.
Some beautiful bright faces in the sunlight.
A final yellow rose.
1 note
·
View note
Text
A Country Weekend
Two hours north of Sydney, 4 km along a dirt road, having passed through two gates and three creek crossings, to reach a country cottage for the weekend.
The soundtrack accompanying our conversation is only birdsong, the stridulation of insects, and the belches of frogs as sunset leaves us in the blue hour, waiting for the star show.
Our hosts Simon and Gemma with Julie and Gary the photographer, shared a prawn and mango salad, for our first evening meal.
The rest of the weekend party included David and Kimberley.
Simon is thoughtful in conversation in this portrait on the new deck..
The dam on the small property, here pictured in the golden dawn light, is surrounded by ironbarks, ranging from saplings to mature trees.
As an aquaculture experiment, Kimberley has seeded the dam with fingerling yabbies, but there is some concern about the resident Eastern Long Necked Tortoises. Will they devour the yabbies? David casts in a yabbie trap. It will need to be checked every couple of hours for tortoises. There were three caught and rehoused in a nicely flowing creek 300 metres away.
Planted within the past three years in the midst of drought, these bottle brushes have done well.
The evening light on the lichen-covered igneous rocks, the substrate around here.
Going on a bear hunt? Going to catch a big one? No - we are off to check a lawnmower!
Yes, it's a stationary lawnmower fifty metres downhill, and it needs rescuing. Looks like a three-person push effort and a new main drive belt when it gets to the garage.
It might take a millennium for lichens, water wind, and the action of tree roots, and wombats to reduce these natural monuments to sand.
#Australia#Country Life#landscape#photography#weathered boulders#yabbies#dams#bottle brush#family portrait
1 note
·
View note
Text
One Track For All
One Walk We Can All Learn From
"Telling the story of the southern Shoalhaven Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal history, from an Aboriginal perspective - a popular free attraction in Ulladulla.
The Aboriginal walking track has been constructed in a way that, from a higher vantage point or from the air, the two halves appear as two large goannas, with four carved platforms for some of the best views of the Ulladulla Harbour.
It is a cultural trail that will delight all, with the stories illustrated with carvings and paintings by local Aboriginal Elder Noel Butler, linking Indigenous culture with white man history." https://www.visitnsw.com/destinations/south-coast/jervis-bay-and-shoalhaven/ulladulla/attractions/one-track-all
One of the four lookouts, this one on the Northern loop of the walking track. Each one features carvings illustrating the history of the area from the perspective of First Nations people and the early settlers. From this point, the first ships were seen on the horizon and times were a'changing.
A steep track to a fishing spot.
A timber plank probably four metres long intricately carved to record daily life 250 years ago in this area.
An interaction that happened often here abouts.
In The southern section of the 4 km of trails is recorded the story of the early settlers - the timber cutters, the whalers, fishermen and sailors, the dairy farmers, and those that supported the many who lived around the Ulladulla region. The two halves are joined by a common theme - change. There were once 150 timber mills in the area, hundreds of fishing boats, and Dairy farming was the major agricultural industry. All gone now, as will this ironbark trunk, now etched by the strong morning light.
Look at this record of the fish s[species commonly caught in the area when the local industry supported 150 fishing trawlers - there are now two.
Behind the harbour and its boats, mostly recreational, is the modern township of Ulladulla.
When you enter or leave this wonderful trail you are greeted by an incongruous sight. This wonderful carving of a giant frog stands guard over a local book exchange!
4 notes
·
View notes
Text
Dawn, Mollymook, the Beach
Fifteen minutes before sunrise on Mollymook Beach, 300 metres north of the Golf Club, The stormy rain clouds on the horizon reflected the predawn light and I was photographing in the dark. Unfortunately, this meant a dozen images I took were all out of focus!
One hundred metres down the beach, with better light I captured this image of what photographers describe as a "God Beam". The sun projects light through a narrow aperture in heavy clouds giving the impression of searchlights illuminating the ground or seas below.
Blackwater Creek leads into the Ocean opposite where we were staying
The Southern Headland divides Mollymook Beach from Ulladulla Harbour.
Looking north along the beach towards the headland at Bannister Point.
Bannister Point is the site of a well-known seafood restaurant managed by celebrity Chef Rick Stein.
I love the contrast between the yellow seaweed and the black basalt boulders
This timber construction of steps leading from the roadway to the surf beach is currently out of action due to the terrible wear and tear that wind and salty sea spray have on anything built by human hand. It seemed to demand a warm monochrome tone.
This was the view from our balcony later in the day. Across the lawn, the pool, the road, and around Blackwater Creek onto the beach where I walked and photographed at dawn on most mornings.
1 note
·
View note
Text
Tumbarumba Creek and the Goldrush
Tumbarumba Creek flowing past the town is idyllic - green grass picturesque bridges, monuments and artworks, a skatepark, and fitness walking trails - just a wonderful place for picnics and dog walking. It wasn't always like this though.
Ninety-nine years of Gold Mining in the Tumbarumba region.
In 1885 Gold was discovered in Tumbarumba Creek, four years before the Townsite was surveyed. Mining continued until 1954, although commercial mining ceased in the early 1930s. During that time 3,380 kg of gold was delivered to the Government Mint from the local mines. The current value of this amount of gold in one kg gold bars is over two billion dollars.
REFERENCE: Willis J.L. 1969. Mining History of the Tumbarumba Gold Field. Geological Survey of New South Wales - Bulletin 23
The Creek runs downstream under the bridge on Albury Street. Across the road, the Creek is restored from the ravages of more than fifty years of GOLD MINING.
One thing, I noticed about this restoration was the removal of the old large weeping willow trees common here fifty years ago. Willows are among Australia's worst weeds because of their invasive tendencies, the potential for spread, and economic and environmental impacts.
During floods, this creek rises quickly, sometimes causing evacuations from the Caravan Park, and blocking the bridge crossing.
Dawn light accentuates the beauty of the area.
During mining, however, the creek bank was lowered by many metres as a huge water cannon blasted out the sediments to be separated from the alluvial gold in sluice boxes and trenches.
This image gives some idea of the water power, even when the water level is low.
The Creek divides and then rejoins.
I started this post with some dog walkers and I would like to finish the same way. When this lady saw me approaching on the other side of the Creek, she stood till and the five dogs immediately sat still but at attention while we chatted and I took their "portrait". The dogs are three generations from one family ranging from an old male grandparent to a three-month-old pup. She reported that she has five different walks which the group does daily. Amazing dog training!
On Saturday 12/2/23 starting at dawn, I walked along Tumbarumba Creek from where it joins Pound Creek to near the Booth Street Council Depot. I took photographs on my Nikon D500 camera for 90 minutes, using a 35mm f1.8 lens and a tripod. Most images were taken in the reconstructed area of the old regions mined, at the bottom of the Hill, where Tumbarumba Hospital overlooks the town.
Map from Google maps. Comments, shares, and questions are welcome.
5 notes
·
View notes
Text
Tumbarumba - A Study in Black and White
An early evening on a hot day was an opportunity for a challenge. To photograph in black and white the township of Tumbarumba.
If you enjoy this blog or any particular images, please leave a comment somewhere.
Our comfortable accommodation was fifty metres from The Parade (the main street of Tumbaruma). #blackrangelodgetumbarumba
This old church building says it all?
I met someone from the Men's Shed walking his dog, who told me all about their most recent project - a three-year restoration of a rail car used on the old Tumbaruma rail line. When complete it will be relocated to the trailhead for the Rail Trail from Tumbarumba to Rosewood, to act as a combined Rail and Fire Museum and Activity Center for the Rail Trail. The beautifully restored carriage was to the right of this building in its own enclosure.
Fuel for anything that goes.
What a combination - Dielsel and Firewood!
The Social Centre for the young people of the town is the Swimming Pool under this strikingly shaped Shade Area.
Coming into town from Batlow. The trees are very different from fifty years ago but the paving and landscaping are a real credit to this town. #tumbarumbashirecouncil
If the town looks dead it was 6:30 pm and hot, so most people had retreated to somewhere with good air conditioning - like the two hotels or two clubs.
Have you thought about lunch? That's a great question to ask at lunchtime but that's only 3 hours of the day!
Beautiful old buildings, still functioning at street and treetop level.
The Bush Chemist caters also to those requiring some facial maintenance. #bushchemisttumbarumba
The streets are empty, and the roads are quiet, but those cars indicate that there is still life in the Union Hotel. #unionhoteltumbarumba
This beautiful old building once housed the National Bank. It continues its life as a Cafe with accommodation upstairs. #vaulttumbarumba
Nicely restored shopfront next to the Union Hotel, #unionarcade
It's hot outside, and the Tumbarumba Hotel is the place for a thirsty photographer to have a cold beer, watch the cricket test against India or a variety of football games - even watch the locals play Pool. I chose to chat to some characters about Australia's chances of surviving the day in the cricket - they didn't.
Not a bad place for a feed and a talk at #tumbarumbapub.
#tumbarumba#tourism#coffee#mens shed#unionhotel#tumbarumbapub#vaulttumbarumba#bushchemist#lunch#nikond500
3 notes
·
View notes
Text
Menai Conservation Park
Save the Bush!
This post has sat as a draft on my computer since July 2021 - eighteen months. I had got up for a wintery dawn photoshoot in a remnant of natural bush conserved next to our local Shopping Centre/Sports Complex. It was saved from development in the middle of Shops, houses, units, schools, and everything associated with urban living because it is a rare surviving tract of Sandstone Shale Transition Forest. I will describe what this is, and why they have been saved in my best science teacherly way in the captions.
To some the Australian bush seems all the same - a tangled mess. Landscapes on other continents and hemispheres seem more ordered. They have paths to walk, where we have none - we must bushbash. In simpler and less cluttered environments photographers find the lines and shapes and gentler light that seem to make compositions easier than in the antipodes.
Above is the thick bush found on the shallow, poor soils formed on sandstone strata. The dominant trees are ironbarks which are well adapted to fire as seen on the large trunk in the foreground.
Sydney is built on a basin-shaped strata of layers of sedimentary rocks kilometres deep. The most common rock layers are Sandstone and Shale. Especially in a hilly area, you can get a cap of one rock over the other resulting in a Sandstone Shale transition where on the surface you step from one rock type to the other.
The fact that different plants grow on the soils produced by the different rocks means that you are walking through a Sandstone Shale transition forest. It is not a clear line but a gradual change from one vegetation type to another, where clay soils from the shale rock intergrade with earthy and sandy soils from sandstone, where shale caps overlay sandstone or vice versa.
High-shale-influence sites often have a diverse and moderately dense groundcover stratum, with grasses as a prominent and diverse component. Shrubs are usually less abundant and less diverse in shale sites.
High-sandstone-influence sites have poor rocky soils, and many shrubs which rely on nitrogen-fixing root nodules and soil/root fungi to obtain nutrients.
The Tree shown here is typical of those found on richer, deeper shale-derived soils.
The boundaries are indistinct, and the species composition varies depending on the soil influences.
This image is typical of a high-shale-influence site, often having a diverse and moderately dense groundcover stratum, with grasses as a prominent and diverse component. Shrubs are usually less abundant and less diverse in shale sites.
0 notes
Text
Paddy's River Falls, Tumbarumba
Paddy's River rises in the Granite Mountain falling 830 metres in its 31 km trip to join the Tumbarumba Creek, close to the Gem of the Highlands, the town of Tumbarumba.
The Paddy's River Falls is a 20-minute drive on Tooma Road from Tumbaumba, then 2 km along a winding side road.
I arrived about 15 minutes after sunrise with only an hour to spend on photography.
There was heavy rain earlier in the week, so plenty of water going over the falls.
There are three high lookout positions and a good path down to the falls themselves.
This was my first, and probably favorite shot. I loved the golden light touching the wattle flowers. The light level was low, so all photos were taken on a tripod, with shutter speeds of about 1/20th second.
The was plenty of noise and spray as the water hit the granite boulders at the foot of the falls.
The distinct columns of the granite bedrock are displayed behind the falls, unfortunately, "decorated" with local graffiti. I forgot to clone out my camera bag on the last step!
A wonderful morning's photography and a place well worth visiting.
1 note
·
View note
Text
Not Today!
A review of "Honey Blood" by Kirsty Everet
"Not today!" is what petite assassin Arya Stark suggests we say to the Lord of Death, in a much-quoted passage from George RR Martin's "Game of Thrones". Arya occupies a fictional universe where bloody death and pain are common - but dragons are too. Kirsty Everett, the author is real, her story is painful and death is a constant player. Disclaimer - I had a tiny bit part as one of her teachers.
Honey Blood is honest to the point of brutality, in describing twice surviving cancer. We see a nine-year-old with ruined aspirations to be an Olympic gymnast and then an adolescent frustrated at seeing the joyfulness of life being ripped away from her.
The graphic descriptions of the effects of the poisons that make up chemotherapy I found challenging - it seems like torture but sometimes it leads to survival. Only sometimes though.
It's not all gloom though - my favorite chapter starts with "I am a mistress of the art of vomiting”. While I learned a lot about vomiting and from the description of the Girl’s Toilet Block, then I heard about the rare, unexpected source of support Kirsty received from four indigenous "sisters" and their introduction to her own aboriginal heritage.
Kirsty has a real talent in depicting the stages she grows through, independent of her cancer - this is not just a survival manual. Nine-year-old Kirsty's description of nurse Karen with the greasy streaked hair on each side of her face, whose enormous bottom seemed to be chasing her around the room, caused me to snort aloud with laughter. In reading about her joy as a 12-year-old in remission in her first year at high school, then hearing about the impact on a 17-year-old girl facing death instead of an HSC, I always felt that this was written by someone of that emotional age, talking to me in real-time. That's very good writing.
"How can people be so heartless? How can people be so cruel? Easy to be hard, Easy to be cold" sang Three Dog Night. This fundamental question is often raised in this book. It's not just children chasing Kirsty home from school, battered and bleeding, ears ringing with the accusations "ugly" and "monster". It's a boyfriend who promised to always be there, then says "I had no idea that you would look so .... so .... so ugly!" It's medical people who are careless and uncaring. It's an angry sibling and a parent who practices "tough love". Why the lack of empathy for a little girl who recognises death but says "not today"?
Kirsty does not ask that question or attempt to answer it in this book, but we are all programmed for life - we all fear death and avoid thinking about it. We just deal with that fear differently. We fear for our children, fear for our brothers and sisters, fear for friends …. And we distance ourselves, flee from the fear of our own death. It’s not just teenagers who feel bulletproof and act accordingly. Even a geriatric's delusion of immortality is confronted by the sight of illness. The decline of those like little Kristy and her cancer suffering cohort, looking like death only slightly warmed up is a challenge. Some stare. Some look away. Some hug. Some really try to understand. Some look back later with regret. Some attend funerals. Maybe it’s worthwhile all remembering Three Dog Night’s conclusion “How about a needed friend? - We all need a friend”
This is not an easy book, but I couldn't put it down. It is an important book, a great first book and I hope there will be many more written by Kirsty Everett.
0 notes
Text
Landscapes in the Fog
Landscape Photography seems less productive than other photographic genres. Street, sports, portrait, even wedding photographers can arrive at a shoot and expect to get some keepers, maybe even one for the portfolio!
In contrast, to photograph the landscape often requires a hike to a location, carrying loads of gear, with the real chance that when you arrive the conditions mean that all you return with are memories of a good walk in the great outdoors and the intention to return in better conditions.
It's all about the light and that relates to the weather. Good weather for photographers is different. Cloudless blue skies, harsh midday light are great for the beach but hopeless for the landscaper. Give us moody clouds, with soft gentle light with hopefully some gentle rain allowing the foliage to glisten. We long for a gap in the clouds to allow some sunbeams to spotlight our point of interest.
The ideal is fog - yes that wet, clammy stuff that's uncommon in dry Australia. Landscape images are improved by fog because it gives an impression of depth, differentiating the background from the foreground, turning a flat image into one with apparent depth.
We had three mornings with fog this week, unusual in July in Australia. Two days it was heavy, remaining for 4 hours after sunrise and it was these days I didn't get out. Thursday I was on the escarpment overlooking the Woronora River before sunrise at 7 a.m. to see the mist rising rapidly - not enough to hang around. The first four images were all I could manage before I had to try Plan B.
Plan C is to go home but plan B is to get closeup and personal and flowers are ideal.
Or you can find a local beekeeper's hives surrounded by more nectar making flowers.
And if all else fails, find some birds who enjoy posing. Then you can go home, dreaming of the next time when, just maybe, the bush is wet, the fog making it mystical, with a single beam of sunlight changing the scene into fairyland.
#Landscape#Australia#photography#nikon d500#fog#cockatoos#flowers#bee hives#trees#bushwalking#woronora river
7 notes
·
View notes
Text
Stones by the sea
Karen will hate this, says Mal’s voice in my head,
At first shutter click this morning,
trapping no new beauty on this shore.
Rather a cry from ego, I was here one day!
What’s the worry?
Tomorrow’s storm or tide,
Or random boot will restore, not destroy,
Gravity will return, each to it’s determined state.
Will image remain when
wave, sand, and rock are gone?
Waves, like visitors come and go while
Rocks resume their appointed places
Until when?
No rock garden here
But timely reminder
Waves, sand, rocks and ego gone
Eternity remains
0 notes
Text
Madden Falls
Madden Fall is found 5 km West of the Old Princes Highway on Darkes Forest Road, It is an easy walk of 750 metres down a well formed path. An intense fire badly damaged the forest here in 2019 but the waterfall is lovely and the rock formations impressive.
0 notes
Text
Pipeline Track near Heathcote Road
The Pipeline track is a 13 km a walking/cycling/fire trail that runs parallel to the Woronora River from the Woronora Dam to the where the river joins the Georges River on the border between the Sutherland Shire and the rest of Sydney. The Dam was built in the 1930′s and supplies water to the Southern suburbs of Sydney and to the City of Wollongong.
The Track crosses the Heathcote Road and enters the Heathcote National Park and this is where the 13 km track starts for me.
A 26 km return trip taking photographs is not possible, so this Pipeline saga will be split into sections for each photoshoot.
Within 300 metres of the Heathcote Road and the same distance from the inhabitants of Heathcote West is a creek which I photographed soon after dawn in Autumn. There had been little recent rain so the creek was only running in sections - mainly it was small shallow pools separated by beautiful green rocks and boulders.
The rock formations are impressive.
So close to roads and houses there is plenty of evidence of humanity.
I wonder whether this old leaf spring is left over from an ancient ox cart accident or is recently dumped rubbish?
0 notes
Text
Downstream from Karloo Pools
A Gallery of images taken while clambering down the western bank of Kangaroo Creek, downstream from the main swimming hole of Karloo Pool. These were taken soon after dawn in May 2020.
0 notes
Text
King’s Cross - Street Photography
The best way to travel to King’s Cross is by train.
King’s Cross is less than 4 km from the Central Business District of Sydney.
Darlinghurst Road has Cars - this one is an ancient Bentley.
Bikes - some parked
And some moving .... quickly
This bike delivers Pizza - maybe it’s the rider?
You could get a haircut or a shave?
Or some colourful nails?
Are you feeling unwell?
Maybe it’s caffeine and bubbles you need.
Back on the station, waiting for the train, there is inspiration on a Billboard.
0 notes