Light travels on a motorcycle

I like to tavel light when on a long camping tour, especially if I am to ride on dirt roads. There is no need to bring the kitchen sink and "all" the commodities of back home; I actually find pleasure in making-do with less and adapt. 

 6000Km along the Australian Main Range, from balmy nights to frost in the morning. 

 

Away from crowds

Australia Day is usually a very busy day on the roads. 

A lot of folk likes to pop down to the beach and local park to get drunk, disguised for what they call "celebration". I am not a fan of the mob and even less the rather embarrassing scenes of some parties. I like to get away from all that.

As soon as I headed inland, away from popular spots, even the main roads were surprisingly empty. I like to explore and find a spot to spend the night away from amenities and noisy neighbors, a place that I discover by accident, not because an Instacrap post recommended it. Rural dirt roads don't always go through and occasionally I have to backtrack; that however ensures I get to see places that most don't.

If am lucky, at the end of the day I find a spot on a creek or by the river, where I wash off the dust of riding on dirt roads.

A simple tarp is enough to keep the dew off me at night while still allowing to be in contact with nature.

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The need for getting lost

I find a strange pleasure in getting lost, intentionally.
In a world that is fully mapped with extreme detail, where the eye-in-the-sky of Google Earth can bring me to view any tiny remote place on the planet, I sometimes long for the feeling of not knowing where I am.
Being lost, at least temporarily, in a natural setting brings me the (false) sense that the world is not so small after all.
Where not essential, like in a busy urban environment, I prefer to not use electronic navigation aids. I roughly work out where I want to head away from busy places and then often I just want to explore.

Lately I have been finding myself more and more drawn to dirt roads where a clear direction is not defined. I choose a forest with a network of trails, some rather smooth, some very rough, not suitable for my riding choice. I have to make a judgment call not to bite more than I chew.
As they say: when you come to a fork in the road, take it.
Sometimes my gut feeling says right and other times left, according to what valley or mountain ridge  peek through the forest trees.


Getting lost, no longer sure of my heading

Last Sunday I had full tank of gas and enough water in my backpack to keep thirst at bay. I rode for a few hours, stopping at times when the views demanded it.
Slowly I could no longer work out the right perceived direction to get back onto the pavement. I knew if I rode long enough I could have popped out somewhere but the rutted, rocky and pot-holed tracks were tiring me out; I didn't want to make a mistake and crash.


Steep, loose and dusty

I stumbled across a 4X4 driver, stopped at an intersection and swallowing my manly pride rode up to the driver side and asked for directions.
She had a phone in her hand looking at a map and pointed me in the direction I came from: "take a left when you come at the last intersection, keep left and eventually you will get out".
I had my phone in my pocket with detailed GPS maps too but somehow it was easier and nicer to ask for directions.

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Texture and patterns in the bokeh

I am drawn to the abstract pattern that a lens can create when the the whole subject can not be in focus resulting in some areas of the image blurred.
Much can be said about bokeh and it's rather impossible to be fully quantified or describe it but most purist cherish the "smooth" out-of-focus backgrounds.
I, on the contrary, prefer to find lenses that offer "texture" in the blurred areas of my images.


refitted projector lens 35-KP 1,8/120   1/640sec

I do understand that such traits in these lenses are not so well suited for subjects where the attention should remain in the in-focus areas but a lot of my photographs are often of close-up and semi-abstract subjects where a "busy" bokeh might be the crucial component of an image


adapted Pentacon 50mm f1.8  1/1600sec

Initially my visual adventures were concentrated on "bubbles" in the bokeh; now I am pursuing the textured, busy and "weird" bokeh.
Some lenses are specifically sought after for those incredible traits and unfortunately my favorite looks are out of my price range (like the Dallmeyer Super-Six 102mm f1.9 lens)

Slowly I am starting to understand which subjects, what patterns and what light will be a suitable theme for my experiments. Repetition of small objects and lines, combined with the correct subject/background ration and lens will reveal surreal images.
And it's a look that the mighty iPhone has not conquered yet :-)


adapted Kodak Cine 63mm f2.7  1/50sec



refitted Helios-89 30mm f1.9 (from FED Mikron)  1/4000sec



refitted Russian projector lens 35KP-1,8/120  1/800sec


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Mushrooms in the forest

The excitement was palpable when I stumbled across a group of mushrooms that looked like "porcini" (Boletus Edulis). As a kid I used to roam in the forests near my house and find them occasionally; it was like hunting, the thrill of the find.


adapted Kodak Cine Anastigmat 63mm f2.7  1/60sec

It turns out that those mushrooms were not porcini but instead very bitter and not really edible, even if not toxic.
The real reward came from the variety of mushrooms that I stumbled across and instead of looking at them as dinner trophies I observed them with my camera


adapted vintage cine lens Kodak Anastigmat 63mm f2.7  1/60sec




adapted vintage cine lens Kodak Anastigmat 63mm f2.7  1/20sec




adapted vintage cine lens Kodak Anastigmat 63mm f2.7  1/160sec




M.Zuiko 14-42mm EZ    1/13sec



adapted vintage cine lens Kodak Anastigmat 63mm f2.7   1/125sec


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The softer light

Living in Queensland I rarely get to experience the softer light that I remember growing up in Europe. The morning mists and the filtered sun through the forest's canopy are experienced but a few times  throughout the year.
When in Europe I admire the lifting fog and the clouds clinging to the hills after the rain.


M.Zuiko 45mm f3.5  1/2000sec

Walking in the forest towards high alpine lakes I was able to capture images that I often try but fail when in Queensland.


M.Zuiko 14-42mm  EZ   f3.5  1/80sec


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Forest speed drive

The peculiar feeling of driving a fast car on a narrow twisty forest road.


Kodak Ektar 25mm f1.9 (16mm film cine lens)  @f1.9  1/30sec

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Real and fake

I have a thing for vintage lenses; they often render the images in a peculiar way.
Once I get to know the "faults" of an old lens I can use it to create a particular look that I can not with my modern super sharp auto-focus lenses. Or can I?
Maybe it's true if I consider not working on an image in post production but I wanted to try if one razor-sharp picture could be "detuned" to make it look as it was taken on a simple optical design.

Using two lenses of similar focal length, one 50 years old one modern, I chose a fast moving subject with plenty of detail and texture surrounding the main focal point.
I wanted a swirly out of focus effect typical of some old lenses, Petzval leading the bunch but the effect too strong (and expensive) for my taste.


Jupiter-8 50mm f2  @f2.8  1/200sec


M.Zuiko 45mm f1.8  @f2.8  1/640sec

I am now looking at some other, smaller lenses that would give me even more character.
Ah, BTW...the second image of the (red) rider is manipulated :-)


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Shelter in the forest

There is no forest more enticing than a snowgum one, up high, close to tree-line.


G-Lumix 14mm   f5.6  4sec

The weather twisted trunks look spooky, the dead branches bleached by the elements; however the soft grass that grows around snowgums is inviting to place my shelter.
I feel safe here knowing that the tortured trees will shed some of the high wind, if it had to pick up during the night.

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Leaves

It has been years, actually more than a decade, that I took a visit to the botanical gardens, however I clearly remember that photographically I could not "see" the beauty around me then.
This time the shapes and light on the little things caught my eye much easier.

Blood leaf, Iresine species

Helios 44-2 50mm   f2  1/1000sec

Never Never Plant, Ctenanthe species

Zenit Helios 44-2  58mm   f4  1/180sec

Walk with Emma

She loves to walk in the forest for the fresh air.
If the weather is warm a quick dip in the refreshing crystal waters of the alpine lake.


M.Zuiko 75mm   f2.8  1/640sec

Silky waterfall

Limestone carved by a glacial stream in upper Austria.


M.Zuiko 9-18mm  f18  1/4sec (handheld)

Old school

... we were assured that life will become more safe, more secure and easier. In the end, the price for a bit more comfort is a steep one. We’re getting incapacitated by technology, because we’re not able to do most basic things by ourselves anymore. _Theme



Canon 220HS

Journal writing, old school style: pen and paper.
Camping low-profile fashion, close to the ground.



Canon 300HS

I like to think that technology sometimes enhances my life but I beware of falling dependent on it. I don't want to loose the skill to do it "old school".

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Misty morning

The eerie silence broken only by the call of the crows.


M.Zuiko 14-42mmEZ (at 29mm)  f5.6  1/2000sec


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Deep in the ferns

The gentle brushing of the ferns against the legs when walking in the forest without a path...


M.Zuiko 14-42mmEZ (at 14mm) f3.5 1/160

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