It's all about the light, that precious and fickle element to photography.

More so crucial to me when photographing in subtropical locations where often it's so harsh and crisp that leads to high contrast images. 

But now, coming closer to the winter solstice, it's softer, warmer and the sun lingers longer over the horizon before it sets giving more time to create a few softer images.

On a camping trip with a riding buddy.

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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Working on a moto-centric project

 A buddy of mine has agreed on working with me for a slide-show of discovering the pleasure of riding his motorcycle on country roads.

For the last two month, on evening and weekends, we have been leaving the city and headed West, to the rural areas not too far from the city. The search for the vanishing dirt roads has granted us some wonderful moments.

The conditions are always best at sunset, where the shadows are longer and softer, the light warmer and illuminating from the side. David is happy to pose for the camera and doesn't mind to do a few passes for me so I can frame him correctly. I use almost exclusively adapted old lenses to create the mood and look I need.

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Winter riding

Best time of the year to be riding.
I don't risk dehydration on longer rides when I get caught out without a hydration pack and I can wear my protective gear without overheating.
The lower angle of the sun finally gives me "European" light conditions where the sunset lasts more than mere minutes.


Adapted E.Zuiko 100mm f3.5 (for Pen-F system)

The light during the day is lower creating longer shadows and more pleasant contrast.






The air is crisp and dry with little chance of an afternoon thunderstorm to get caught in. But mornings call for a decent jacket and maybe thicker gloves.



adapted D.O. Industries Naviata 75mm f1.3 (C-mount)




adapted Canon TV-16 50mm f1.4  (C-mount)

Dodging fires

The land is parched, it has been a long time since it has seen rain, and yet I hoped to reach some green spots higher on the Main Range.
The forecast was calling for high 30's maybe even 40C but nights could be still crisp.
I headed West with a vague idea of where I wanted to spend a few nights, not sure how the bush will look like.

The smoke from a week old fire was still creeping on a ridge not too far away.



When taking a wrong turn I ended up on a dead-end dirt road where the sides were all blackened, some stumps still smoldering. The local rural fire brigade saved this wonderful timber hut from the flames.



Eventually I found my way out of there and headed South where previously I spotted a great place to spend the night. Away from any highway I was hoping for a stunning view of the lower hills at sunset, but the smoke was veiling the sun giving the place an eerie orange look.



The grass was still thick and green enough to call that my camp for the night. At lunchtime the heat in the valleys reached body temperature, and yet now I was wearing a down jacket just as the night was falling.







Vanilla joined me the following day. We rode some incredibly bumpy "sealed" roads but then were relived to find dirt roads were smoother than the paved ones. The afternoon sun became just too much to be riding in the bush. A great spot on the banks of a rather shrunk river (from the drought) where shade convinced us siesta was a better idea than pushing on. At the early camp we shared the afternoon with the an incredible variety of chatterbox birds, attracted by the flowering trees.






Sadly the temperatures rose even further next day and the wind picked up. The place was a tinderbox and fires flared up turning deadly.
Our planned route to explore some remote forest tracks changed to safer main roads where travelling at speed kept us relatively much cooler than slogging in the bush.


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Outback camping.

Long time sea kayaking buddy, companion of many expeditions, joined me on an overnight ride to the country. We picked the roads less traveled and in the late afternoon we ended up on dusty unsealed ones. We were looking for a secluded spot to camp for the night.


Canon TV-16 50mm f1.4



Vanilla sporting that kind of look that commands respect, the face of wisdom.     Canon TV-16 50mm f1.4


Towards sunset we found what we wanted: a seldom used rural track that was a wide corridor of trees and short grass, with the occasional tree-trunk to sit on.



We were travelling light with tarps instead of tents for shelter. There was a light breeze in the air but it calmed down once dark. No frost yet but it is just a matter of weeks before that will happen.
Clear skies and no light-pollution from the urban sprawl; there was a meteor shower although peaking too early in the morning for me to care waking up and getting a proper look.




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Off the beaten path

When chasing dreams of years past I feel most comfortable when I am in "adventure" mode.
Sea kayak expeditions certainly give me that but a friendly coast that allows me to explore is not always easy to attain.
Before my wet adventures I used to ride motorcycles, adventure bikes, before that class even existed.
I am now back on two wheels and while backroads away from the main highways do give me a sense of escape, my heart is still in the dirt, dirt roads that is.


Yamaha XSR700

My bike needed some tires that would make it sing on gravel, it needed teeth to bight into the soil.
While not really a machine that could cross the desert like my previous rides, this little thumper behaves well enough to be comfortable on country farm roads that are not paved. And that is where I like to ride.





There is no traffic, only the occasional vehicle that is going into town for supplies. There is a bit of dust and a few creek crossings, a bit of loose stones and mud after rain. There are no curbs or shoulders, no speed cameras and drunken drivers, no ass-hauling trucks with swaying trailer. Mostly there is nobody out there, just me. But I see horses and cows, and towards the evening a few kangaroos that hop across the road. Speeds are low but the ride is thrilling in a different way.





And then I stop anywhere I want and there is nothing but silence, maybe an undertone buzzing sound of insects, maybe a laughing kookaburra.
Inevitably my eyes keep on scouting for suitable places to camp even if I have no intention to do that tonight. It's like in the old days when I used to ride with a few buddies, heading West.
Bikes loaded with camping gear and a map stuck to the gas tank. It was pre-digital era where a compass would be consulted occasionally. I still carry a map today even if my phone could get me out of a geographical embarrassment if needed.






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Ride to the country

As we come into autumn, and soon winter, the skies promise to remain blue with little chance of rain, while the temperatures are much more comfortable than at the start of the year.
Perfect weather for riding


E.Zuiko 100mm f3.5  photo: Chris Eastwood

Getting away from the city takes a few hours heading West and once the traffic dies down to a trickle the country side opens up revealing its nostalgic charm.


G.Zuiko 40mm f1.4  photo: Chris Eastwood

Queensland back road still offer some great rural scenery that has not been exploited by the Instagram masses, leaving the places intact with a genuine sense of nostalgia. Needless to say I won't be geotagging these :-)


Lumix-G 14mm f2.5 

Once these cottages were home to farmers and graziers, now fast transportation from town allows to attend the properties without living on them.


G.Zuiko 40mm f1.4

I find that travelling by motorcycle to be the perfect mean of transportation to allow for roadside photography. I don't have to look for a spot to park my car; I just pull over on my two wheels and often I am able to photograph while still seated in the saddle.



Pentax-110 70mm f2.8



E.Zuiko 100mm f3.5


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The afterglow

Sunsets: I have shot at least a couple of thousands. And I never tire of them.
From my very early days doing the mistake to just wait for the sun to come close to the horizon and then point in its direction before it disappears. If I was smart enough, I would have at least a subject in between so I could end up with a silhouette, of dubious quality.
As film could not hold the high contrast too well I then tried to wait for a softer light, post sunset, if my subject was back-lit. Suddenly the colors will start to show up in my slides, way more pronounced that my eyes could see. Little I knew that our eyes adapt to the changing light temperature and what might have looked "normal" with my eyes, film would record as very warm tones as the whole landscape was lit by candlelight.


adapted C-mount Navitar 75mm f1.3 @ f2    1/25sec

With digital photography things change a bit: one can adjust the color setting and the sensor can capture way more details in the shadows than any film ever could. But the soft light remains the same.
I wait, knowing that the real show will happen when people are gone :-)


* and thanks to technology I was able to create this image that otherwise would have been totally blurred in my film days: 1/25sec on a 150mm lens!

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Around the stables

My girlfriend is mad about horses, for me is something new. There was a local event that I went to visit on invite from my friends and wondered around the stables not knowing what to look for, photographically.


Nikkor-P 105mm f2.5 RF  1/1600sec

I had to be cautions enough to know when a horse was not happy having my big lens pointed too close to his body.


refitted Sony Precision Projection 60mm f1.5  1/200sec (adapted here)

 I loved the people around the horses: genuine and unpretentious, friendly and approachable. A warm rural atmosphere pervaded the event.


SMC Takumar 50mm f1.4   1/500sec 

I was also there walking around with the most ridiculous refitted lens that I have tried to date. It was awkward to handle as it was never intended to be fitted onto a camera but the results I achieved were worthy of the trouble.


refitted Sony Precision Projection 60mm f1.5 (?)  1/1250sec


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Re-porpoused cine lenses

My modern native auto-focus lenses are safely tucked away in my "special case" while my vintage adapted glass is constantly fiddled with and taken out for image gathering. I manly consider using the modern marvel on my extended trips to foreign places where I concentrate on recording more than creating images. At home I always grab my vintage lenses and recently discovered two gems from the 50's: lenses from Kodak intended for Cine 16mm film cameras.

I love the look that the Ektar 25mm has given me so far and wanted to try the longer focal lengths: the 63mm, and by chance I also discovered the 102mm
The image circle on those lenses was not intended to cover a sensor as large as the Micro 4/3 and the distortions are way more noticeable on the edges then they ever were on the smaller format of the film. And that is exactly what I am looking for: distortion and quirkiness that my Olympus M.Zuiko lenses can't give me.


Kodak Cine Anastigmat 63mm f2.7  1/500sec

The edges are often darker (vignette) and the bokeh can have a hint of swirl; all traits that I desire for moody and unusual look that I want to create in my images with feel.
I have shifted from methodical and accurate recording of buildings (my previous professional work) to a more arty direction in my images. The real goal for me is to evoke or depict emotions, through images. Even with static natural subjects I seek to capture a sense of nostalgia, dream or fantasy. Blurry and funky bokeh is all part of the composition where a sharp edge-to-edge image might not convey that feeling.


Kodak Cine Anastigmat 63mm f2.7  1/800sec

And then there is the part of manual focusing a lens that is a bit hard to handle, with small focus rings and tiny grip for the aperture control. Frustrating and fist and leading to missed opportunities but great for building skills and prediction of events.


Kodak Cine Ektanon 102mm f2.7  1/500sec

I notice that I am willing to observe a scene for much longer and pre-focus on the area where the subject might appear instead of just lift my camera, point and shoot leaving the focusing to the microchip evaluation. The results are often different; images taken while manual focusing tend to show, how to say it, more passion?

 
Kodak Cine Ektanon 102mm f2.7   1/400sec


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Old yards

It has been a while since this fence has seen cattle. Now only kangaroos roam the paddocks since the land has returned to no longer be grazed by domestic animals.


SMC Takumar 50mm f1.4 (@f2.8?) 1/1000sec


SMC Takumar 50mm f1.4  1/3000sec