The jetty at my place is sort of the centre of the 2 kilometre radius that I’m primarily concentrating on.

The Mundoo channel is a highway for boats and fishermen. They’re out mainly for Mulloway and Coorong Mullet in the surrounding waterways. There’s a busy boat ramp a few hundred yards up the channel.

Fishermen are always looking for the information about where the fish are biting and my friend @simoncardonefishes on the right is always looking for the latest information.

Simon is often  fishing the state’s waterway and his tips are regularly posted on Tackle World’s website and his articles appear in the  Fishing SA magazine.

Winter on the coast was an interesting transition from Outback South Australia. It was mostly grappling with overcast skies and marginal light…things that were a small percentage days in the bush.

I’ve got a target of shooting something every day and while I confess at times that has been somewhat difficult there were still opportunities to be had. 

This is the Mundoo Channel a couple of hundred yards from my home on one such day. Soft colours but interesting light. There’ll be a few more of these along the way among the brighter days and interesting events around what is My Place.

Sunrise on the Mundoo Channel. How peaceful can it get. Appropriate too for the start of something new….. a look at the pictures I’ve taken around where I hang out out now far from the Flinders Ranges and Outback that was my home for a couple of decades.

I must admit the transition wasn’t easy. However  I reckon there’s images to be made here too, particularly when it comes to the amazing range of colours that change through times of day, weather and seasons. 

The Mundoo Channel is part of a waterway linking the vast Murray River where it flows into the ocean. And it’s connected to the fascinating Coorong coastal lagoon ecosystem. It’s roughly 130 kilometres south of Adelaide.

It’s an area teaming with many species of birds and other wildlife and a mecca for boaties, fishermen, kayakers and nature lovers.

The images to come will mostly be limited an area about 1.5 to 2 kilometres from my place as well as excursions around  Hindmarsh Island, the Coorong  and the nearby river township of Goolwa.

Rule of Odds Again

The human eye finds images pleasing that have a certain balance or harmony. Apart from a single subject like a portrait, photographs are more visually interesting if they fall into groups of odd numbers….particularly threes.

House guests or just visiting?

Using the Circular Polarising Filter to the max and playing with exposure for a more dramatic picture for the Dredge at the Murray Mouth.

The sun was high and falling sideways across the scene which is where the polariser is at its maximum on a clear blue sky. Normally I’d back the strength of the polariser off to a more natural level which is much more effective.

I really wanted to take a photo of this tack room on Mundowdna Station near Maree in Outback South Australia. It was a collection of horse and camel saddles and the saddlebags the old cameleers used when camels where one of the main modes of transporting anything around Outback country.

The trouble was the lighting. Both dark and well light areas. I tried flash in all sorts of ways and it looked terrible. Bracketing exposures is something I’ve used often and after the unsatisfactory results with the flash I figured I could make it work here. In post I played with each photo separately trying to balance the highlights and shadows.

Eventually there’s one that comes close. Photoshop’s Layers are far superior for fine adjustments and this was the result. In the bracketing process I would have a full stop difference between each shot. I would vary the base exposure as well and also take a reading with an exposure meter that I keep in my bag. The process is one of a number of techniques I cover in my workshops.

The human eye finds images pleasing that have a certain balance or harmony.

Apart from a single subject like a portrait, photographs are more visually interesting if they fall into groups of odd numbers….particularly threes. It’s not exactly a rule but more a guideline and if you are aware of.

There’s also a series of squares and rectangles that add a bit of interest to the composition as well.

Reading about the lives of successful photographers now and in the past, they always seemed to have their camera with them at all times.

Many worked only short distances from their homes most of their lives and yet made outstanding photographs that are still masterpieces today. Joseph Sudek and Saul Leiter are just two of many that spring to mind.
With the seemingly endless makes and models on the market today there is always going to be a camera you can take with you everywhere. Its just matter then of training your eye to see the photograph before you.

Case in point this image. Driving south one morning. The sun breaking through clouds in the east, approaching storm in the west creating interesting light on hills I’d passed hundreds of times but had never taken much notice of before.

The camera is close by, not packed in a bag somewhere. Go to work.

Photography is an interesting pursuit. The bottom line though is an observation which brings me to this picture of two rocks or as I see it, father and son.

Probably a thousand people or more walk past here every week and I wonder if any see it like this or just two rocks in a bunch of others.

Port Eliot on the Fleurieu Peninsula, South Australia.

The image is one of the features in my gallery that is located at 76 Mundoo Channel Drive, Hindmarsh Island, South Australia. Open this weekend Saturday and Sunday 11am-3pm.

The image is one of the features in my gallery that is located at 76 Mundoo Channel Drive, Hindmarsh Island, South Australia. Open this weekend Saturday and Sunday 11am-3pm.

The image is one of the features in my gallery that is located at 76 Mundoo Channel Drive, Hindmarsh Island, South Australia. Open this weekend Saturday and Sunday 11am-3pm.

The image is one of the features in my gallery that is located at 76 Mundoo Channel Drive, Hindmarsh Island, South Australia. Open this weekend Saturday and Sunday 11am-3pm.

Picture book image of mother swan and her young chicks along the Mundoo Channel.

Most of the year there are swans in the waters around here but in Spring the young cygnets are new arrivals protected by their two parents against the strong winds and violent storms that come with the season.

Outback Australia’s constant battle with drought. A lifeless landscape with the remnants of what was once the dog fence built to protect sheep grazing country from the ravages of wild dogs.