This ends the dump of photos for Windgrove. Just various stuff. What lies ahead for this blog is unknown, but probably it is very s l o w . . . .
Peace Bus: Unconventional Journey
Sorry, there are some great stories here, but this is just a dump of prepped photos of the Peace Bus over the years. Peter is giving one of three talks at Harvard and the theme is something about “An Unconventional Journey” (don’t quote me on this). So he needs any photos I have and can clean up old ones a bit. So here is a collection of the famous Peace Bus over the years. Two years ago I wrote a blog post about it, if you want more info. It’s pretty funny. Many of these images are the same. These are just higher res and perhaps better.
“The Point”
“You can’t get there from here…” an old saying that fits this land feature. The Point is a sliver of a steep ridge jutting out into the Southern Ocean. Walking it is like doing the edge of a razor blade. It is public land, but it would be extremely difficult and hazardous to get to it without walking through Windgrove. But no worries, Windgrove’s Gaia Walk takes you right there and even provides a bench for you to sit on. Following are some photos of The Point.
Good Nights
My last week in Tasmania was the new moon. Nights were dark and frequently clear. I moved my routine of working the cameras from day to all night. I am just now going through all these photos. The real surprise was finding the following photo taken at 4:05 AM on January 11. Continue reading Good Nights
Seating for Dialogue
Seating for Dialogue is one title that Peter Adams uses for describing a major aspect of his wood design practice – benches. As you walk around Windgrove there is always a bench waiting for you around the next corner. If you have friends with you, all the better. This post is simply updated photos of eight of his benches along the Gaia Walk. Continue reading Seating for Dialogue
Aviva Reed’s Illustrated Panels for the Gaia Walk
Visual ecologist Aviva Reed was commissioned by Windgrove in 2012 to create 11 panels to illustrate the major periods and eras of life on earth for the newly created Gaia Walk. Here is her website. Her newest book is Eon, The Story of the Fossils. This post is simply photos of her 11 panels documented in situ after settling beautifully into the landscape. Presented in chronological order as you would walk the trail. The preceding post here gives a short intro to the Gaia Walk. Continue reading Aviva Reed’s Illustrated Panels for the Gaia Walk
Gaia Walk
The Gaia Walk is the main core and thread to touring and understanding Windgrove. It is a 1.2 kilometer trail through most parts of Windgrove that is a scaled tour of the evolution of life on earth. Each step you take is 500,000 years. It starts 600 million years ago and ends up at “Today”. This post is not an attempt to document the walk. As noted, these posts are a dump of photos taken during my residency and augment the existing extensive photos of Windgrove. However, many of the themes I am trying to visualize hang off of the Gaia Walk. We have to start with it. If you want to understand more, check out the Windgrove website – search for “Gaia Walk” in the search box and peruse the posts in order. Or you can just read the damn sign that starts off the walk…. Continue reading Gaia Walk
Circles and Trees, Addendum – J. Dewhurst
Twice Windgrove hosted Australia’s national Sculpture By The Sea festival in its early years. Tens of thousands of people roamed Windgrove and looked at sculptures and views of the Southern Ocean. For one festival in 2001 Jenny Dewhurst hauled in tons of gray stones smoothed by the action of breaking waves, along with thousands of pieces of sea glass found on the beach. Continue reading Circles and Trees, Addendum – J. Dewhurst
Circles and Trees
For more than 20 years, Peter Adams has planted more than 9,000 trees at Windgrove’s 65 acres. Previously the land had been decimated by decades of unsustainable farming. Planting trees was one way to start the healing. The land becomes a canvas and the trees become the brush. Peter – without drones, airplanes, surveying equipment, or google satellites – started making patterns. The circle became the shape of power. This post is a collection of aerial views of the circles and old photos of Peter planting trees. Continue reading Circles and Trees
Workingman. Portraits of Peter Adams Working
Continuing with current plan that for the next few months this blog will house a catalogue of photographs I took for Peter Adams and Windgrove during my 2 month residency, I post a few more based loosely on themes. These photos are intended to be used by Windgrove for documentation and promotional purposes. They are easy for people to see and link to. Click on the photo to see a version that is designed for screen-based presentations. Since many of the regular readers here know Peter, I will add in a few notes here and there. Enjoy. Continue reading Workingman. Portraits of Peter Adams Working
Moonstone Mandala Temple in the Valley of Hope
There are a number of artists who have permanent installations at Windgrove. Most are obvious and visible, but Sally Horne’s Moonstone Mandala Temple in the Valley of Hope is a secret. You can never find it without a guide – and Windgrove is not that big! It is very tucked away in a hidden gully. In the detail shot you can see the 29 phases of the moon painted on rocks from the shores nearby. Click on a photo to see a higher res version.
Budda Beads and Belly Buttons
There are two large sculptures at Windgrove by Peter Adams that were too difficult to transport to Hobart for professional photographs. Plus, the photographer’s studio couldn’t hold them. So on rare evenings when it wasn’t windy, cloudy, cold, rainy, or crowded with guests, we photographed them in his front yard. For you photo geeks out there, this is using a little Fuji mirrorless APC camera to mimic a 4×5 camera. The resulting image is 14K x 10K. At full res you can count the legs on the little lady bug up on the top left corner. Continue reading Budda Beads and Belly Buttons
Windgrove Peace Garden, Tasmania
I’ve decided to use this blog as a catalog for photos of Windgrove that Windgrove’s creator, Peter Adams, can peruse and choose from. You, lucky or not, get to peruse them as well. These are photos I took during the 2 month residency there and augment the more than 3,000 photos that Peter has in his collection. Slowly, over these cold weeks here on the east coast of the US, as winter refuses to die, I am culling and prepping images that he can use. In May, Peter is one of three individuals selected to speak to his 50th graduating class at Harvard. Apparently he needs some photos to help him… So here they come. No text, no explanation, just images. Organized by themes that he and I worked with over the last 2 years. Somehow the images feel better here than on Flickr. Its quiet here and only a few people. Enjoy. (Click an image for higher res version). Continue reading Windgrove Peace Garden, Tasmania
A Mad Crush on Wedge Island
How can you not fall in love with Wedge Island? It’s like the soft gentle warm back of the old family dog sitting on the porch looking out at the far off perimeters. Guarding. Protecting. Head on paws. Watching as boats and storms go by – nary a twitch of the ear, just an eye tracking the wake. Who knows, Antarctica is only 2000 miles away, one needs to always be on the ready… And the name, Wedge Island, can it be any better? Nope. You can’t forget it. So Wedge Island has become my Monet’s Haystack. I can’t keep from making images of it. However, Wedge Island has another side – its head that faces the Antarctic and the onslaught of rough weather. Continue reading A Mad Crush on Wedge Island
Drawing Me a Mermaid
You may not see it unless you zoom in, but there is a Mermaid in this shot. Maybe it is coincidence, but I doubt it. Why would anyone draw a mermaid facing a dead-end. I am posting this quickly, because perhaps the individual who drew it is reading this blog. And I want to thank them. Continue reading Drawing Me a Mermaid
#TreesAreBeautiful.
A deep bow and a tip of the lens cap to @jvhenkel and “his” hashtag #treesarebeautiful. It was a highlight of my last year in terms of social media and an important contrast for me to the din of Facebook’s echo chamber. It made many of us look at trees a bit more. If you don’t follow Jim on Instagram, you should. I hope that 2018 continues the trend. Touring around Tasmania these last weeks and thinking of the hashtag enticed my camera to focus on trees occasionally. These following ones won’t make it to Instagram, but enjoy them in the spirit of #treesarebeautiful. Thanks Jim. Happy New Year. Continue reading #TreesAreBeautiful.
Cubed. Still the World’s Best Coffee, Location, People, and Aprons
I am not going to waste bandwidth describing again Cubed, the great solar eco silver coffee van trailer in Eaglehawk Neck, Tasmania. You can read my earlier posts from two years ago here and a follow up here. Or you can check out Laurie and Fabienne’s website here. Just today I finally got to stop by and have a flat white like no other. Now, after a mere 3 years of Cubed making single origin espresso coffee and German sweets from sustainable sources, it is clear that people have gotten the message. They now show up to get their photo in front of Cubed – not a shot just 3 meters away of themselves in front of the dramatic Tasman Peninsula and the sheer cliffs of Cape Hauy. Continue reading Cubed. Still the World’s Best Coffee, Location, People, and Aprons
Waves, Slit-scan, Head is Swimming
I’m finally starting in on another research thread of exploring “slow exposures” – slit-scan photography. My head hurts trying to pre-visualize what something is going to look like in the end. Instead of exposing the whole frame with a long exposure, you work by exposing small areas (slits in this case) that move across the frame over a long period of time. I thought I would put up some some test images just to see how it feels. Continue reading Waves, Slit-scan, Head is Swimming
Merry Christmas from Cradle Mountain
All native, in the wild, in situ, from high in Cradle Mountain, Tasmania – natural Christmas decorations for you. The main red flower is a Waratah. The red berries are called Red Berries. I can’t find anyone who can name the white flowers, but they are otherwise not forgotten. Enjoy the the Solstice, Holidays, New Year and may all your Christmases be bright, native, wild, and in situ.
Surf and Roaring Beach
Driving to Windgrove and Roaring Beach you pass this long fence made by some local surfers. Stopping alongside it one day gave me the opportunity to take some of the best action surfer shots I will ever take… Continue reading Surf and Roaring Beach
When a Cliff is Involved, Near Enough is Good Enough
Taking to heart Frank Hurley’s Antarctic darkroom scrawl, “Near Enough is Not Good Enough” (see earlier post here) I went for it and put a new camera station on the edge of a cliff. Continue reading When a Cliff is Involved, Near Enough is Good Enough
Tasmanian Bull Kelp and UV
Tasmanian Bull Kelp is amazingly bright in photographs taken with a UV adapted camera. It’s not fluorescence, because it doesn’t glow in visible light. The above image on the left is with only a UV A (or Near-Ultraviolet) filter. This mimics what fish, birds, and some insects can see in addition to what we see. They have a 4th receptor that picks up UV. They can certainly see the difference between a wet rock and kelp! We obviously can’t (image on left). How helpful when hunting prey. In the UV photo the wispy swirls around the rock are not blurry waves caused by the long exposure, but the kelp submerged under water. It literally glows. Click to see a high-res image of this. Both exposures are in the range of a minute or so. Lots of material to work with here. The effect is so powerful and sharp, it is hard to blend in. [BTW, Tasmanian Bull Kelp can be purchased to eat. $31.00 a kilo from Affordable Wholefoods. Maybe you can gain some luminescence!] Continue reading Tasmanian Bull Kelp and UV
Near Enough is Not Good Enough
This is my new motto for the last 4 weeks here. It was scrawled by Frank Hurley over a hundred years ago on his 1912 darkroom wall at the Mawson’s Huts in Antarctica. This man was cold, cut off from the world, watched some of his mates die, and he suffered for over a year taking photos in the “windiest place on earth”. His sled dogs are on the other side of the wall. I paid $12 to see this replica of the Mawson’s Huts. The fee goes to restoring the original that is pretty much entombed in ice. It is one of very few still surviving buildings from the “Heroic Age of Antarctic Exploration”. Online I found some images of the real darkroom – still full of old chemicals and plates. I guess not too many people go there and grab souvenirs…… Continue reading Near Enough is Not Good Enough
Hah! Caught me an Aurora
Another thing off my bucket list. According to my parents, I saw “Northern Lights” when I was 6 or so. That doesn’t count and I can’t remember. It took coming to the Southern Hemisphere twice to see them. Not that they can compete with all the stellar photos on the internet, but this is my own. The following video proves it. They were so faint, you couldn’t see them with your naked eye, but hey, what the camera records and gets posted is what counts. Right? [BTW, that is little Wedge Island there. I have a mad crush on it. I am working on a whole blog post about it. Stay tuned.] Continue reading Hah! Caught me an Aurora
Traveling With Peter – The Hazards of Freycinet
I took 2 weekends off from the Residency and saw more of Tasmania. Traveling with Peter is always an adventure, but you get to see some pristine amazing spots very much off the beaten track. Just be prepared: 4 wheel drive, hand saws, lots of water, and road-side emergency care. Continue reading Traveling With Peter – The Hazards of Freycinet
Calendar Work
Just returned from a week of traveling and working with the University of Tasmania and Greening Australia. Spent the morning up-dating my calendar of required appointments for the weeks ahead. My dream calendar. Now that I have returned, I might have sometime to go through some photos and share some stuff here. We will see. My schedule is pretty jammed…..
Point Clouds of Windgrove
I started 3D scanning aspects of Windgrove with a drone. In processing, the first step is creating a point cloud (data) and most people ignore it and move onto making a solid mesh. Peter was looking over my shoulder and immediately loved the look of Windgrove’s Peace Garden as a point cloud. So I went with this above sketch as a test. Click it to see a large version. I would love to see this type of look in a real-time environment. The following photo of myself along with my identical triplet brothers and a swarm of 200 drones begins to explain the process. Continue reading Point Clouds of Windgrove
Banjo Frogs… Yup. Banjo Frogs. What else could they be?
Banjo Frogs are only in Eastern Australia. Too bad. I can’t think of a better name for them. Here is – I mean HEAR – what you up-yonder have been missing. This video is all about sound, so turn it up. I just literally stuck my camera in the bog at the side of the road. No editing, no nothing.
Daily Routine, 19th Century Farming Part Two
How many farmers over the last few centuries have gotten up in the morning and said they were headed out to their studios? They work with primary natural and analogue materials, they wanted to make stuff that the local community liked and needed, and they hoped that their creations would bring in enough profit to maintain their family. I never thought that a farm might be a studio. My 2-month studio here at Windgrove is 65 acres, 2.8 million square feet. What is that worth? I love it. No roof. Great ventilation. Every day’s activity depends on the weather. A major aspect of my work here is taking photographs from 8 locked-down camera stations numerous times a day. Each photo becomes a layer in a potential 2-month exposure. Following is a fun 3 minute video of my daily chores of feeding and watering my camera stations. I do this 1-3 times a day. Continue reading Daily Routine, 19th Century Farming Part Two
Tech Head Toolbox and Basecamp done.
Two weeks into the residency and there is a check mark beside all setup requirements. On schedule. Taking two days off for some Side Show tourism. Stay tuned.
