Fire escapes

Fire escapes, Greenwich Village, New York, (c) Rob Walls

Fire escape, Kodak House, Hobart, Tasmania (c) Rob Walls

 

Sunrise on Salamanca Market, Hobart

It’s nearly three months since I last posted here. 2011 was probably the most intense year of picture taking in the 50 years that I’ve been a photographer. In the last year or so, I’ve driven almost 50,000 kilometres across Australia photographing work for my project, This Working Life. By the end of last year, I had reached a point where I could feel that burn-out was imminent. Left with the choice of taking pictures or blogging, I decided to neglect the blogging. But now I’m back.

On Saturday last, I went to Salamanca Market to photograph the stall holders setting up for the day. Held every Saturday in Salamanca Place (or just Salamanca) as the locals call it, the market has for nearly 30 years been a bustling and lively scene. Last Saturday, I had reason to be there early and decided to get there in time to see the stall holders setting up.The early morning light, the interaction of workers and early-bird market goers, the mounds of fresh produce and the promise of a hot, sunny, late summer’s day was well worth turning out of bed in the dark for.

Setting up for the day. Good coffee and fresh donuts. My breakfast at 6.30am, © Rob Walls 2012

Stall holders setting up © Rob Walls 2012

Oranges waiting to be juiced © Rob Walls 2012

Lentils, oats and rice © Rob Walls 2012

Display of pumpkins, Harvest Feast, Salamanca Market, Hobart © Rob Walls 2012

Vested interest. My wife grew the beets and a lot of the herbs in this fine display © Rob Walls 2012

 

Attention to detail. Every carrot meticulously displayed © Rob Walls 2012

 

Good friends of organic produce, Michelle Dyer and Jonathan Cooper of Harvest Feast © Rob Walls 2012

 

Seasons greetings from Tasmania…

Just beginning to surface from my 8,500km odyssey through New South Wales. It’s probably an age thing, but I find I need a bit of time to bounce back from a trip like that. There are thousands of pictures to edit for This Working Life from this last trip, but I’m just going to back them up and put off editing until I get back from travelling in Indonesia with my daughter. I’m hoping that a break from the project for a month or so, will give me a fresh eye and greater momentum.

In the meantime, I wish everyone greetings of the season and a happy and prosperous 2012…

Finishing work, Centrepoint, Hobart, 3.13pm December 20, 2010. © Rob Walls 2010

Homeward bound…

Thousands of kilometres and a load of pictures later, I’m finally on my way home. As a photo gypsy, five or six weeks is about all I can manage away from family and my own bed. At 7.30pm tonight the Spirit of Tasmania will be heading out in Bass Strait into some fairly heavy weather, but in photographing the first officer this morning for my, This Working Life project, he assured me that with the waves on the starboard quarter, it will be a comfortable ride to Hobart.

In the meantime here are a few quick final sketches with the Canon G11 before I depart Melbourne for home…

Newspaper and magazine vendor, Elizabeth Street, Melbourne, 19th August © Rob Walls 2010

Getting rid of the dust, car wash, 20th August. © Rob Walls 2010

At the lights, Latrobe Street, Melbourne, 20th August © Rob Walls 2010

The Burnley tunnel, Melbourne, 20th August © Rob Walls 2010

Thinking about work…

Painters at work, Melville Street, Hobart

I’ve been thinking about the subject of work at lot lately. Some would say I prefer to think about it rather than perform it. But it occurred to me there are still many jobs that can’t be computerised. These two painters painting the window frames of this old Georgian store in Melville Street Hobart this morning,  can probably feel comfortable in the knowledge that their jobs are unlikely to be overtaken by the digital revolution, any time in the near future.

Camera: Canon Powershot G11

A POSTSCRIPT: driving past the day after, I see that the beautiful remnants of the words “Furnishing Warehouse” have now been sanded off the timber facade. Sad! But they still  live on in this photo.

Pure colour…

Too much history; too much black and white; too many old pictures lately…so I thought I’d post something I shot last week with my new walk-around camera, the Canon G11. This is the fire escape behind Kodak House in Hobart…still flaunting its bright corporate yellow though the company no longer occupies the building.

Fire escape, Hobart © Rob Walls 2009

Waterfalls and wilderness – part 2

Russell Falls, Mt Field National Park, Tasmania

While setting up to photograph Russell Falls again, a walker stepped into frame to take a shot and I used him for scale. It was only after I took the shot that I realised the mist drifting from the falls onto my lens, gave this shot a kind of primeval quality so characteristic of Tasmanian rain forest. You almost expect dinosaurs to walk into the scene.

The Eucalyptus regnans is one of the tallest trees in the world. This particular example is nearly 80 metres tall. It has been lopped several times in gales. Its first branch is 38 metres from the ground…and it’s still growing!

Self portrait with forest giant, Mt Field National Park.

Russell Falls, Mount Field National Park, Tasmania

Horseshoe Falls, Mount Field National Park Tasmania

Fungus on decaying log, Mount Field National Park, Tasmania

Maybe I can shoot landscape after all…

I’ve never been much good at landscape photography. Which kind of poses the question as to why I would live in such a geographically beautiful island as Tasmania. But I’m a city boy. Nature to me is too often untidy. There’s always something in the frame that grates on my neat-freak tendencies. However, after the wettest winter in more than half a century, I figured there might be a fair bit of water flowing over the falls in Tasmania’s Mount Field National Park. I wasn’t wrong.

Though the weather was still pretty marginal (overcast and showery), I decided to use the opportunity to shoot some HDR (High Dynamic Range) pictures. The first of these of Russell Falls, shot from under the deep shade of rainforest and giant Dicksonia Antractica ferns is made up of two exposures. The second of Horseshoe Falls is from a range of five exposures.

I’m so pleased with the results, I’m going to go back in a couple of days to shoot when there is sunshine, to see how that works. Maybe I can get a handle on this landscape lark after all.

Russell Falls from under the fern canopy, two exposures.

Horseshoe Falls, four exposures

Horseshoe Falls, three exposures

Recycling a dead VW

Graham Stingel, kelp harvester on King Island with his VW van

Islanders are  especially resourceful. The smaller the island the more resourceful they are. In my experience, few are more resourceful than the residents of King Island in the wild and windy Bass Strait, between Tasmania and the mainland.  When kelp harvester, Graham Stingel’s Volkswagen van died he found it an ideal place to keep his firewood dry.

One of the thousand reasons I live here…

Double Rainbow over the Derwent, Hobart, Tasmania

One of the many reasons I choose to live in Tasmania, is the beauty of the constantly changing light. At this latitude, even the worst of days is likely to offer something of interest to the photographer.

I photographed this double rainbow over the Derwent River a month or two ago. At my back was the vibrantly beautiful, pocket city of Hobart (population: 150,000)… and I was less than ten minutes from home.