Interstate Adventures
Welcome, welcome, to my first ramble of 2025. As the world embarks on another new dawn and the perils of another term for Mr T in the US - hears hoping he brings his A-team and doesn’t add to the unrest (though i fear that won’t be the case).
So…Last minute plans, with little to no preparation are sometimes the most fun. Leading up to Christmas I got the idea to pack light and jump a plane and whizz over to South Australia for a couple of days, so that’s exactly what I did. Not before my two and a bit week break from work over the holiday period was hijacked by an ‘all hands on deck’ scenario at work, where I ended up in the office for 6 days from Boxing day to New Years Day.
Some of the places we visited in the whirlwind trip must remain secret. The local legends and friends have made it very clear there will be serious repercussions if i share too much detail of their little slice of paradise. Likely painful. So trust me when I say that South Australia is a gorgeous and dramatic part of Australia however you should definitely not think of visiting.
My only ask for the trip was coastal droning, and that was delivered in spades! Here are a few of my favourites. If I’m allowed, I will return in the winter. Obviously the usual fees and approvals from the local authorities will be required. It was super dry as you can see by the landscape, however I’m sure that even an exact repeat of the locations (the secret ones) would yield a completely different set of stunning shots.
This one here, with the secret beach (there’s that word again) - the tiny specks on the beach, those are people. Lotte and I, we are perched on the hillside to the right there…on the path (which was less than 1 metre wide) and just before that sheer drop down to the beach. I actually had to reverse the drone in to land again, because it’s forward sensors detected a collision risk. Could have been a Fred I guess (refer to the last blog for more on that!).
What else…
Oh, doing some more light painting too, I know that’s the reason a lot of you signed up in the first place. Trying a few different things and making notes of experiments to test and try out. I’ll definitely share of course, in the meantime here are a few of the latest works.
52Frames is going well. Apparently though it’s a new year tradition that the theme for the first week of the year is Self Portrait. Practically any photographer I know does NOT like being on the wrong side of the camera. I took one for the team however (“What team"?’ I hear you ponder…well I don’t HEAR you, obviously…I imagine you ponder…hmm…where am I going with this…never mind). I got one. I like it. It’s actually a triple! Three Stuey’s for the price of one. I called it Demons. We all have those voices, whispering in our ears. Don’t we? DON’T WE? No, just me??? Ok. This is 3 me’s. Taken as three seperate exposures on remote control shutter, blended in camera, black and white-ified in post. Studio work with a single light source.
Certainly not two holidays for the price of one, I definitely paid for both! The family and I took off for a week in Thailand this month. Proper summer holiday with the good wife and kids. Such a lovely time, where lots of relaxing and reading and doing ‘not a lot’ was achieved. I took the drone again and a little point and shoot which i barely used. That’s ok though, I didn’t feel pressured to do it. Not much to share I don’t think, but I’ve not properly gone through the shots so maybe some of them next time.
I keep meaning to publish another gallery or some more prints. Just not got that designed or fully prepared yet. It’s underway though so definitely next time. I did get a cheeky little sale of three prints from the ones in the cafe though, that was a nice little bonus. As always, any purchase is greatly appreciated, and goes to help fund my obsessions - the camera one…or the coffee one…I’m a simple man with few real vices.
Anyhoo…Hit me up, write me back, share this nonsense with your friends…and most of all, have an awesome 2025.
Be good.
S