For the beauty of the stars

While I was out west at Charleville, I had originally planned to do some night photography. I love photographing at night, as it feels so peaceful and requires patience. A 15 minute exposure seems like a lifetime while you're waiting for it, but I guess in a lot of ways, it is everything that people that love fishing love - a whole lot of doing nothing, in the hope you will get a great end result.

Anyway, after I arrived in Charleville on the first night and I had attempted to bash out a typecast, I still had that 'very awake - very tired' feeling going on. My brain was mush, but it didn't stop me from  foolishly grabbing my camera to head out and find a spot away from the town to try and do some photos with ambient/natural light.

I only got one shot off before my mushed brain turned against me!

The settings were all wrong. The image came out overly bright in the sky and noisy. It was a poor attempt.

But that wasn't the only thing that went wrong. The loving peacefulness during the taking of shots like these was interrupted by my frantically misfiring brain that was still buzzing away with the trauma of my 2+ hour game of 'dodge the Roo'. A few minutes in the calm and quiet, I started to have a little waking nightmare. I started to think about ghostly bushmen coming out from between the trees. I felt my heart start to race, and then I thought about my camera.

I was certain. absolutely certain that the photo would come out with a ghostly apparition walking down the road towards the camera. I started to think about how I would absolutely flip out when it happened, and that I could never sleep again having captured such a ghostly image.

The shutter clicked. It was only an 8 minute exposure. I pulled the legs of the tripod together and then quickly placed the camera and tripod as one unit into the passenger side footwell of my car. Within seconds I had spun around and bolted down the road back towards my hotel room.

With long exposures, my camera has a processing phase that takes about the same time as it took to expose the shot. As such, I left the camera doing its thing while resting against the passenger seat next to me. I was in fear that any second now the processed image would pop up, and I would look down and be scared out of my wits.

I pulled into the hotel car park just as the camera's back screen lit up with the final image. I didn't even look. I just parked my car and grabbed my camera and went inside.

I turned all the lights on and sat on the bed. I clicked my DSLR into review mode and looked at the photo.

No ghost. Just a bucket load of noise, and an over exposed sky. The 'end roadwork' sign was partially lit by the headlights of a car that had briefly been on the road over a Kilometre back, which gave the sign a slightly ghostly appearance of its own.

Click the image above to have a better look.

*  *  *

As much as the first night was a disaster, I attempted doing some night photography again on another night. I really wanted to do the town, but the redneck mine workers seemed to be trawling the streets in their utes looking for an open bottleshop or pub - or maybe just something to do. So I didn't feel safe enough to do it till really early in the morning - which eventually just didn't happen. 

So I headed out of the town again to give the stars another try. 

Once again the first shot was a bit of a disaster. 

The view here was amazing. The stars were so bright and plentiful that I found myself staring at them in wonder, the same way as I did as a kid. 

But I tried to line up a shot of the milky way, only to find myself having to move the camera when a Roo came out of nowhere and nearly knocked it over. For future reference, put your camera in the middle of a clear area so both you and the roo can see what's coming/there first. 

I've kept this shot, because even in the finer details... (click to enlarge again) you can see how many stars were so easily visible. This was an attempt at framing the milky away against some trees, but it all ended up a bit of a blur because of the sudden need to snatch the camera while it was still exposing. 

I lined up the camera along the road, and tried again....

When I saw the road light up in this shot, despite the fact that I couldn't see a thing of it in the dark, I got excited. This image was very sharp and eire in it's own right. The number of stars visible made the sky almost a blur of grey, to the point that looked like it was overcast and filled with shooting stars. But it just was a black sky that was so thick with pinpoints of stars, that it exposed very brightly. It had never occurred to me to adjust the aperture to possibly fade some out, and just take longer shots. 

I changed lenses to capture a more intimate shot of a dying tree. The leaves continued to blow in the wind while the dead branches remained still. On my 24" 1:1 monitor - at full screen this shot looks spectacular.

I tried a couple of other experiments before packing it up for the night. Most of those aren't worth showing here, and I started to get a little cold (it was 2 degrees C : 34.5F) and I needed a good sleep. 

The one big disappointment, was that I had taken my Medium format (film) camera with me for the specific purpose of capturing these kinds of shots. It is far superior at night photography, and I had intended to run the two cameras at the same time but unfortunately couldn't. There was a problem with the rotating bracket on my RB67, and it wouldn't allow me to activate the shutter. I attempted some hotel room repair, but I unfortunately had left my spare back in Brisbane. I've never had an issue with this part before, and I was kinda taken by surprise. I expected to have bigger issues with the film back, and initially thought that part was the fault. 

For those who have never used a medium format camera, the 'film back' is a canister that you can load your film into, and it clips tightly onto the back of the camera. This allows you to change film half way through a shoot, without compromising the reel - allowing you to use things like polaroid backs to check your composition, or other films for other effects. A lot of these cameras are still in use because you can get digital camera backs to put onto them. 

I've always loved looking at the stars. The the longer I look, the more I am humbled at how I am just a tiny speck of dust in the grand scheme of the universe. But, paradoxically being able to reason this with myself, makes me so very significant in the universe.

Coming up: Charleville Museum, and that typewriter discovery.

I'm back! Now, let's get these typecasts organised.

Just as a side note: Although I couldn't find one in a thrift shop, antique store or second-hand dealer, typewriters ended up being absolutely everywhere in Charleville. I've actually had my hands on a special one that Robert Messenger has mentioned in his blog in the past, while I came across others in some of the often most unexpected corners.

Postponing Mr Messenger.

It is unfortunate, but I have to postpone going to see Rob Messenger's magnificent exhibition in Canberra. I mentioned last week that I was taking leave at a point that it wasn't the most  financially optimal time for me to do so, and at the end of last week a couple of things made it a bit difficult - if not impractical to launch into a drive down to Canberra.

It means that I'll probably just fly down in about a month, instead of embarking on a lengthy road trip by myself. But in the meantime, I have something else in mind to get me out of brisbane, and I'm going to need a bit of Typosphere assistance. Let me elaborate:

And yes. It will involve a typewriter.

Brisbane - Canberra 'round' trip: 2600 KM. (1616 miles) Visiting Rob's exhibit.

Click to view in more detail.

I'd planned to stay a night in Dubbo or Orange, a night in Canberra, and probably a night on the way back in Newcastle. I had not organise accommodation previously, and despite knowing people in Dubbo, Orange and Newcastle, I had no certainty about getting accommodation cheaply or even freely. 

Having my car serviced unfortunately ended up costing more than originally quoted, and this put a bit of a strain on my budget. After I collected my car - the afternoon after I finished writing the 'Valentine' blog post, I ended up getting struck down by a severe Migraine that left me writhing about in bed for most of Friday, feeling like I was being repeatedly struck in the back of my head with a shovel.

I knew something was wrong when I couldn't shift that headache I had been suffering for a few days prior, and dealing with the Valentine project seemed to be oddly beyond my usual abilities. I'd had a hugely stressful week the week before, and I guess something just had to give way when I took leave. 

It really just highlighted to me just how much of a strain I had been under. Two days after my Migraine, and I'm feeling relaxed, and a lot more optimistic. 

But the strain reminded me that I needed to take things a bit easier at the moment. I love driving, but pushing it hard through New South Wales along the Great Dividing Range didn't strike me as being the best thing to do. However I decided I still needed a bit of a trip away from Brisbane. I was my first voluntarily taken paid holiday since I've been working at the Hospital, after all. 

Charleville Odyssey:

Click to view in more detail. 

Charleville is approximately 770 km (478 miles) out of Brisbane. It sits far over the other side of the 'Great Dividing Range', and essentially is on the doorstep of one of the most rugged parts of the Outback. 

Yeah! It even has a golf club. If only I could play. 

Charleville is at the edge of a region that is known as 'The Channel Country' - an area that despite being largely desert, occasionally floods to form a series of vibrant rivers which will feed into Lake Eyre. 

I've lived in Brisbane for 7 years now, and as yet I haven't gotten any further into exploring Queensland than a town west of Brisbane called Toowoomba, while going no further north that Hervey Bay. That is to say, I haven't explored outside relative safety of the South East Queensland region. 

So what's at Charleville? Well, nothing in the traditional sense. Queensland is largely seen in Australia as being something of a Tourism hub. Most of this is concentrated along the eastern coast where the beautiful beaches, tropical island resorts, amazing rain forests and the Great Barrier Reef holds the interest of tourists. 

I could point my car north and follow the endless lines of beautiful beaches where I could take thousands of amazing sunrise photos that my friends could use to make Facebook memes of about love and positive thinking. But that just doesn't interest me. I've seen enough beach. Heck, I've driven on them, camped on them, swam off them, walked on them and photographed the hell out of them. 

I don't want to stare at the beauty of palm trees and sand surrounded by tourists dressed in their most tropical attire. I want to explore, in the way I have always explored. I also know people located at Charleville and Roma hospitals, that I talk to on the phone on a professional basis occasionally.

So I'm loading up Ruby the Exxy (my car) and hitting the road to see what is out there. What life is like elsewhere. The reason I want to go out this way, is because of a town named Cunnamulla - a town about 200km south of Charleville.

In the year 2000 a documentary about Cunnamulla was released. It wasn't about the town per-se, but rather a collective tales about the darker sides of some of the people living there. It is a hard film to watch because of the content and the brutal honesty, but it is worth it because it can give you a picture of what being brought up in some of Australia's most isolated areas can be like. 

But these harrowing personal tales tell nothing about the town and the life out in this region. I want to go and see the land for myself. Living in Brisbane gives you a skewed view of what country life is like, as much of the city's culture tends to be about being a 'big country town'. it celebrates this with  festivals like the oxymoronic 'Urban Country Festival', and the recently defunct 'River festival'. But Brisbane is more of a sprawling suburban metropolis that is filled with would-be cowboys in Hilux utes and land cruisers, that country it up on Fraser island ever so often. 

Meanwhile the same cowboys 'Fly in - fly out' of rural areas, as we rush to dig up the landscape in what we call 'the mining boom'. They care little for the farmers, the towns folk and the indigenous Australians that actually live there. 

I've done trips like this before. In the past I spent a large amount of time in Whyalla, South Australia where I worked in a Mobile Disco that travelled to many mining and industrial towns in the region. I got to see some of the best, and worst of what life was like in the desert of South Australia. 

So I'm off for a handful of days, to get my first taste of the region. My mobile provider only provides coverage as far as the town of Roma, so I'll be very much on my own. I'll be loading up my camera, clothes, UHF and..... my typewriter. 

So..... Which typewriter to take? 

The prerogative is that it needs to be portable. Ideally the more robust the better. But I also want it to be nice to type with, as I'll be bashing out a few pages, letters and ideally a handful of typecasts. Mr Messenger - I may not make your exhibition this week, but it doesn't stop me getting my type-on out there in the outback. Australian typing - or the Australian typewriter museum. 

I have quite a collection of typers, but these are the candidates on this occasion. I have typecast on almost all of these on here before. 

My Royal portable. Arrow or QDL? Who knows... it has no name. But Ernest Hemingway once hammered on the glass keys of a near identical model. Perhaps this is the machine for  telling a journey of adventure - or to tell the tale from the point of view of an action ready Journalist. Good to type on this machine robust enough to have actually survived being drowned in a flood.

Smith-Corona Sterling - T.S. Eliot used one of these to explore the mental landscapes of men and women from many different places. He has explored the diversity of cultural clash, and the dreams of failed dreamers. But he often found beauty in the most intimate of places. This machine is solid and stylish, and a very capable typer. 

The Valentine. No respectable writer has ever claimed to bash out a tale on one of these. But the hard case looks at home amongst camping gear hard cases. Not to mention this machine owes me serious quality time after I brought it back to life. Robust? No. Good to type with? Meh. But it does it with style. 

Hemes 3000. Jack Kerouac, Stephen Fry. Both these men are immeasurably intelligent, and are immeasurable in their diversity. Kerouac explored the freedom that living gave you, and its consequences, while Fry is compassionate and inquisitive. This machine is very robust, and beautiful to type with. 

(Not pictured) 

Adler Tippa - Script. Jill Kernaghan (my mother) spent many hours at the keyboard of her Adler. She never could justify buying a cursive model, but she loved them. While this isn't my mother's typewriter, I have kept this on has my memory of her. Quite robust and reasonably nice to write with. this machine looks almost new, bar the scars on the case where it had been the writing tool for a man that was painter and a musician. 

(Not pictured)

Hermes Baby. 

John Steinbeck. The landscape played second fiddle to the drama and the passion in his writing. But there was a love of the land, and an appreciation of the struggle of the people living on it. Harsh to type with, its size makes it amazingly portable. A competent writer, that is nearly 60 years old but is well made enough that it doesn't show any of those years. 

Remington Quiet Riter. Hermann Hesse. Hermann was a passionate artist who was also a highly analytical thinker. He was a courageous man who questioned the dogma of the time, and often rushed in to put his life at great personal risk to do what he felt needed to be done - or said. This machine is a word tractor, and is built like a tank. It is a reliable writer, even if it can sometimes feel a bit too mechanical to write with. 

So, el typosphere - what should I take on my little adventure? 

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