Melbourne

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Last year at the APPAs, luck was smiling on me. Each year the most excellent folks at Kayell and Canson run a contest for APPA entrants. The 2013 contest gave seven entrants an all-expenses paid trip to Melbourne and the Mornington Peninsula for a landscape masterclass with two of the absolute legends of Australian photography, Peter Eastway and Les Walkling. I don’t know what I did to have chance favour me, but I was very excited to find out I was one of the seven! So early in 2014, Wanda and I packed our bags and headed to Melbourne.

Day 0 (well, it’s the day before the workshop started…): I’d never been to Melbourne before. Pretty exciting. First impressions? This is a city that understands art. Brisbane has a few art installations here and there, and they look a bit like someone from council bought artwork piece #249A and installed it at grid location 41B. Melbourne art installations seem to belong right where they are, as though they are considered important. I quite like that. We stayed right in the city, within walking distance of lots of good stuff to see, and walk we did.

Day 1: Because I am a crazy person, I thought I’d get up before dawn to wander about, letting Wanda have a sleep in. Around the time of the morning where joggers contend for sidewalk space with the people that just got kicked out for closing time at the strip clubs. I made my way to Hosier Lane, which you have undoubtedly seen a million bazillion times in photos. Apparently it’s often jam packed with photographers. That said, because it was nice and early, in the 20 minutes or so that I was there, I saw one other person. I’ve been told that was quite a luxury.

These are a couple of my favourite images from Melbourne.

Day 1, continued: We made our way down to meet with the rest of the winners at Kayell, then off to the hotel that served as HQ for our trips out. Gotta say, it’s a little intimidating sitting around a table with the other winners, who are all very accomplished photographers. Look over there, that’s David Evans, Master of Photography, several times SA photographer of the year, and driving force behind the Epson International Pano Awards. And, oh, Mandarine Montgomery, none other than the current Australian Portrait Photographer of the Year. And on and on it goes. Then “Hi, I’m Kris, I’m new here, and, er, I like bacon.” OK, I might not have said that. But the idea that we’d get to hang out with these people was pretty intimidating.

In reality… Intimidating? Hardly. This set of people were very cool, very open, very nice, no ego, just stories and experimentation and boundary pushing. I can’t believe Wanda and I got to spend three days with them.

Disaster #1: tell me how I could possibly have forgotten to bring shorts? Jeans yes, trackies yes. Shorts no. And it was HOT. Fortunately Monsieur Evans had a spare pair, so I wasn’t completely stuffed.

Disaster #2: First afternoon out, and BLAMO! Wanda’s camera dies. She did manage three or four frames before it fully died. Later on it turned out to be a pretty serious internal fault, so nothing as silly as a loose connection or low battery or anything. But for the remainder of the trip, she got by just fine with her iPhone. Bummer dude. She wouldn’t take my camera from me either.

At this stage I should tell you – Landscapes are without doubt one of my weakest areas of photography. I’ve never developed the eye for it. I suspect part of it is that I don’t think I have the time to devote to doing it properly. Life is pretty full, and there are some things I love to do, some people I love to see, and some things I kinda just have to do, and that makes it difficult to carve out many hours for travelling and waiting for the right light. That made this trip all the more special – no kids, no responsibilities, Wanda with me, off we go.

Day 2 and Day 3 we had early starts to head down to Cape Schanck. We didn’t quite time it right the first time, but our second time was more successful. I would have to say that my captures on the first trip were 99% rubbish, and on the second trip they were only about 92% rubbish, which is a serious improvement!

This next one is probably my favourite image from our trips out. The sun was just coming up over the horizon, as we were heading back to the parking lot. It was a gorgeous, gorgeous day, a little mist out on the bay, sun lighting up the bushes and grasses on the hill. By this point we knew everyone else pretty well, and everyone was having lots of fun. The composition of this one isn’t going to win any awards or sell any prints. But it’s not for anyone else but us, so that’s ok.

Later in the day, Fiona Harrison took us back to Kayell, and gave us the local’s tour. That was seriously the nicest thing – she took us past the places she’s lived with her family, the places she and Andrew often go for wedding shoots, where their studio used to be… it’s amazing that these people you have only just met would take the time and be so generous. Thanks Fiona, driving back with you was absolutely the cherry on top.

I was pretty sad to be heading home at the end, and I’m pretty sure Wanda was similarly devastated. It’s true that we learned a thing or three. But by far the bestest best part of the weekend was getting to know each of the wonderful people. It completely reinforced the idea I have that photographers as a general rule are nice, supportive, friendly, driven, and definitely inclusive and welcoming. We’ve made some friends that I sure hope we get to see again someday. Australia’s a big country and we’re separated by some big distances… but the photography community is pretty tight-knit, so somehow I expect we’ll cross paths again.  Vanessa, Anna, David E, David M, Mandy, Fiona, Andrew, Peter, Les, Zach, and Rob – thank you so much for making this such an amazing experience for us.

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(Thanks Mandy for the photo 😉 )

Travel: Nandi Hills and Bhoganandishwara Temple

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Kris gets to travel to India about once a year through his work.  The last time he went it was a fly in, work, fly out trip so no time for going out and seeing the sights.  This time I was lucky enough to go with him and he made sure there were a couple of days that we could be tourists.

Our first stop was Nandi Hills.  It is on the outside edge of the city of Bangalore and is a popular spot for tourists and locals alike.  While we stayed in India we had a driver, Rajesh. Traffic is like nothing I’ve ever seen.  Lanes are optional, honking your horn is essential and merging, well, just get on over.  The amazing thing is, it works and it works really well!  But if you’ve never driven there, don’t try it!  Hence, we got a driver and I was so grateful we did.  Not only did he drive us anywhere we wanted, but he would tell us about the different places and people.  Our very own personal tour guide.

On this particular day we left our hotel at around 5am and Rajesh also picked up one of Kris’s workmates, Hari, who is also a keen photographer, to show us the sights and be able to capture the wonderful sunrise up on Nandi Hills.

It’s a long and very, very, very, curvy road to the top of the Nandi Hills lookout.  As we were driving along I saw where we were headed and thought to myself, “we’re going up there?!!!”  As we drove it got a little bit foggy.  As we drove further and higher we drove into the clouds.  Literally.  Yes, we were still on a road, but it wasn’t fog that was surrounding us, it was clouds.  It was amazing.

This first picture is a beautiful wrought iron archway that is at the start of one of many paths at the top of Nandi Hills.  The stone pathway, the iron arch and the vines growing over it. All framed perfectly what looked like a portal to anywhere.  I could picture walking though and disappearing into the mist beyond.  Magic…..

After we trekked around Nandi Hills we descended back down the zig zag road out of the clouds and Hari suggested we visit one of the temples.  I was thinking, some small building but Bhoganandishwara Temple was anything but.  It has many different sections.  You enter through a metal gate set into a stone wall and you step into an unbelievable place.  Outside the temple is a lawn and garden, surrounded the whole way around by beautiful stone walls.

Outside of the temple was an old lady.  Beautifully dressed in a traditional sari, she was sitting on the ground by some wooden racks.  You take your shoes off before entering the temple as a sign of respect, place them on the racks and the lady stays and minds your shoes.  It’s not her job.  No one pays her to do it.  She just does.  You can give her some rupees when you come out.  It’s probably the only money she gets.  She stays there all day in the hope to earn a few dollars for her family.  I was very humbled by the people of India.  So many have so little but work so hard for it.

When we entered the temple it is all stone.  Beautifully carved stone.  The floor is stone, the walls are stone, the pillars are stone.  Worn smooth by time.  I looked at my bare feet and wondered how many people had walked here before me. There are carvings everywhere you look, even in the floor.

Going through a small doorway we entered into another section of the temple.  This part had a water well.  It’s like an inverted pyramid with stone steps all the way down.  That way, you can step down to wherever the water level is at the time and get your buckets of water.  We were in the water well room when a man in a white robe made his way in and sat down on a step of the water well.  He was just there, sitting peacefully, enjoying the day.

The carvings were amazing.  Every one is different.  Representing different gods and deities and important things in Indian culture.  I put my hand on the stone and felt like I could be anyone, anywhere, any time.  I can’t explain it.  But it was an experience I’ll never forget.  I’ve never been anywhere with so much history.  I’ve never seen things so old, been in a place that seems to transcend time.

 

As we left the temple we stopped at the sign that gave a bit of the history of the temple.  Here I was thinking it was a couple of hundred years old.  No, the temple was built in 810 A.D. And no, I didn’t forget the 1 off the beginning of that year.  Not 1810, but 810.  Over a thousand years old.

Thank you India.