In 1981 and 1982, Marg and I worked as youth workers in the suburbs of Perth. We worked with a crowd of friendly, questioning, fun-loving young people who were full of energy. Most of the time that we were in the crowd, we were fully engaged, and my photography was shelved. In the story of our lives, these years blend together as one and so do the photos.
However, we were new enthusiasts for the south coast and we began to take small groups on bushwalking expeditions on long weekends. I took my camera on most of these. I enjoyed photographing our expeditions and showing the results to those back in the city who were yet to experience the adventure.
Our walks challenged our city kids to think about what was important to them. When you carry your food, shelter and warmth on your back, you get a reality check on the difference between needs and wants. You gain a new consciousness of the sheer comfort of life in a modern city, where water comes out of taps and lights turn on at switches on the walls.
The photo above is a precursor of one that will feature later in the series, after I moved to digital cameras. I’m sure I was well aware at the time that taking a photo into the sun would be difficult, but the blaze of glory in front of me just demanded to be photographed. I did not own a graduated neutral density filter. I have two other slides taken at the same location and time. One is lighter and shows more detail of the landscape and the people. The other is darker and shows the sky striped with rays from the sun. I was obviously aware that each photo would tell a different story about the scene, and bracketed my exposures accordingly. However, I had no means of putting the slides together to make a single high dynamic range photo. More about that later in 50TTL.
Most of my photos of our bushwalking trips featured the people who came along, but I also turned the lens towards the natural environment. I enjoyed coming across unusual wildflowers or fungi, and I was always fascinated by the restless motion of reflections off the ocean.
Our visits deepened our connection to the environment and climate of the south coast. It began to exert a persistent magnetism on us, drawing us to our eventual move away from the city.