Adam Monk Photo Tours & Images Gallery

The Cottesloe rally for the Kimberley was yesterday, and considering the heat (35 degrees…) it was a pretty good turn out, i’m not good at estimating numbers, but i would have said 300-400 people were there.

Most people opted for the shade around the edges

All the wilderness groups worked together to put on a well organised show of unity, it was just a shame the heat was so intense so early, i think that stopped a lot of people from showing up.  I know they were expecting much bigger numbers from the responses they had from facebook and other social network news, so if you were there, well done, if you were going to come but didn’t…  What happened?  Don’t you think saving the Kimberley from going the way of the Pilbara Coast is worth sweating a bit for?

A sweltering day… 35degrees at 11am

I really can’t stress this enough, unless they are forcibly stopped by overwhelming public opinion, the Barnett Government will ruin the Kimberley forever.  This is not what Colin Barnett claims is, “a pinprick on the landscape”  this is a giant, polluting, ecology destroying industrial zone that is going to cover more than 20 square kilometres and stretch 7km out to sea, right smack bang in the middle of one of the last pristine wilderness areas left on earth. That is just the beginning, there are at least 5 other projects in the pipeline that will piggy back off this one, moving right into the heart of the Kimberley.

We shouldn’t have to fight our own Government to get them to do the right thing, and raping the Kimberley is not the right thing for anybody except a few multinational corporations who will simply disappear when the minerals run out, leaving desolation and destruction in their wake.  Wouldn’t it be nice if we were remembered as the generation who saved the Kimberley from corporate greed rather than the one who let it be destroyed?

Don’t forget, the Kimberley Rally to show public opinion about the proposed  James Price Point Gas project is this Sunday, 28th November at 11am.  It is happening at the Cottesloe Civic Centre in Napier St, this is Colin Barnett’s own electorate so it will be interesting to see if he dares to show his face.  Tell everyone you know about it, lets get a bit of public opinion stirred up about this, before it’s too late!

If you care about the Kimberley, and you dont want your heritage destroyed by uncaring greedy fat bastards, you’ll be there.  The proposed Kimberley Gas Project will be an enormous loss for all of us, don’t let them get away with it.

I spent Sunday and Monday this week at a mindblowing two day workshop by Guy Gowan on Photoshop and advanced image retouching.  I thought i knew what i was doing before i went, i thought this would be professional development, where i would add to my knowledge, maybe pick up a few useful tips and tricks to improve my processing skills… Oh, i was so wrong. Read the rest of this entry »

I just had a few days camping around Margaret River, something i haven’t done for ages.  It really is a beautiful place and a very odd site to try and build a coal mine…

The first couple of days were a bit rainy and grey, which is the perfect weather for stuff like this…

Weathered Wood

Shot on the 5D Mk II with that really cool 17mm f4L tilt shift lens i keep writing about.  Seems its almost permanently glued to the camera these days, in fact most times i seem to leave the rest of my camera gear at home or in the car (heavily locked and secured of course).  I just love the texture of the weathered wood in this shot, it was really  an experiment to see just how much depth i could get with the lens tilt and an extremely close subject, and this old gnarly tree was a great subject.  By tilting the lens so the focal plane was parallel with the tree trunk i was able to keep all of it pin sharp while dropping out the background very nicely, its almost like having a field camera again, but not as big or clumsy.

By Friday afternoon the weather started to clear and i found myself down at Redgate beach again, where the sunset was just amazing!

Clearing sky at sunset, Redgate Beach

I had brought a very heavy bag with all my Canon gear and the 6×17 down with me (and mostly left it in the car), and although my brain told me i should take out the 6×17 and use that… stitching not being so great for beaches and moving waves… i just couldn’t bring myself to do it.  Really i needed 2 tripods set up next to each other so i could shoot with both at once, oh yeah, and an assistant to carry all this gear, and a second assistant to set it all up…  Working on these lovely clean digital files has really spoiled me, its hard to go back to spending hours dusting huge scans, removing fingerprints and chemical smears that turn into whole continents when enlarged to 100%… maybe i need an assistant for that too…

This image is of course shot with the canon 5D Mk II and the  17mm f4L tilt shift lens… its actually one image of a 7 or 8 image stitch, which i haven’t done yet.  i’ll play around in the coming days and see if i can get it to work, stay tuned.

Well today Shell Oil announced it had sold 30% of its controlling stake in Woodside Petroleum (10% of the total shares on issue), and they are open to offers for their remaining 24% stake.  You might remember Woodside is one of the major players in the current bid to turn James Price Point into a major industrial precinct and is a big favourite of Colin Barnett. (The Australian.  The Melbourne Age.)

Now whether or not this fire sale has anything to do with the building groundswell of resistance to this current land grab at James Price Point is anybodies guess, but it is interesting timing, could it be that Shell no longer wants to be a part of such un unpopular and imoral project?

The case or not, its good incentive to add your voice to the fray by coming down to the Kimberley Rally at the  Cottesloe Civic Centre on Sunday the 28th of November at 11am.  Check out the info here.  Its going to be a great day of positive action, come along and find out whats going on and what you can do about the proposed Kimberley Gas Project.  You don’t have to chain yourself to a bulldozer to help, there are many things you can do to get your voice heard, come along on the 28th and be a part of it.  I’ll be there, I’ll be the one wearing the orange T-shirt!