Redbank Gorge
“Try to forget what objects you have before you – a tree, a house, a field, or whatever. Merely think, ‘Here is a little square of blue, here an oblong of pink, here a streak of yellow,’ and paint it just as it looks to you, the exact colour and shape until it gives you your own impression of the scene before you.”
- Claude Monet
I am in Alice Springs on a eight day road trip headed back to the coast. Lots of remote stop overs in the desert. Lots of photography I am hoping. Apparently Lake Aire is filling. I packed my birding lens. Smiles.
It’s a week off, time for some Lens Time. Camera and landscape. On the road. Free. Without responsibilities. Places off the more photographed usual places. Who knows where we will stop.
I wasn’t really looking forward to heading south and returning that way because I wanted to see the marbles again. But with the thought of visiting that massive inland lake and perhaps even seeing some water in it I am incredibly excited.
There maybe some halts in transmission from your writer over the next week. Internet is likely to be scarce. I will probably be a little distracted with my camera. I have an article to write for Better Photography Magazine too.
I don’t even know if I will get to revisit the Macdonald Ranges. This shot was was before Cyan was born. I set up and ran the first indigenous policing conference in Australia there while I worked for the Northern Territory Police, Fire and Ambulace Service’s Training School.
Was a fantastic week. It was just a few months before he was born. While I was in Alice, I watched the Todd River flood. I stood on the causeway watching the river start to flow. The first wave of water lapped down and turned the dry riverbed into a flowing river. A beautiful moment.
They say if you see the Todd flow more than once, you never leave. I will have ask to see if that holds any weight. Perhaps it is three times?
The conference went smoothly and we connected Indigenous Police Officers and Liason workers from around the country together. Sharing ideas and importantly connecting people together.
Afterwards I was dragged down to a brothers place to get a 4wd and I was soon in the MacDonald Ranges with my Ebony 4 x 5 and a box or two of film. That’s where this photograph was taken. One of a handful. Caught mid morning in the shadows of the gorge.
I am wondering what will happen when I take a camera there that is looser and less methodical. One that doesn’t cost $20 to take one photograph. One that lets me see in black and white.
Will it be this trip. I doubt it. But it will happen.
Enjoy your photography and life. Photograph what you love. And you will hear from me soon.
Gorge Gum. Redbank Gorge. MacDonald Ranges, Alice Springs. Central Australia. Photograph and text copyright © Len Metcalf 2019
