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TWINSCAPES Opening – March 12, 2011

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Japanese pinhole photographer Hideharu Matsuhisa presents the exhibition The TwinScapes @ the Caloundra Regional Art Gallery  – March 9 ~ April 10.

PHOTOS: Mark Schoeman

Hide has been a regular visitor to Australia for many years – staying with Brisbane photographic identity Ian Poole. For 7 years Hide has been working with pinhole film cameras in Japan, the US and Australia. The Caloundra gallery exhibition is a selection of his color pinhole images made over this period.

As pinhole photographers and friends to Hide we supported his exhibition by providing pinhole cameras and other resources. We were invited by Hide to include two camera obscura images to be included as visiting artists in his show. On the morning of Saturday 12th we presented a lecture on pinhole photography to around 40 participants. After lunch John Waldron, (Cultural Heritage & Collections Manager, Creative Communities, Sunshine Coast Council) presented a commentary on Hide’s approach to pinhole photography (SEE http://lucidamagazine.com/?p=414).  We officially opened the exhibition.

The TwinScapes exhibition features color pinhole imagery that has the profound feeling of a memory – in encountering the works the viewer may have a sense of looking at the image of a past experience. Hide’s feeling for the sweeping expanse of the Australian landscape is complimented by the tight compositions of urban Japanese buildings.

Thanks Hide for sharing your “light” with us.

'Trees in fog' by Hideharu Matsuhisa

GIRRAWEEN National Park Weekend, March 25, 26 & 27

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Back on granite @ Girraween

I wonder if our shadows are still there

when we return I will check the rock and let you know.

Vicky under the picnic tree

Doug taking a break

Written by Cooper+Spowart

April 7, 2011 at 12:48 pm

Toowoomba Floods – January 10, 2011

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January 10, 2011 FLOODS IN TOOWOOMBA.

I went home for lunch on the 10th and, after checking the Bureau of Meteorology – and noticing a big red/orange blob heading toward Toowoomba, Vicky and I waited for a storm. That’s not unusual – we’ve seen plenty over the years. But this one seem ominous.

The rain became heavy, and the heavier again. Water began to flow from the tank overflow and follow its familiar path into the back yard. But then the water level in the back yard began to rise up towards the house and studio. And it rose more and more – torrential rain thundering on the roof.

Water run off from the road in front of the house began to make its way through our drive-way and through the space between the house and studio. The backed-up water in the back yard continued to rise – flooding the underside of the house and creeping up to just below the top step into the house and studio. It held that height for twenty minutes or so. I grabbed the camera.

View from the top step of our studio

Eventually the rain eased and we checked the aftermath. Backyard flooded, under the house flooded – huge volumes of water running down the street. We investigated – just a minute or two from our home a torrent of brown turgid water was crashing through the once peaceful parkland at the end of our street.

Our back yard

Neighbours were out on the street as well – watching, wondering about the awesome scene before us. Later we were to learn of a child and mother had been swept to their deaths from a flooded car a block away upstream in James Street.

East Creek in flood at the bottom of Burns Street

Flood waters at the bottom of our street

The rest is a history that we all know from the media . . .  Somethings were never to be the same again!

Cheers  –  Doug

Written by Cooper+Spowart

April 7, 2011 at 10:44 am

Hello world!

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Written by Cooper+Spowart

April 6, 2011 at 1:11 pm