Ben Cooke’s elementography

To cap off a warm day and a warm hued sunset on Leighton Beach; on opposite sides of the horizon the full moon sits aplomb amongst a purple sky.

A copper hued sky fades into darkness around the all conquering glow of the sun descending into night.

The remaining sun seeking souls prepare to farewell the sun as the last faint , orange hued rays of the evening caress the shore at Leighton Beach.

Warm evening glow bathes the timbers of the Leighton Beach footbridge in a golden hue as a small group of people gather to watch the sun make its final ascent behind the ocean’s waves.

A large sea freighter ready to collect wheat from this year’s harvest prepares to enter a holding pattern around Fremantle port.

One of the many age decorative tiles addoring the sandstone bricked walkways down to Leighton Beach.

A simple image tracing the train lines south from Leighton Beach to North Fremantle rail station and further on to the Fremantle skyline.

For a city of just 1.4m people, Perth has a surprisingly vast and efficient rail network.  That said, the Fremantle line, built in 1881 was actually closed in 1979 due to the ever expanding Stirling Highway being seen as the only way to travel.  Not surprisingly, the line was reopened a few years later and remains both a pleasant journey and a part of popular culture.

I’m a huge fan of lo-fi photography like lomography.  Sure, I love my megapixelz, but there’s something so exciting about not knowing exactly what you’ll get when you release that shutter and capture that moment in time.  In essence, it’s why I’ve always loved my Polaroid camera; that moment is also instantaneously brought to you.  It’s also why I rarely look at the image screen when I’m taking photos; I much prefer to come home and review them as I ‘develop’ them.

It’s a shame in many ways that the physical art of photography is being lost to transistors, and the magic of that the singular moment giving way to smoothed edges and desmudged lines.

Sometimes it’s nice just to create something unique.  The above is a composition of four images rapidly shot off in sequence using the wide angle lens, looking down from the aforementioned foot bridge.  I couldn’t bear to part them.

The corner of the Leighton Beach footbridge is a wonderful vantage point to admire an ever retreating sun.  The wind generally whips up the coast towards the camera’s vantage point and while blustery, is often very refreshing after a long hot summer day.

The flash of colour on the left hand side of the image is not an alien spacecraft and is instead an artifact created by the angle of the sun and the glass of the lens; it’s usually an undesired element, but sometimes I feel it adds to the intensity of the moment.  The sun is literally so bright that you’re seeing stars.

Okay, so maybe I stretched the truth a little.  This shot wasn’t taken with my wide angle lens, but as I came across it tonight I figured it was too good not to post.  There are still remnants of the old rail workings at the Leighton Beach rail yard.

Rails are so linear and rigid, yet their lines can be very useful in drawing an eye to the horizon, or in highlighting something at their juncture.  There’s also the added allure of decaying structure and form as the grass and weeds slowly reclaim the land.