Arwen is a photographer and creative artist from Hobart, Tasmania. While she has worked in various creative modalities, including ceramics, visual arts and dance, nature photography has been her primary mode of artistic expression for the past five years. With photography, she combines her creative ideas with a love of wild places, light and pattern. She seeks to represent emotional responses to place, landscape and natural phenomena, thereby evoking a response in the viewer. Arwen has a particular interest in macro and night photography: both illuminate worlds that we do not often stop to immerse in and appreciate. Through her photographs, she aims to portray the unique beauty of the Tasmanian wilderness and to raise awareness of its need for protection. Arwen recently held a joint exhibition with multi-media artist Andrea Breen titled Celestial Listening (Sidespace Gallery, Salamanca Arts Centre, April 2014) and has had photographs exhibited in various other exhibitions, including the Weld Echo, Love the Tarkine and Kingborough Art Prize. Arwen also works as an arts and play therapist, having graduated with a Masters of Creative Arts Therapy in 2009.
If you like to think of Tasmania as the West Island of New Zealand, then perhaps you might enjoy thinking of those islands as the Eastern Isles of Tasmania. However, despite the cultural and botanical similarities, the geology and landscape is something different altogether. The South Island of New Zealand never fails to impress…
Text and images by Dr Lisa-ann Gershwin, Fiona Walsh, and Matt Holz
Images by Arwen Dyer, Leena Wisby, and Jo Malcomson
Spectacular masses of Noctiluca scintillans (Latin for “sparkling night light”) has brought thousands of people to the shorelines of southern Tasmania, hoping to catch a glimpse of sea sparkles, or bioluminescence. Many questions about how and where to look have been posted to the Facebook page, Bioluminescence Tasmania, and the activity there has catalysed this guide.
Here is a brief Q&A-style go-to resource for finding and photographing sea sparkles. If you get the timing and location right, you can go down to the beach and have a look at the water’s edge, make a splash, and watch the sparkles.
Seasonality: Sea Sparkles, or bioluminescence, can occur anytime, anywhere, because it is created by a variety of organisms with different ecological profiles. Noctiluca scintillans, the organism responsible for the recent brilliant displays, is commonest in the warmer months, but may be found any time of year.
Time of day: Noctiluca is positively buoyant, meaning that it will concentrate at the surface if left undisturbed. During the day, thick blooms of Noctiluca appear as a soft pink haze on the surface of the water, sometimes so thick that the bottom cannot be seen in even only a few cm of water. At night, these thick pink clouds may be seen with a torch, but the bioluminescence is best observed in total darkness once the eyes have acclimatized to the dark.
Most bioluminescent organisms – including Noctiluca – have an inbuilt biological clock that tells them when it is night or day, and they will not flash during daytime, even if put into a dark room.
Weather conditions: Noctiluca is around all the time in fairly low numbers, too sparse to put on a good light display. After a rainstorm, however, nutrient runoff into the water acts as fertilizer, stimulating a phytoplankton bloom. Therefore, when the days have been calm and sunny after a decent rain are the best nights to look for Sea Sparkles.
Gentle breezes will concentrate the bloom against the shore, whereas stronger winds will create too much turbulence for Noctiluca to stay at the surface, and it will sink down and disperse.
Longitude and latitude: Noctiluca is widespread around the world, and is most often observed in coastal areas. In Tasmania, it has been found in many locations, but is quite common in southern Tasmania where it responds well to the high nutrient load from urban discharge, agricultural runoff, aquaculture, and the slow flow situation created naturally by Storm Bay and the Derwent Estuary.
Habitat: The best habitats in which to observe Sea Sparkles are those where either (A) the wind is gently blowing straight into a bay, concentrating the bloom in one place, or (B) protected places where they are trapped and can’t get out. Examples of good bays would be Ralph’s Bay on South Arm during a gentle northerly or westerly breeze, or Howden on a southerly (winds are named for the direction that they blow from). Examples of protected places include Lauderdale Canal, Cremorne, Sullivan’s Cove, or Brown’s River in Kingston.
Bioluminescence from Noctiluca sea sparkle occurs in three ways. Because the human eye does not see colour at night unless it is quite bright, a dull but definite glow throughout the bloom may appear to the naked eye as pale whitish. Where the cells are stimulated through agitation – a breaking wave, footsteps along the water’s edge, a rock or sand tossed into the water, a dog or child splashing about, or a dancing photographer – brilliant neon blue flashes will occur that are easily visible to the naked eye. And where the water washes up on the sand then back down again, cells left behind on the beach will glitter on their own; this also happens with cells stranded on our hands or clothing.
Camera type: In mild to moderate bloom conditions, a camera with adjustable settings (e.g., a DSLR) will produce the best photos. In dense and widespread blooms, any camera will produce good images; during the recent bloom event, even iPhones were producing good stills and videos.
Intriguingly, with bioluminescence, if it is bright enough to plainly see blue colour with the naked eye, a photograph will effectively “flatten” the image so that the dynamic action of the flashes and glitters becomes essentially one broad wash of colour. In these cases, video is ideal to capture the action.
Settings: On DSLR cameras or those with adjustable settings, the following generic guideline can be adjusted as appropriate. Use your tripod, steady rock, or post. (Further information on settings can be found in the owner’s manual for each camera, or online):
Post-processing of photos: Most of the photographs produced from the recent bioluminescence event were distributed as unretouched, or non-photoshopped. Quite simply, the colour was so stunning straight out the camera, that nothing needed to be done to enhance it or more fully develop the undertones.
For paler light shows, some photographers may wish to “fiddle” with post processing to reach the artistic expression that is pleasing to them. Programs like Photoshop, Lightroom, Gimp, Zoner, etc are widely used.
Are they dangerous to humans? Do not ingest Noctiluca or put it on the face, eyes, or mouth. Brief handling such as swishing water with the hands or dancing in the light generally cause no adverse effects. Still water in canals and lagoons near urban regions must be treated with caution.
Does it hurt them when we splash around? Splashing around doesn’t hurt them. The tide stranding them on the beach – or us stomping on them – will dry them or crush them; these actions are generally fatal to them. However, they are clonal, so “fatal” is not as terminal as it sounds.
Can I take them home? Yes! In a widemouth jar in a cool area (not the refrigerator or freezer), they will live several days or more. Open the jar during the day, and replace the lid before swirling. They will not luminesce during daytime, but if the jar is tapped or gently swirled at night in a dark room, they will put on quite a sparkling show!
Because they are an introduced pest, after you are finished with them, ecologically appropriate disposal methods include down the drain or poured down the driveway.
What about the ocean? Respect the ocean, water, and seashore. Waves, gravity, and other dangers mus always be kept in mind when exploring the shore at night.
Many questions about how and where to look have been posted to the Facebook page Bioluminescence Australia, (formerly Bioluminescence Tasmania), and the activity there has catalysed this guide.
Special thanks to all who have contributed to the excitement and enthusiasm sparked by these mysterious creatures.
There is no place quite like Flinders Island. One of the Furneaux Group of Bass Strait islands off the north-eastern tip of Tasmania, Flinders is a unique landscape rich in biodiversity and splendour. The granite coast is astonishing in form and colour: contours painted red, yellow and green with lichen sweep into the sea and boulders juxtaposed with ragged limestone cliffs, balance precariously. Each beach shares its fairytale in variations of aqua-blue water, white sand, chiselled arches and crimson rocks.
The ocean laps in gentle conversation or rages as crashing waves. Mount Strzelecki towers above, draped in clouds or glowing in the sun. This is a delightful place where seas meet mountain slopes, wildlife perches, calls or dances at nearly every corner, nights twinkle with endless stars, wind howls and locals welcome you like old friends.
The felt sense of peace on Flinders Island is coupled with sadness and abhorrence at the devastation for Aboriginal Tasmanians captured by European settlers and imprisoned at Wybalenna in the 1830’s and 40’s. It is a history that whispers in the landscape and weighs on your heart and mind.
You can purchase Flinders Island, a new book of photographs by Arwen Dyer and Wolfgang Glowacki, by contacting Arwen via her website www.arwendyer.com. Arwen’s Artist in Residence on Flinders Island, and the book, were crowd-funded by Pozible and a grant from Arts Tasmania. Her latest book, Luminosity: Star, Sky & Sea, will be launched at Fullers Bookstore, Hobart, at 5:30pm on the 19th of February 2015. Her photographs will also feature alongside those of other artists at Island Light, a photography exhibition, at the Long Gallery, Salamanca Arts Centre from 23rd January to 4th February 2015. For more information, visit http://www.salarts.org.au/event/island-light/
What’s red, yellow, orange, and green, is found up high, and is about to fall?
As the autumn races towards winter, the subalpine forests of deciduous beech are changing in the mountains of Tasmania. Join Arwen as she focuses in on the fine detail and rampant colours of the Nothofagus in autumn.
Artist Statement – Nightscapes:
I have a reverence for nature and an interest in how inner experience responds to the natural world, to place, climate and time. I took these photographs of the aurora australis, stars and the moon above various Tasmanian landscapes. While most sleep or dwell indoors surrounded by artificial lights, noise and technology, I am awake and ecstatic, finding solace under silent night skies.
Images:
1. Dancing light
The aurora australis dances over Pipe Clay Lagoon, Tasmania, 29th June 2013.
2. Mountain star trail
The night sky in the mountains is truly mesmerizing. With no light pollution, the stars are many and bright. Mount Field, Tasmania, August 2013.
3. Milky Way tree
A Pencil Pine under the Milky Way. Mount Field, Tasmania, August 2013. Star spikes added in Photoshop.
4. City glow
Glow from Hobart’s city lights brings these dead trees alive. South Arm, Tasmania, August 2013.
5. Fading aurora
A faint and fading aurora australis glows in the early morning. South Arm, Tasmania, August 2013.
6. River aurora 1
A spectacular aurora australis reflected in the river; the International Space Station passing by. Huon River, Tasmania, 9th November 2013.
7. River aurora 2
The aurora’s ever-changing glow. Huon River, Tasmania, 9th November 2013.
8. River aurora 3
The fading moments of a stunning light display. Huon River, Tasmania, 9th November 2013.
9. River aurora star trail
Multiple images stacked to create circling stars amidst the aurora. Huon River, Tasmania, 9th November 2013.
10. Moonscape
Cliffs and shrubs silhouetted by the light of a half-moon. Clifton Beach, Tasmania, November 2013.
