Rodney Campbell's Blog

My daughters and I went for a bit of a photo walk near our home today.

With cameras in hand we headed off along the streets in our suburb and into bushland nearby to see what we could capture.

1/500 sec at f/4, ISO 200, 135mm equiv

Walking along the bush track we came across this large and very interesting looking toadstool. It was a very overcast and dull day today and it was really threatening to rain with thick black clouds everywhere. This presented a challenge with the very low levels of light down here in the undergrowth. This ISO 3200 shot handheld at 1/40th of a second luckily turned out pretty well however.

1/40 sec at f/7.1, ISO 3200, 135mm equiv

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1/60 sec at f/2.8, ISO 400, 135mm equiv

A small stream runs through the bottom of this small valley.

1/60 sec at f/2.8, ISO 2000, 135mm equiv

As it turned out the overcast day with very low diffuse light ended up being ideal to capture this small waterfall. I don’t have a Neutral Density filter and to get this silky look to the running water I needed to use a very long shutter speed – the extremely low light levels made it much easier to get both a long shutter speed and a decent exposure. It also allowed me to make use of my new Joby GorillaPod tripod.

15 sec at f/32, ISO 200, 135mm equiv

This very long street with it’s canopy of trees and cars parked all down one side made for an interesting composition.

1/400 sec at f/2.8, ISO 200, 135mm equiv

My eldest daughter and I spent an afternoon cruising the Coonawarra stretch of the Riddoch highway visiting a sampling of the wineries in the region. The cellar doors are all extremely close to each other – you could “almost” walk the stretch of 25 odd wineries in this region.

Anyone who knows me knows I don’t drink – however we did visit 8 of the wineries and bought a mixed dozen of red’s along the way. I did however smell and take the smallest sip of every wine we purchased which probably means in one day I most likely doubled the total volume of alcoholic beverage I’ve consumed in my lifetime (perhaps a shotglass worth 🙂 )

The eight wineries we visited:

Leconfield

1/800 sec at f/5.3, ISO 200, 142mm equiv

Katnook Estate

1/320 sec at f/9, ISO 200, 202mm equiv

Brand’s Laira

Rymill

1/200 sec at f/13, ISO 200, 97mm equiv

Penley Estate

Bowen Estate

Balnaves

Blok Estate

Whilst holidaying on one of our relatives farms near Mount Gambier in South Australia I was able to indulge in one of my passions – and no given that we’re practically in the Coonawarra region it isn’t drinking Cabernet Sauvingon – although my eldest daughter and I did spend half a day visiting the wineries before coming home.

Being out in the country was a great opportunity to experiment a little photographically with a few photo walks and such. Given that the vast majority of photos I take are portraits or the like of children and the things they are doing I had the chance to go out and photograph other things.

What follows are a few examples…

The farmland in this region is very lush and green. In the background you can also see the huge pine plantations which are very common all around this area.

1/80 sec at f/16, ISO 200, 69mm equiv

A windmill needs no introduction I guess…

1/1600 sec at f/5.3, ISO 200, 180mm equiv

The following two shots are HDR’s which I’ve created from bracketed shots at 0, -2 and +2 EV.

1/500 sec at f/9, ISO 200, 27mm equiv

this second one was done using a tripod – it was quite late in the afternoon (just before 5PM) and we were driving back from the Coonawarra and I stopped and setup this shot when I noticed this great looking canopy of trees lining the road.

1/4 sec at f/16, ISO 200, 66mm equiv

This is another one of those driving along one afternoon and saw this great tree on the side of the road and stopped to take a photo (and I’ve converted it to black and white).

1/1600 sec at f/4.5, ISO 200, 66mm equiv

We spent a morning at the coast at a small town called Beachport and the water there was crystal clear and this bright turquoise colour and there was this insanely long pier heading out into the water (my eldest daughter counted it at 1174 paces).

1/160 sec at f/9, ISO 200, 27mm equiv

1/125 sec at f/16, ISO 200, 27mm equiv

Also near the coast is the Woakwine Range Wind Farm – there were over 100 of these massive turbines spread across the hills overlooking Lake Bonney.

1/250 sec at f/9, ISO 200, 112mm equiv

You see quite a few old abandoned stone houses and buildings on farms all around this area.

1/500 sec at f/5.6, ISO 200, 255mm equiv

The trees on the farm have large numbers of these very colourful and interestingly patterned bugs living on them – here is a handheld macro shot which shows a couple of them.

1/80 sec at f/5, ISO 200, 135mm equiv

A very old rough hewn wooden fence.

1/1250 sec at f/2.8, ISO 200, 135mm equiv

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1/400 sec at f/2.8, ISO 200, 135mm equiv

Another handheld HDR shot – this time on one of the roads leading into a pine plantation.

1/250 sec at f/11, ISO 200, 75mm equiv

During our travels we’ve been lucky enough to be visiting people who have dogs and this has proved a real treat to our daughters. It took a few hours to get over their initial apprehension with these large bounding animals who only wanted to playfully chase and jump all over them 🙂 but once they’d warmed up it was all cuddles and sunshine…

1/160 sec at f/5, ISO 200, 84mm equiv

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1/200 sec at f/9, ISO 200, 123mm equiv

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1/200 sec at f/8, ISO 200, 300mm equiv

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1/125 sec at f/5.6, ISO 200, 300mm equiv

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1/100 sec at f/8, ISO 200, 105mm equiv

Our family is traveling to visit relatives near Mount Gambier in South Australia and on the way we’ve stopped in Melbourne to stay with friends for a few days.

Another hand-held macro attempt with the early morning dew still on the roses.

1/125 sec at f/13, ISO 200, 135mm equiv

We took a quick day trip into the city for a bit of a walk around to see the city sights.

1/60 sec at f/5.6, ISO 280, 27mm equiv

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1/60 sec at f/5.6, ISO 1250, 27mm equiv

We wandered through a number of the interesting alley ways in the CBD that Melbourne is famous for.

1/60 sec at f/5.6, ISO 1800, 27mm equiv

Flinders Street Station of course….

1/200 sec at f/10, ISO 200, 48mm equiv

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1/80 sec at f/5.6, ISO 200, 300mm equiv