Rodney Campbell's Blog

We’d be spending a few days here in Penneshaw (which is a township on the northeast coast of the Dudley Peninsula on Kangaroo Island, and is the island’s main ferry port with regular services from Cape Jervis on the mainland).

Whilst having lunch on our first day here I noticed that a lot of the rocks higher up out of the water were covered in this fabulous golden orange lichen. Driving in and out of town I also spied this very nice looking little rocky bay with tons of these orange tipped rocks scattered everywhere literally right next to the main road. I’d seen images of rocks like these from the Bay of Fires in Tasmania (and had for some time wanted to go there and shoot them) but I had no idea I’d find them here on Kangaroo Island.

Land Time Forgot

NIKON D600 + 16.0-35.0 mm f/4.0 @ 19 mm, 1 sec at f/11, ISO 100

Having settled in at our accommodation out of town, and had dinner, I decided to head back to this location for sunset.

It’s not a particularly good location for either sunrise or sunset given that the sun rises and sets behind you over the land rather than out over the sea. However these orange rocks were too good to pass up and who knows where I might find these again (pretty much everywhere around the island as it turned out – but I wasn’t to know that at the time :)).

I unfortunately arrived late for what was a pretty damn good sunset (probably the best sunrise or sunset conditions for our whole trip as it turned out). I scrambled out of the car and headed straight onto the rocks – I was just incredibly lucky this is literally ten metres from the car.

It’s 8:24PM (just a few minutes till sunset over there behind the hill off to the left) and with a hastily arranged composition before the colour in the clouds vanishes I manage to grab my first shot up above…

A quick recompose a few minutes later now pointing pretty much towards the sunset with the colour of the clouds pretty much mimicking those fantastic orange rocks.

Shades of Orange

NIKON D600 + 16.0-35.0 mm f/4.0 @ 19 mm, 2.50 sec at f/11, ISO 100

Driving along the roads of Kangaroo Island there are these tunnels of tree’s all over the place. These trees which are spindly and bare at the bottom with these tough brushy tops are everywhere along the many roads on the island. I knew if I looked and waited I’d find somewhere I was happy with to shoot a shot I had envisioned in my mind – a road completely covered by a tree tunnel.

Note: These photographs (especially the wider shots) look much better when larger – so click any of the images below to see larger versions in an inline overlay slideshow gallery viewer.

On the road into Penneshaw where we were staying for a couple of days my wish seemed to be granted. Just a few kilometres out of town was a very nice clean undulating road with a nice looking example of what I was looking for.

On our first drive into town I had to stop and I made a number of different compositions handheld with the 24-70. Short focal lengths, long focal lengths, horizontal framing, vertical, down low to the road, up high and so on.

One tip – when you’re taking shots in the middle of the road – is to carefully listen for the traffic. It would be bad form to be run down in the middle of the road on the first day here.

This was midday and the light from above with a nice overcast sky gave a luminous look to the white tree trunks.

Luminous Tunnel

NIKON D600 + 24.0-70.0 mm f/2.8 @ 70 mm, 1/80 sec at f/5.6, ISO 320

Later that evening after checking into our accommodation just out of town, I decided to head back into town to shoot sunset in this little bay I’d spotted when we were driving into town earlier in the day. Driving past these same trees again with the low light of impending sunset streaming across the road and through the trees on my left, I had to stop and take some more images of my tunnel of trees.

Finite

NIKON D600 + 24.0-70.0 mm f/2.8 @ 58 mm, 1/60 sec at f/8, ISO 160

We were staying the next three nights in a very nice home in the hills above the sea (Sunset Rendevous) near the second largest town on the island (Penneshaw). However we weren’t checking in till later in the afternoon so we had most of the day to explore the area around Kingscote so we headed towards the North Coast…

It was off towards Emu Bay in the north and the Lavender farm near there. To be honest the Lavender was a bit of a disappointment – I was somehow expecting vast rolling hills of lavender – unfortunately not the case…

Note: These images (especially the wider shots) look much better when larger – so click any of the images below to see larger versions in an inline overlay slideshow gallery viewer.

For this image I’ve heavily underexposed it when taking it (-2 stops) and then selectively adjusted it in Lightroom using various radial filters, gradient filters and localised painting using adjustment brushes. It wasn’t quite this stormy and moody on the day but the rich textured clouds and the way the light was hitting the lines in the grasses of the fields and the bales was too good not to experiment.

Field of Gold

NIKON D600 + 24.0-70.0 mm f/2.8 @ 70 mm, 1/640 sec at f/8, ISO 100

On the way to the North Coast we did stumble across a few other very interesting locations which had photographic interest for me – and my family was very patient allowing me to stop and take some photos. Shooting this way there’s always the pressure to do it quickly, get back in the car and continue driving, which isn’t ideal for the very patient way I typically like to shoot :). To be honest they were very patient and didn’t complain too much so I am thankful.

No tripods or filters however (except the polariser) – it was all just the camera handheld with the walkaround 24-70 – but that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t think about your compositions and move around on foot, get up and down, till you get it right 🙂

One definite saving grace was the pockets of interesting light we were getting with funky moody clouds on a very overcast day.

First up – on the way towards the Lavender farm I could see this bright mirage like thing off to the left and as we got closer I could see it was a large lake with what looked like a very bright white rim around it. When we were almost against it we could see it looked like a vast salt lake. Having never seen one or anything like this in person before we can’t be sure but we stopped and all got out to take a look.

Thirst

NIKON D600 + 24.0-70.0 mm f/2.8 @ 24 mm, 1/80 sec at f/11, ISO 100

Salt of the Earth

NIKON D600 + 24.0-70.0 mm f/2.8 @ 31 mm, 1/200 sec at f/9, ISO 100

On the way back from the lavender farm we saw this large area which looked like a dried out swamp or lake bed with lots of dead trees. It was another place I figured I could come back too – alas little did I know how little time we’d really have 🙂

Thirst II

NIKON D600 + 24.0-70.0 mm f/2.8 @ 70 mm, 1/200 sec at f/8, ISO 100

Seeing all these freshly harvested and rolled bales of hay (enormous things mind you) in the fields as we drove by were too good an opportunity to pass, so it was time for another quick pitt stop and a few more hastily taken images before continuing the journey.

Thrice

NIKON D600 + 24.0-70.0 mm f/2.8 @ 70 mm, 1/100 sec at f/8, ISO 100

It was a very early wake up the next morning, unfortunately not to shoot sunrise but rather to head to the airport to catch a plane to nearby Kangaroo Island off the southern coast of mainland Australia (112km south-west of Adelaide).

Kangaroo Island is Australia’s third largest island (not including the mainland itself) and is 150km long and between 57 and 90km wide with an area covering 4,405 square kilometres.

This was the first time any of us had visited the island and we were looking forward to our time away.

Note: These photographs (especially the wider shots) look much better when larger – so click any of the images below to see larger versions in an inline overlay slideshow gallery viewer.

You can get to the island from the mainland in two main ways – either take the Kangaroo Island Sealink ferry or as we did the Regional Express Airline (Rex).

Plane Skies

NIKON D600 + 24.0-70.0 mm f/2.8 @ 31 mm, 1/125 sec at f/8, ISO 100

Once we arrived we picked up our hire car, packed our bags and headed off to the nearest town (in fact the largest town on the island) – Kingscote. After arriving we looked for a place to have breakfast (there were only two or three choices) – it was still very early 🙂

After satisfying our hunger we explored the area on foot for a little while. The coastline was very pretty and even though it was quite overcast the sky was putting on a bit of a light show – not of colour but of interesting light.

Piering to the Sky

NIKON D600 + 24.0-70.0 mm f/2.8 @ 24 mm, 1/100 sec at f/11, ISO 100

Only had a few minutes here at this interesting pier so I just shot this handheld – I figured I could come back later and do some interesting long exposures… little did I know we’d not have the chance to return.

After visiting the Haigh’s Chocolate Factory (I mean who can resist :)), we headed back into the city. Whilst the rest of the family shopped and rested I took my youngest daughter to the Adelaide Zoo.

Note: These images (especially the wider shots) look much better when larger – so click any of the images below to see larger versions in an inline overlay slideshow gallery viewer.

NIKON D600 + 24.0-70.0 mm f/2.8 @ 70 mm, 1/500 sec at f/2.8, ISO 100

She was desperate to see the Panda’s, which was the major attraction at the Zoo, and wasn’t disappointed.

Happy Panda

NIKON D600 + 70.0-300.0 mm f/4.5-5.6 @ 200 mm, 1/200 sec at f/5.3, ISO 7184

This little Frog Mouth Owl was very very cute, and pretty accommodating to humans. Living in one of the large enclosed aviaries you could walk through in the zoo.

Froggy

NIKON D600 + 70.0-300.0 mm f/4.5-5.6 @ 180 mm, 1/200 sec at f/5, ISO 250

and of course the obligatory Giraffes :).

Raff

NIKON D600 + 70.0-300.0 mm f/4.5-5.6 @ 300 mm, 1/320 sec at f/5.6, ISO 100

and a quick little pose in the bamboo pathway – we tried a few different spots in the zoo but this seemed to be the best position.

Delight

NIKON D600 + 70.0-300.0 mm f/4.5-5.6 @ 112 mm, 1/125 sec at f/4.8, ISO 250

even the fake panda’s were fun for a nine year old.

Pandamonium

NIKON D600 + 70.0-300.0 mm f/4.5-5.6 @ 165 mm, 1/200 sec at f/5.6, ISO 220