Rodney Campbell's Blog

By this time some other families had arrived to watch the sunset from Remarkable Rocks. As they were wandering around taking their own photos of themselves with the rocks I setup in the middle to take a few stitched panoramas whilst the sun sank down towards the horizon.

This one is a full 360 degree panorama comprised of 14 frames taken at 24mm. Unfortunately the frames towards the setting sun lost all detail around the sun but this was the best I could recover from the original non bracketed RAW images. Still pretty amazing dynamic range from the D600 sensor in dealing with the massively wide variances in brightness looking at the sun through to near darkness in the shadows.

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.

360 Degrees

NIKON D600 + 24.0-70.0 mm f/2.8 @ 24 mm, 1/8 sec at f/11, ISO 100

I then got a little tighter at 26mm and took twenty one sets of three bracketed frames (-1EV, -3EV and +1EV) (so 63 images in total) for another 360 degree pano right on sunset.

In the end however I decided to just use the -1EV frames and stitched just a smaller selection of them for this view which encompasses probably around a 180 degree field of view.

Sunset Remarks

NIKON D600 + 16.0-35.0 mm f/4.0 @ 26 mm, 1/3 sec at f/11, ISO 100

Before sunset I was primarily looking at shooting the landward side and the side being lit by the sunset. Now that it was after sunset I looked to move around the whole area, exploring the rocks from other angles and seeing how I might come back and do further compositions on another day.

I particularly liked this view looking from down the slope on the seaward side looking back up these amazing water worn grooves in the base granite towards the windworn rocks up on top.

These grooves were particularly interesting because on the tops of the ridges the crazy orange lichen grew and coloured the surface of the rock but down in the depression of the grooves where presumably the water ran the lichen couldn’t grow and left you seeing the bare rock beneath.

This shot a 400 second long exposure with just the Lee LittleStopper twenty five minutes after sunset.

Chomp

NIKON D600 + 16.0-35.0 mm f/4.0 @ 16 mm, 401.00 sec at f/11, ISO 100

Finally… reluctantly… it was time to leave. Walking back up the boardwalk away from the rocks… time for one more shot looking back at these truly remarkable rocks…

Animals in the Dark

NIKON D600 + 16.0-35.0 mm f/4.0 @ 35 mm, 23 sec at f/11, ISO 100

Before coming to Kangaroo Island I did a little research on potential shooting locations and Remarkable Rocks was one of the top hits and it’s easy to see why.

The Flinders Chase National Park features the spectacular Remarkable Rocks and Admirals Arch as well as a colony of New Zealand fur-seals at Cape du Couedic.

Remarkable Rocks are naturally sculptured formations precariously balanced atop a granite outcrop and are a wondrous sight to behold.

Remarkable View

NIKON D600 + 24.0-70.0 mm f/2.8 @ 45 mm, 292 sec at f/11, ISO 100

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.

I’m not sure if I can adequately describe how crazy amazing these rocks are and how out of place this whole thing appears to be. All the land around this area is covered by these very low scrubby bushes (which you can see in the first shot above). For many kilometres behind me it’s just like that, lots of scrubby bushes as far as the eye can see but no rocky outcrops or anything like that. However right at the tip of this promitory reaching out into the sea this huge rounded granite outcrop rises up out of the ocean and on top scattered like a handful of jacks sit these huge weather sculpted rocks.

Luckily the Lighthouse Keepers cottage we were staying in at Cape du Couedic is literally a five minute drive from Remarkable Rocks so I knew I’d get a number of opportunities to shoot here during our five days stay.

Wasting no time however I decided to make a quick trip here on our first day. Straight after eating dinner and leaving the rest of the family to recover from our long drive here from the other side of the island I made the quick trip here and arrived at the rocks just before 7PM. Sunset was late at this time of the year (8:30PM) so I still had plenty of time.

The image up top is the view as you walk down the boardwalk towards the rocks. There were very few people about at this time so I setup for some long exposures on the boardwalk. This image using just the Heliopan CPL along with the Lee BigStopper (10 Stop ND) for a lazy five minute exposure.

I tried a few more with a 0.6 grad as well but with the rocks sticking up haphazardy above the horizon line, using the grad was fraught with the danger of obvious darkening. In the end I pretty much didn’t use the grads at any stage when I shot here at Remarkable Rocks over the next few days because of that reason. There was just too much important stuff (these amazing rocks) sticking up above the horizon and having them strangely cut with darkened lines just wasn’t going to work.

Of course there was time for the obligatory selfie with the rock… This is a blend of two images – one long exposure shot using the Lee BigStopper stacked with an ND 0.9 and the CPL (247 sec @ f/13 and ISO 50) and another with just the CPL (1/125 @ f/8 and ISO 100) to get a good capture of me after I’d climbed up into the rock.

Rockin’ Sunset

NIKON D600 + 24.0-70.0 mm f/2.8 @ 24 mm, 1/125 sec at f/8, ISO 100

and why not another as the sun slowly sank in the west (behind the camera position here)… I took a combo long exposure and normal shot for this as well but have given you the normal frame here.

Remarkable Set

NIKON D600 + 24.0-70.0 mm f/2.8 @ 24 mm, 1/15 sec at f/8, ISO 100

Located within the Flinders Chase National Park, Cape du Couedic is located on the most south westerly point of the Kangaroo Island coast.

There are a number of fantastic things to see down at this remote tip of the island – two of them natural (Remarkable Rocks and Admirals Arch), and one man made – the Cape du Couedic Lighthouse.

Cape du Couedic Lighthouse

NIKON D600 + 24.0-70.0 mm f/2.8 @ 36 mm, 1/320 sec at f/5.6, ISO 100

We’d booked to stay in one of the Lighthouse Keepers cottages for five nights in this wild and remote part of the world. Down here there was no phones, no mobile reception and no TV. With three daughters who constantly rely on their mobile phones and their connectivity to the online world (and probably me included) it was going to be an interesting five days and nights 🙂

One other thing you need to know if you plan to stay here… it’s an hours drive to the nearest “corner store” (at Vivonne Bay) and even there the provisions are extremely limited and it’s also one of the closest places to buy fuel. This basically means you need to buy the bulk of your provisions at ones of the supermarkets either in Kingscote or Penneshaw on the extreme other end of the island before driving over here.

The Cape du Couedic Lighthouse was constructed between 1906–1909, it consists of a tower built from 2,000 pieces of local stone, together with three four-roomed cottages to house the head keeper and two assistants with their families. The light characteristic shows two flashes every ten seconds.

Soon after arriving and emptying our car into our cottage we went for a walk to see the lighthouse (it’s literally just a one minute walk away) and then down past that to the end of the promitory of land where Admirals Arch is.

NIKON D600 + 24.0-70.0 mm f/2.8 @ 70 mm, 1/640 sec at f/3.5, ISO 100

Up from Admirals

NIKON D600 + 24.0-70.0 mm f/2.8 @ 70 mm, 1/80 sec at f/8, ISO 100

Met up with a group of friends for a fantastic afternoon on Cape Solander at Kurnell last weekend. Ana Andres had organised a picnic and photowalk for us on a lazy sunday afternoon.

I brought my two youngest daughters for the afternoon to enjoy the good food, good company and the very slow meandering 🙂 down the coast towards the lighthouse.

Golden

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

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.

Ana

NIKON D600 + 24.0-70.0 mm f/2.8 @ 62 mm, 1/500 sec at f/3.2, ISO 100

Came across a colony of these very large red bull-ants – not wanting to be bitten but my girls were still fascinated by them and took many of their own photographs of these little beasties. Many thanks to Jason Ruth for the loaner camera for my girls to use.

Tug of War

NIKON D600 + 24.0-70.0 mm f/2.8 @ 70 mm, 1/250 sec at f/2.8, ISO 100

Model for a Day

NIKON D600 + 24.0-70.0 mm f/2.8 @ 70 mm, 1/320 sec at f/2.8, ISO 100

Sitting Pretty

NIKON D600 + 24.0-70.0 mm f/2.8 @ 70 mm, 1/80 sec at f/2.8, ISO 100

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

By the time we were walking back to the cars the skies had started to get this crazy moody light to then. A strange almost dirty burnt colour was starting to show in the clouds and interesting rays of light were streaming out through the gaps in the clouds. This shot is simply from the end of Cape Solander Drive where we’d started and ended the walk.

Solander Coffee

NIKON D600 + 24.0-70.0 mm f/2.8 @ 70 mm, 1/500 sec at f/8, ISO 100

What the girls were really looking forward to was visiting the Raptor Domain and their in-flight Birds Of Prey display.

I have to say the girls really enjoyed the hands on experience with the various eagles, owls, buzzards and other raptors who live here.

All the children got a chance to don the glove and get some one on one time with some of the birds and the information and story behind their lives was just as amazing.

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.

Omen

NIKON D600 + 70.0-300.0 mm f/4.5-5.6 @ 300 mm, 1/640 sec at f/5.6, ISO 640

Feathered Friends

NIKON D600 + 70.0-300.0 mm f/4.5-5.6 @ 122 mm, 1/400 sec at f/4.8, ISO 100

Raptor

NIKON D600 + 70.0-300.0 mm f/4.5-5.6 @ 300 mm, 1/640 sec at f/5.6, ISO 250

Looking Behind

NIKON D600 + 70.0-300.0 mm f/4.5-5.6 @ 165 mm, 1/400 sec at f/5, ISO 180

Who

NIKON D600 + 70.0-300.0 mm f/4.5-5.6 @ 95 mm, 1/800 sec at f/4.5, ISO 100

Plumes

NIKON D600 + 70.0-300.0 mm f/4.5-5.6 @ 220 mm, 1/640 sec at f/5.3, ISO 100