Rodney Campbell's Blog

Departing Lake Argyle and heading for the civilisation of Kununurra today.

First my daughter wanted to try a swim in the fantastic (but very cold at this time of year) infinity pool at the resort :).

NIKON D750 + 28.0-300.0 mm f/3.5-5.6 @ 28 mm, 1/125 sec at f/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.

Kununurra is located in far northern Western Australia at the eastern extremity of the Kimberley Region approximately 37 kilometres from the border with the Northern Territory. Kununurra was initiated to service the Ord River Irrigation Scheme. Kununurra is the largest town in Western Australia north of Broome, with the closest town being Wyndham, 100 kilometres away.

The town is situated in among the scenic hills and ranges of the far north-east Kimberley Region, having an abundance of fresh water, conserved by the Ord River Diversion dam and the main Ord River Dam.

Trees

NIKON D750 + 28.0-300.0 mm f/3.5-5.6 @ 98 mm, 20 sec at f/11, ISO 100

We stayed in the Kimberleyland caravan park right on the lagoon.

Lake Kununurra is a freshwater man-made reservoir located in the Ord River valley. The lake was formed in 1963 by the construction of the Ord Diversion Dam in Kununurra, northern Western Australia, which was built to supply water to the Ord River Irrigation Area.

At the town of Kununurra the lake is connected to Lily Creek Lagoon. It contains freshwater crocodiles and many fish species, and is widely used for recreational fishing and boating by the residents of Kununurra and tourists.

The waters edge was a mere 50m from our caravan site so it was an easy stroll down to the lagoon for some excellent photographic opportunities.

The Sleeping Buddha

NIKON D750 + 28.0-300.0 mm f/3.5-5.6 @ 82 mm, 92 sec at f/11, ISO 100

These fantastic dead trees out in the lagoon combined with the fantastic Sleeping Buddha in the distance and the stillness of the water – perfection. The official name is Carlton Ridge however it looks most like a sleeping buddha if viewed from town and thus it’s colloquial name.

With the images above I’ve tried for a long exposure to see if smoothing the water any more would make any difference to the already fantastic reflections. So for this I stacked the Lee BigStopper with the Lee 0.6 GND and the Heliopan CPL to dramatically lengthen the exposure.

However to give you an idea of just how still the water was, below I have a similar shot taken without the 10 Stop ND for a lazy 1/20th of a second.

Kununurra Dreams

NIKON D750 + 28.0-300.0 mm f/3.5-5.6 @ 122 mm, 1/20 sec at f/11, ISO 100

Towards the end of our cruise on lake argyle as the boat is heading back towards the our starting point the sun is setting over the hills where we’re heading.

NIKON D750 + 28.0-300.0 mm f/3.5-5.6 @ 90 mm, 1/100 sec at f/6.3, ISO 560

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.

Moonscaping

NIKON D750 + 28.0-300.0 mm f/3.5-5.6 @ 28 mm, 1/30 sec at f/6.3, ISO 640

Argyle Wash

NIKON D750 + 28.0-300.0 mm f/3.5-5.6 @ 58 mm, 1/60 sec at f/6.3, ISO 720

The ripples behind the craft were mesmerising and timed to perfection to allow the colours of the setting sun and early twilight to reflect off the surface.

Turning towards where the sun has just set the lovely light fills the sky and reflects off the ripples of the waters surface.

Lake Folds

NIKON D750 + 28.0-300.0 mm f/3.5-5.6 @ 62 mm, 1/60 sec at f/6.3, ISO 1100

With the vessel picking up speed I move to the back of the boat to shoot these fabulous reflections off the wake.

They plan this well to create a huge wake and then turn the craft and drift just as the light perfectly skips across the endless moving ripples to create these mesmerising sinuous curves.

Rolling Hills

NIKON D750 + 28.0-300.0 mm f/3.5-5.6 @ 58 mm, 1/60 sec at f/6.3, ISO 4500

We are in heaven and with such a massive untouched body of water it lasts for minutes – time to fill up the memory card with amazing images 🙂

Argyle Tiger

NIKON D750 + 28.0-300.0 mm f/3.5-5.6 @ 112 mm, 1/125 sec at f/6.3, ISO 1250

The end of a perfect afternoon out, my daughter and I really enjoyed this… A sunset cruise on the lake on the “Kimberley Durack” with Lake Argyle Tours is a must do!.

I’d never attempted a stitched panorama from a moving boat before so I figured now was the time to experiment.

I’d just come out of the water from my first swim and the light was still fantastic and the hills were aglow. For this cruise I’d packed light – I just brought the camera with the all purpose 28-300 zoom fitted with the polariser.

I’ve shot many handheld stitched pano’s before but none whilst the surface I was standing on was rocking gently back and forth. The water was very very deep here and we weren’t anchored.

It was time to experiment…

Lake Argyle Experiments

NIKON D750 + 28.0-300.0 mm f/3.5-5.6 @ 145 mm, 1/160 sec at f/6.3, ISO 360

I was only interested in a fairly tight view of the hills in the distance glowing against the blue water and the sky just starting to light up. The shapes and folds of the hills were so interesting it was hard to know when to start and stop – you just wanted to include it all.

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.

My first run through was shot at a tight focal length of 180mm and I took 46 vertical frames across. I havn’t even attempted to stitch them together.

My second run through was at a slightly wider 145mm and 30 vertical frames were taken.

Shooting at such a long focal length for a stitched panorama is normally difficult enough to get and keep things level right across the whole pano. Doing it for 30+ frames… handheld… on a moving boat – madness you say!.

My technique is simple:
– keep the horizon line level going across the middle of the frame as you slowly rotate (your body) and take the frames. Keep the camera as vertical as you can.
– when taking a frame take note of what is at the edge of the frame on the middle horizon line and rotate to move that point to the middle of the next frame (giving you a 50% overlap).
– don’t stop – just work your way across the whole set.

Remarkably the experiment seems to have worked – tho it did just about kill photoshop when I was doing it. Perhaps I shouldn’t have been exporting all the frames for a star trails set at the same time!.

Anyway I got complaints about my drive running out of temp space whilst attempting the stitch. I think this caused it to fail to do the blend between frames. I kinda liked this end result because it shows exactly where all the source frames were and how they overlapped when I took them so I’m leaving it this way for all the world to see :).

NIKON D750 + 28.0-300.0 mm f/3.5-5.6 @ 28 mm, 1/30 sec at f/6.3, ISO 280

The sun had now set – it was time to head back after a fantastic afternoon – tho it wasn’t all over yet…

The views out on the lake were breathtaking, but we both really enjoyed swimming off the boat in the middle of the lake just before sunset.

Swimming in Circles

NIKON D750 + 28.0-300.0 mm f/3.5-5.6 @ 56 mm, 1/60 sec at f/6.3, ISO 180

It’s not everyday you get the chance to go swimming with 30,000 freshwater crocodiles :).

Swimming in Argyle

NIKON D750 + 28.0-300.0 mm f/3.5-5.6 @ 40 mm, 1/40 sec at f/6.3, ISO 160

We got to jump off the roof into the water off the back of the boat and drinks and nibbles were sent out to us on floating rings into the water. What better way to spend the late afternoon than relaxing and swimming in the wilderness. The water whilst cool wasn’t as cold as I’d expected either.

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.

One important piece of info for those coming here. There is absolutely no mobile reception at Lake Argyle resort – not at the caravan park or the lookout above the lake, the dam or anywhere around there.

However whilst on the cruise out in the middle of this massive lake we had intermittent 1 or 2 bar Telstra reception. Very random but welcome when you are cut off from the world so much up this way :).

Alight

NIKON D750 + 28.0-300.0 mm f/3.5-5.6 @ 300 mm, 1/320 sec at f/6.3, ISO 160

The late afternoon light just before sunset was magnificent. It just made the hills glow with golden glory and the varied patches of soft light and shadow were a photographers dream.

Afterglow

NIKON D750 + 28.0-300.0 mm f/3.5-5.6 @ 62 mm, 1/100 sec at f/6.3, ISO 100

Swimming done it was time to head back towards where we’d started.

We stayed an extra day for this but it was sooo worth it. If you are ever up this way you must go cruising at sunset on Lake Argyle.

At 2:15PM we left to go out with Lake Argyle Tours and they were absolutely fantastic. The “Kimberley Durack” is modern, smooth and comfortable, and well appointed with easy 360 degree views and our two hosts were outstanding.

Cruising

NIKON D750 + 28.0-300.0 mm f/3.5-5.6 @ 28 mm, 1/30 sec at f/5.6, ISO 100

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 D750 + 28.0-300.0 mm f/3.5-5.6 @ 112 mm, 1/200 sec at f/5.6, ISO 100

But it’s the amazing scope and scenery of this massive man made freshwater lake which is the real show stealer. We spent a few hours cruising the lake and it’s only when you get out here on the lake that you get a sense for the size of the area covered by the lake (nearly 1000 square kilometres). And we only saw a small fraction of it.

NIKON D750 + 28.0-300.0 mm f/3.5-5.6 @ 78 mm, 1/160 sec at f/5.6, ISO 100

All these tiny islands (former mountain peaks before the dam flooded the whole area), and the mountain ranges around the edges were varied and beautiful. The wildlife was abundant (we got to see quite a few freshwater crocodiles) and the trees and sculpted land was beautiful in the late afternoon light.

NIKON D750 + 28.0-300.0 mm f/3.5-5.6 @ 300 mm, 1/320 sec at f/5.6, ISO 200

NIKON D750 + 28.0-300.0 mm f/3.5-5.6 @ 300 mm, 1/320 sec at f/5.6, ISO 100

NIKON D750 + 28.0-300.0 mm f/3.5-5.6 @ 92 mm, 1/400 sec at f/5.3, ISO 100

NIKON D750 + 28.0-300.0 mm f/3.5-5.6 @ 300 mm, 1/320 sec at f/6.3, ISO 180

NIKON D750 + 28.0-300.0 mm f/3.5-5.6 @ 300 mm, 1/320 sec at f/8, ISO 1100