Rodney Campbell's Blog

Driving west to the small township of Fitzroy Crossing and then out to Geikie Gorge National Park. It’s the most easily accessible national park in the Kimberley. There’s bitumen all the way out to Geikie Gorge and it’s less than 20km from the small Kimberley town of Fitzroy Crossing.

The best way to see Geikie Gorge is to join a boat tour. We had a couple hours to wait for our river cruise on Geikie Gorge so we made and had lunch and explored the local area a little. It was pretty damn hot though, so sitting in the shade with a cool breeze was the order for much of the time :).

Geikie Looming

NIKON D750 + 28.0-300.0 mm f/3.5-5.6 @ 42 mm, 1/250 sec at f/8, ISO 100

Geikie Gorge is situated at the junction of the Oscar and the Geikie Ranges. Geikie Gorge has been carved 30m deep by the mighty Fitzroy River through part of an ancient limestone barrier reef which snakes across the west Kimberley. Some 350 million years ago in Devonian times an ancient sea laid down the limestone barrier reef.

During the wet season when the Fitzroy river is in flood the waters can rise 16.5 metres (54 ft) up the gorge walls and the continuous rise and fall of the water has left the lower half of the walls scrubbed and bleached white.

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.

Geikie Reflections

NIKON D750 + 28.0-300.0 mm f/3.5-5.6 @ 85 mm, 1/200 sec at f/8, ISO 100

The gorge was named in honour of Sir Archibald Geikie, the Director General of Geological Survey for Great Britain and Ireland when it was given its European name in 1883. Sir Archibald never visited the gorge and in due course the traditional owners, the Bunuba people, hope that it will be more generally known by its Aboriginal name, Darngku.

Many of the visitors on the tour were on the lookout for crocodiles in the water and at the waters edge – we saw a few during our cruise but most of them were too shy and afraid and were well hidden :).

What Awaits

NIKON D750 + 28.0-300.0 mm f/3.5-5.6 @ 300 mm, 1/320 sec at f/8, ISO 250

More of those fabulous coloured cliffs with the white scrubbed lower layer.

Geikie Cliffs

NIKON D750 + 28.0-300.0 mm f/3.5-5.6 @ 28 mm, 1/80 sec at f/9, ISO 100

Mangrove Reflections

NIKON D750 + 28.0-300.0 mm f/3.5-5.6 @ 135 mm, 1/160 sec at f/9, ISO 500

I actually took this well before we left on our boat tour up the river. It’s the view from near the boat ramp across to the other side.

Geikie Gorge Boat Tour

NIKON D750 + 28.0-300.0 mm f/3.5-5.6 @ 28 mm, 1/100 sec at f/8, ISO 100

I’m a landscape photographer at heart but my typical “landscape” work usually involves water (and a lot of it) in the shot. Living in Sydney with it’s vast coastline and harbour I’m surrounded by sooo many fantastic waterfront locations to shoot. So to be more specific I’m really a certain type of landscape shooter – typically called “seascapes”.

Out here in the remote inland wilderness of the Kimberley’s and certainly at this time of year (the dry season) vast areas of water just aren’t very likely :).

The views I saw from many of these locations and this fantastic view from Ngumban Cliff Lookout typifies the look of those famous Australian outback painters I’ve grown up admiring.

Ngumban Cliff Landscape

NIKON D750 + 24.0-70.0 mm f/2.8 @ 24 mm, 1 sec at f/11, ISO 100 x 3 Frames

This three horizontal frame stitched panorama taken from next to the caravan just after sunrise was my favourite from the morning session. It so reminds me of those paintings I’ve seen of outback Australia from those landscape masters. Those colours, those textures, the shapes and undulations of the land, the ghost gums and the fabulous light they captured on canvas.

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.

Another three horizontal frame stitched panorama. I never used to take horizontal frames for a horizontal stitched panorama – always favouring vertical frames for vertical resolution in the final result. This trip has taught me that even an old dog can be taught new tricks, and sometimes convenience and time trumps all.

Morning View

NIKON D750 + 24.0-70.0 mm f/2.8 @ 24 mm, 1/5 sec at f/11, ISO 100 x 3 Frames

Since our caravan was parked right at this cliff edge and I only had literally 10 feet to walk to shoot sunrise if I wished I decided to get out of bed for the sun rising over Ngumban Cliff.

Ngumban Cliff Rising

NIKON D750 + 24.0-70.0 mm f/2.8 @ 24 mm, 1 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.

Sunrises at this time of the year out here were typically pretty bland from a landscape photographers point of view. We hadn’t seen any clouds in the sky (day or night) since arriving in Darwin many weeks ago. It’s the winter dry season so there just isn’t any expectation of clouds or rain. It’s pretty bizarre for me to spend days and days and weeks with completely crystal clear blue skies.

So it was I had an expectation of getting out of bed to watch the sun rising over clear skies…

I actually didn’t get out of bed till quite late – 5:50AM (for a 6:03AM sunrise). By the time I’d got up, dressed, got on location and was setup for shooting (5:54AM – I know :)) the sky was actually very bright already. Remarkably there was also some clouds in the sky!.

Up top is the view from just behind the caravan on the edge with the sun rising to my right at 6:15AM.

I also put together a few quick horizontal frames for a stitched panorama which I’ll put up in the next post.

I then went for a short stroll to the lookout and past that lone tree to a spot I’d checked out the previous day.

Golden Arrow

NIKON D750 + 24.0-70.0 mm f/2.8 @ 24 mm, 1/4 sec at f/11, ISO 100

This is still less than 100m from the van so the only real concern is the very spiky spinifex grass which is pretty prolific out here.

Golden Rise

NIKON D750 + 24.0-70.0 mm f/2.8 @ 24 mm, 1/3 sec at f/16, ISO 100

Some people just like having a view from where they sleep :).

Sleeping in the View

NIKON D750 + 24.0-70.0 mm f/2.8 @ 24 mm, 1/8 sec at f/16, ISO 100

With the sun rising right over the lip of the canyon wall at 7:00AM I waited for the sun to start revealing the near side with low raking light and interesting forms and textures over the undulating land below.

Ruffles

NIKON D750 + 24.0-70.0 mm f/2.8 @ 52 mm, 1/6 sec at f/20, ISO 100

and within an hour all the clouds were gone again and the skies returned to cool blue :).

Another night in dark skies country, another chance to shoot the milky way out here in the remote areas of the Mueller Ranges.

Unfortunately the moon was bright this evening which made it difficult to shoot the stars or the milky way. It was already two (2) days after the first quarter and just five (5) days until the full moon so the moon was already quite large and high in the sky and probably too bright for shooting the stars. It did however make for a lovely moonlit landscape on yet another beautiful evening out here in the wilderness.

Ngumban Milk

NIKON D750 + 14.0 mm f/2.8 @ 14 mm, 30 sec at f/3.2, ISO 2000

Still I’m out here in this fantastic location which I’ll probably never see again and which I surely couldn’t waste… so given I only have to walk 50m from the caravan to setup for the shot it’s just got to be attempted…

Ngumban Cliff Lookout - Mueller Ranges

I was only able to push to ISO 2000 this evening when shooting the open skies before it started really washing out the sky with the brightness of the moon. The Milky Way was still clearly visible to the naked eye but you couldn’t push the camera to capture more of the stars without also brightening everything (including the sky and the moonlit foreground).

I had great plans for this lone tree out here on the edge of the lookout – a nice arch of stars over the tree…

To get the arch I had to shoot from behind the tree looking back towards the Ngumban Cliff Rest Area with all the caravans and campers. We were just having dinner over there under the covered tables behind the tree only an hour beforehand.

As day folds to night We setup at the tables at the edge of the cliff and watched the lovely sunset whilst dining…

Ngumban Cliff Setting

NIKON D750 + 24.0-70.0 mm f/2.8 @ 70 mm, 2.5 sec at f/16, ISO 100 x 12 Frames

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 took twenty three source frames for this stitched panorama at 5:20PM just as the sun began to set and the pastels started to take over the sky. The light was changing quickly and dramatically so I needed to repeat a number of the frames with different settings to compensate for the changes. In the end I used only twelve (12) of the frames for this final panorama. Besides selecting the “better” frames I also ignored all the frames on the left (I was taking this sequence of shots from right to left – starting pointing away from the setting sun and ending towards the setting sun).

We’re heading into night and the rich twilight colours and soft beautiful light envelop the landscape.

Twilight Breeze

NIKON D750 + 24.0-70.0 mm f/2.8 @ 45 mm, 30 sec at f/10, ISO 100

Sometimes it’s the simplest of compositions that work best. The colour on the horizon was so rich and spectacular we could only sit in awe and wonder as we ate and watched the colour show till it faded into the darkness of night.

Lessons in Light

NIKON D750 + 24.0-70.0 mm f/2.8 @ 52 mm, 10 sec at f/8, ISO 100