Rodney Campbell's Blog

Karijini is home to a spectacular and unique collection of gorges and rockpools that are unlike anywhere else in the world! Here at the eastern end of the park, one of the highlights is undoubtedly Kermits Pool, so named because of the bright green hue in the water.

Kermits Pool

NIKON D750 + 16.0-35.0 mm f/4.0 @ 23 mm, 20 sec at f/16, ISO 100

While not particularly difficult, a reasonable level of fitness is required for this walk. You should also prepare to wade through some short sections of water. Some people simply leave their shoes mid-way own the track and continue barefoot, others continue the walk in their boots. I planned ahead and brought my water shoes (specifically designed to be completely immersed in water whilst still having lots of grip and fast drying once out of the water). I also bought a pair for my daughter before going so she’d be fine as well.

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.

Kermits View

NIKON D750 + 16.0-35.0 mm f/4.0 @ 19 mm, 5 sec at f/16, ISO 100

This is the “classic” view of Kermits Pool. I’d arrived here at 8:30AM and this is taken from the side where you come down to the pool from Hancock Gorge and the Spider Walk behind me.

Pro Tip: When shooting in these gorges you want to be careful where you walk. Whilst I mean the obvious of being careful where you step but photographically I also mean being careful not to walk wet footprints over rocks you want to include in your shots. This is especially true if you plan for those rocks to be up close in your foreground with a wide angle lens. Leaving wet footprints or even wet splash marks over the rocks isn’t something you can easily take away (unless you are willing to wait for the area to dry).

In the view below if you look in the bottom left corner you can see my error, with water running off my wet shoes. This image was taken before the final image above. I looked to resolve the problem by splashing lots of water from the pool in front up onto the rocks in the foreground to wet the entire area. That patch of rock in the foreground was also the brightest area with higher levels of reflected light from above. Wetting the area also allowed the deeper richer colours to come through and to help remove the washed out look in that area.

Kermits View II

NIKON D750 + 16.0-35.0 mm f/4.0 @ 19 mm, 10 sec at f/16, ISO 100

The view from the other side of Kermits Pool looking back.

Back of Kermits

NIKON D750 + 16.0-35.0 mm f/4.0 @ 20 mm, 5 sec at f/11, ISO 100

I spent some time exploring the area and making images at various spots (further up the gorge behind me where you come in as well as just past Kermits Pool looking down onto a series of cascades and Regans Pool). At 10AM I was on the side of Kermits Pool taking the frames for this stitched panorama when the first two of the tourists for day started to arrive.

This stitched panorama of Kermits Pool is taken from the side, to the right side is where you come to the pool from the Spider Walk and Hancock Gorge, to the left is the narrow entry way to the next section of the gorge where you can’t go (without ropes and guides).

All of Kermits

NIKON D750 + 16.0-35.0 mm f/4.0 @ 35 mm, 8 sec at f/14, ISO 200 x 13 (39) Frames

For this panorama I took thirteen (13) sets of three (3) bracketed frames (all pushed towards underexposure at -2&2/3EV, -1&2/3EV and -2/3EV). For the most contrasty areas (where the light was coming in from above and lighting the exposed walls in some areas whilst others were in deep shadow) I needed to exposure blend two or three of the exposures to create the frame I used to stitch the panorama. In some frames using a single exposure was all I needed. The end result stitched and blended quite nicely if I say so myself – a not often seen view of Kermits Pool.

Final note – as some of these frames were reasonably long exposures (15 seconds) it took some time to complete the whole sequence (more than ten minutes). I was about half way through when the first two other arrivals came into Kermits so I did have to wait for a few of the frames (so I didn’t have them moving through the frames).

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