Rodney Campbell's Blog

So as luck would have it after another overcast day and a nice cloudy sunset the clouds once again cleared at night. So after driving back from Mount Gambier and dropping the rest of the family off I headed out to those little laneways I’d visited the previous evening to see if I could rectify my mistakes :).

Heavens Laneway

NIKON D750 + 14.0 mm f/2.8 @ 14 mm, 30 sec at f/2.8, ISO 5000

I first went to the corner of the paddocks where I’d stuffed the frames for a panorama the previous evening and tried once again. Learning from my mistakes I both took more frames with better overlaps and also moved back a little this evening (to get a better view and angle of the rough dirt laneway going off into the distance in each direction).

This time eight (8) vertical frames encompassing around a 200+ degree field of view did the trick. I’m saving the final result for a potential candidate for inclusion in a forthcoming exhibition later this year.

With that in the can I moved on to the next location. One with a fabulous laneway through the tall grasses – two white lines left by vehicle tracks running over and over head off into the distance through the grass.

The spot I chose was perfect for what I wanted in almost every way. The tracks ran up a slight rise into the distance. We had lovely straw coloured grass on both sides and down the middle. The chalky white of the worn paths contrasted so well against the grass. The horizon line was relatively flat and the grass spreading out evenly and flatly on both sides. There was this nice shaped silhouette of a tree in the middle in the distance. The only downside was we were facing a little south east which meant facing towards the light pollution from Mount Gambier in the distance. Ah well you can’t have everything I guess :).

Up top my test shot for a stitched panorama at this spot with a little light painting of the foreground.

The final panorama consisting of seven (7) stitched vertical frames is excellent (IMHO) and unfortunately again I’m definitely saving this one for the exhibition :).

Driving a little further along the laneway and after it curves slightly to the left we shift the Mount Gambier light pollution off the frame to the right but incur other problems. The path is on more of a left to right downward slope so both the horizon and the foreground slope downwards. Still a single silhouetted tree right at the vanishing point may save my composition.

Farmers Drive

NIKON D750 + 14.0 mm f/2.8 @ 14 mm, 30 sec at f/2.8, ISO 5000

Here I present two versions of this composition. One just with the foreground lit with warm torchlight. With the second, well…

I’ve taken out some of my new EL wire I recently purchased and made into some light painting tools. Selecting the vibrant green I bought I’ve lit just the tracks vanishing into the distance for this more surreal effect. This one for my enlightened friends…

Enlightened Cosmos

NIKON D750 + 14.0 mm f/2.8 @ 14 mm, 219.00 sec at f/6.3, ISO 100

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