Rodney Campbell's Blog

The sun was setting so it was really time for us to be leaving now.

Hamersley Folds

NIKON D750 + 24.0-70.0 mm f/2.8 @ 44 mm, 3 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.

To be clear I really didn’t want to be leaving… I could easily have spent many more hours here and shot some milky way and star trails over the gorge in the night.

However there was a particularly tricky bit we had to negotiate on the way in and I wasn’t keen on trying to get my young daughter past it in the dark :). Plus we still had a two (2) hour drive in the dark back to camp over mostly dirt roads to negotiate. Plus keeping my ten year old daughter out all night probably wouldn’t be a great idea – especially as we were planning to get up early (before sunrise) the next day and explore Weano gorge and the Handrail Pool together :).

Gorgeous Hamersley

NIKON D750 + 24.0-70.0 mm f/2.8 @ 66 mm, 2 sec at f/11, ISO 100

So with great reluctance we began making our way back down the gorge to the bottom of the steps coming down from the car park above.

Of course on the way there were so many spots where I wanted to stop and take just one more shot… So it took us nearly half an hour to make our way back to the car…

Stripes & Trunks

NIKON D750 + 24.0-70.0 mm f/2.8 @ 70 mm, 1 sec at f/11, ISO 100

This image with my daughter and I gives you a great feel for the way these crazy folds of rock appear here in Hamersley. I bumped the ISO to 800 to increase the shutter to try and reduce any subject (i.e. us) motion in the image. The steps back up the cliff to the car park above are just to the left of us.

Deep Iron

NIKON D750 + 24.0-70.0 mm f/2.8 @ 44 mm, 1/4 sec at f/10, ISO 800

As we were climbing the steps back up out of the gorge I turned around once more to see the amazing folds of rock with the many coloured layers. I decided to head over to the edge of the cliff here and shoot “one more shot” straight across the gorge towards the layers and curves on the other side.

Layer Squash

NIKON D750 + 24.0-70.0 mm f/2.8 @ 48 mm, 2.5 sec at f/11, ISO 100

The image at the top of the post was actually the last shot I took here at Hamersley. In this case it’s a stitched panorama of the gorge comprising of seven vertical frames taken at 44mm. It’s almost 6PM now and the sun had already set behind me.

In the panorama you can see the amazing gorge walls on the other side all the way down to the curving water flows and waterfalls below.

I was sad to be leaving this truly amazing place but it was almost dark by the time we’d packed ourselves into the car and were heading off for the long drive back to camp.

Most people who visit Karijini probably don’t make the effort to come all the way out of the park to Hamersley but it is a definite opportunity lost. If you are ever out this way do make sure you set aside time to come here.

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