Rodney Campbell's Blog

Each year I usually help out with a number of events and at least one overnight camp for the local primary school that my daughters all attend(ed). Late last year it was time for the tri-annual music tour. Each of my daughters has learnt and played a music instrument in band at the school. Every three years a music tour is planned to allow the members of the senior band and strings programs to experience travelling and playing together at various venues.

This was my third and probably last music tour for the school (I’d been on each of the music tours for my three children). These are pretty big events travelling with 60+ children and all their luggage and instruments to various venues to perform.

Our tours are four day trips with about half the time spent performing and the other half doing other fun activities for the kids. This year we were travelling west to Bathurst and Orange. It’s hard work for both the kids and adults but it’s fun and rewarding. My usual role on tour is to be the “official” photographer, to capture moments and document our journey.

Georges Plains

NIKON D750 + 28.0-300.0 mm f/3.5-5.6 @ 92 mm, 1/100 sec at f/11, ISO 220

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.

The vast majority of the images I take during these trips (usually a couple thousand images) is of the children and their activities. If the locations we are staying at are conducive however, I also like to spend some free time late in the evening or early in the morning doing some landscape photography.

This year we were staying on a property on a farm to the south of Bathurst and a quick check with some shooting apps like TPE and PhotoPills showed it to be pretty ideal for some night time star shooting if the weather was willing. Being to the south of town I could face south with little light pollution and thus have some pretty dark skies to work with.

Heaven and Earth

NIKON D750 + 28.0-300.0 mm f/3.5-5.6 @ 28 mm, 1/30 sec at f/16, ISO 180

Before we get to the stars I took a little late afternoon stroll up the hill behind our accomodation to recce the area.

Fire

NIKON D750 + 24.0-70.0 mm f/2.8 @ 70 mm, 1/640 sec at f/2.8, ISO 100

After dinner we all enjoyed a nice bonfire in the paddock, toasted some marshmallows and watched a lovely clear skies sunset over the hill behind us.

Jump for Joy

NIKON D750 + 24.0-70.0 mm f/2.8 @ 48 mm, 1/50 sec at f/5, ISO 4000

Having around twenty five willing kids on hand to perform the classic Toyota ad move at the top of the hill for me was as they say… priceless 🙂

Oh What A Feeling

NIKON D750 + 24.0-70.0 mm f/2.8 @ 36 mm, 1/40 sec at f/5, ISO 4500

Don't forget to Share...

Google

Facebook

Twitter

Linkedin

Pinterest

Email

Print