Rodney Campbell's Blog

Today we’d be heading south along the Kalbarri Coast on our roundabout trip down towards Perth. We would stop at a number of spots along this rugged and beautiful coast in Kalbarri National Park.

Our first stop on our travels south was Red Bluff which is just south of town. With great views north along the coast past the town.

Red Bluff

NIKON D750 + 28.0-300.0 mm f/3.5-5.6 @ 28 mm, 1/60 sec at f/8, 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.

When we’d walked right out to the lookout at the end of Red Bluff I took this twelve (12) vertical frame stitched panorama (handheld of course :)). The field of view os over 200 degrees.

Red Bluff View

NIKON D750 + 28.0-300.0 mm f/3.5-5.6 @ 82 mm, 1/100 sec at f/11, ISO 280

A particularly interesting plant that is found quite commonly in this part of the country is this Smoke Bush. It looks all soft and whispy but it’s quite a bit hardier than it looks. Whole areas of green landscape dotted with these spectacular white fluffy plumes is pretty damn nice though :).

Smoke Bush

NIKON D750 + 28.0-300.0 mm f/3.5-5.6 @ 190 mm, 1/200 sec at f/6.3, ISO 560

Puffs of Smoke

NIKON D750 + 28.0-300.0 mm f/3.5-5.6 @ 145 mm, 1/160 sec at f/8, ISO 400

Today we were off to Kalbarri, a coastal town at the mouth of the Murchison River in the mid west region 592km north of Perth.

On the way into town we turned off the highway to Hawks Head Lookout and stopped at the Ross Graham Lookout with a view from the rugged cliffs over the Murchison River.

Ross Graham Lookout

NIKON D750 + 28.0-300.0 mm f/3.5-5.6 @ 28 mm, 1/125 sec at f/8, ISO 100

We were staying overnight in a very nice caravan park in town which afforded me the opportunity to head out for a sunset shoot right in town next to Chinamans Rock.

Looking Out

NIKON D750 + 28.0-300.0 mm f/3.5-5.6 @ 98 mm, 1/125 sec at f/5.3, ISO 100

The location had pretty limited compositional opportunities and a small layer of clouds right on the horizon resulted in a pretty ordinary sunset. So the image making was fairly lackluster but it was very nice to get out for a seascape shoot and I had a very nice chat with a lovely lady whose daughter and her family lived very very close to our home in Sydney! 🙂

Kalbarri Pinks

NIKON D750 + 24.0-70.0 mm f/2.8 @ 24 mm, 30 sec at f/13, ISO 100

In the morning we woke to a cloudy sunrise. I wasn’t actually up in time to make any use of the nice cloudy skies nor the colour we had. By the time I got out of bed, dressed and out with my gear it was mostly over.

This was my first shot of the morning at 6:59AM (about 5 minutes after sunrise).

NIKON D750 + 28.0-300.0 mm f/3.5-5.6 @ 28 mm, 1/30 sec at f/5.6, ISO 250

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.

It just felt like a long exposure sort of morning so it was time to let loose with the Lee LittleStopper (6 Stop ND).

Indian Lines

NIKON D750 + 16.0-35.0 mm f/4.0 @ 21 mm, 431 sec at f/9, ISO 100

This was the view we had from our vans – priceless really. I reckon this was probably one of the best overnight spots we stayed at during our two month trip.

Puffs

NIKON D750 + 16.0-35.0 mm f/4.0 @ 19 mm, 1/2 sec at f/11, ISO 100

Cloudy skies above – a “normal” exposure above and the addition of the LittleStopper below.

Lines

NIKON D750 + 16.0-35.0 mm f/4.0 @ 19 mm, 305.00 sec at f/11, ISO 200

A beautiful night for watching the Milky Way turn slowly through the void of dark space. This remote spot on the far western coast of Australia near Denham was proving to be an ideal spot to shoot the night sky – especially when facing south towards the southern celestial pole.

Echoes in the Void

NIKON D750 + 14.0 mm f/2.8 @ 14 mm, 61 sec at f/2.8, ISO 1600 x 120 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.

Earlier in the day I’d already recce’d the spot and worked out approximately where the southern pole (Sigma Octans) would lie in the sky so I knew this composition with the beach sweeping away into the distance, the ocean on the right and that rough track on the left would all work whilst allowing me to have a nice circular swirl of stars above the hills on the left. It was soo dark and quiet here – all I could hear was the soft wash of the waves on the beach below, standing alone in the universe…

Planning wise I’d used SkySafari and PhotoPills apps on my phone to work out exactly where things would be – the Night AR mode is awesome for this.

I’d already taken my foreground frames earlier in twilight and now that it was dark enough it was time to start my star trails shots.

It was soo dark here I was happy to shoot the frames for one minute at ISO 1600 and just before 7:30PM I started the intervalometer and went back to camp.

Two hours later I came back to the camera and stopped the shots. I had 120 frames in the can and hopefully they’d work for me. The result after stacking and blending in the foreground frame is above and I was really happy with the result – one of my best so far I think. That little perfectly placed meteor – a bonus I left in the final result :).

After the trails had finished I switched to a vertical composition and took some frames looking down the beach again with this new composition with the beautiful Milky Way streaking up through the void of the the universe above.

I tried a whole range of ISO’s from 6,400 through to a staggering 51,200 (all at 25 seconds) but I reckon this one at ISO 10,000 was the best balance.

Slashing through the Void

NIKON D750 + 14.0 mm f/2.8 @ 14 mm, 25 sec at f/2.8, ISO 10000

It was just before 10PM when I packed up and headed back to camp and to bed. Looking back I wish I’d done a vertical star trails as well but waiting another two hours probably wasn’t a great idea with a busy day ahead. Still it’s these once in a lifetime locations… sigh…

Argyle Flower

NIKON D750 + 16.0-35.0 mm f/4.0 @ 22 mm, 30 sec at f/11, ISO 100

Day 7 of my weeklong abuse of panospheres (tiny planetoids) and the impending photographic chaos of Vivid Sydney 2016. The countdown has begun – from the 27th May to the 18th of June 2016 Sydney will be inundated with all manner of light and music shows.

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.

This image is a convolution of six (6) frames from the projections under the Argyle Arch in the Rocks in 2015.

Vivid Sydney, now in its eighth year, is one of Australia’s major winter events and is recognised as the largest event of its kind in the world combining light, music and ideas. The program features large scale light installations and projections (Vivid Light); music performances and collaborations.