Rodney Campbell's Blog

My morning landscaping complete it was time to start some droning. Unpacking the DJI Phantom in the back of the car it was time to send it up in the early morning light.

Glen Davis

DJI Phantom 4 - FC330 + 3.6 mm @ 3.61 mm, 1/30 sec at f/2.8, ISO 146

Note: These photographs (especially the wider shots) look much better when larger. To see larger versions in an inline overlay slideshow gallery viewer click any of the images below.

Living in the city I’d never flown my drone very far away. There were a couple reasons for this including the lack of nice open ground and airspace. However the main reason you can’t is the radio interference which kicks in after reasonably short flying distances of just a few hundred metres away. All those WiFi hotspots and other radio interference really just messes with the reception.

Empty Lanes

DJI Phantom 4 - FC330 + 3.6 mm @ 3.61 mm, 1/30 sec at f/2.8, ISO 191

Out here however where’s there’s not even mobile reception it’s clear airspace.

I sent the drone up and flew out to the other side of Glen Davis (about 1.5km’s away). I had perfectly clear signal reception and could easily have flown much further I suspect. It was my first long range flight so I kept it simple.

Droning

DJI Phantom 4 - FC330 + 3.6 mm @ 3.61 mm, 1/30 sec at f/2.8, ISO 188

Took some stills and video of the now mostly abandoned town. The old streets are still clearly visible from the sky but many houses and buildings have long since vanished.

Oil Shale Mining

DJI Phantom 4 - FC330 + 3.6 mm @ 3.61 mm, 1/15 sec at f/2.8, ISO 212

I then flew back past us and over the ruins of the Shale Oil refinery. This shot from above clearly shows a number of the old buildings and structures on the site. Including that large still standing brick building with all those sets of quad chimney ports. This was the building I was using for my star and milky way images the previous evening.

Another one of my stitched panorama’s using my new Novoflex VR-System Pro-II panorama kit courtesy of Mainline Photographics. This one I’ve taken enough frames (tho I didn’t know it at the time :)) for a full 360˚ panorama.

Rollercoaster

Entropy * Photographic Exhibition

One concept; 9 Photographers; 9 Interpretations

I’ve just completed printing all of my exhibition prints for our upcoming exhibition. It was a careful painstaking job but a huge relief :). Seeing those big beautiful prints coming out of the printer was amazing. It’s so much more real when those photographs finally come out into the real world. There’s definitely something to be said for having solid fine art prints you can hold in your hand.

Less than seven weeks to go…

I’d originally planned to have my images mounted on black core Gatorboard. I had one test image professionally mounted but I and many of the rest of my group had decided the look just wasn’t quite right. There were a number of practical benefits for this system but in the end I believe traditional matting and framing will suit these images better.

Details:

Our exhibition will be at The Art Space on the Concourse @ Chatswood (Sydney’s North Shore). It’s showing from Wednesday 7th to Sunday 18th September 2016 and entry is Free. If you can make it we’d love to see you there.

What’s Next?:

Next step is to select and order all of the custom frames, and cut all of the mats for all the images.

The full 360˚ pano is composed of two rows of eight (8) frames (16 frames in total). There wasn’t enough data to cover the area at the bottom so to create the fully immersive 360×180˚ photosphere I’ve had to “fake” the very bottom :).

Below is the full flattened equirectangular image and thus the name “rollercoaster”. Deb thought it looked like a rollercoaster with the structure and the milky way arch curving up and down repeatedly through the frame. She’s much more creative and inventive than me – thanks Deb :).

Rollercoaster

NIKON D750 + 14.0 mm f/2.8 @ 14 mm, 30 sec at f/2.8, ISO 6400 x 16 Frames

Note: These photographs (especially the wider shots) look much better when larger. Click any of the images below to see larger versions in an inline overlay slideshow gallery viewer.

It’s not perfect by any means but sometimes happy accidents do happen :).

Shoot for the Stars – Workshop

Are you are interested in experiencing this epic location for yourself… Interested in two nights of dedicated astrophotography coaching and tuition… If so definitely sign up for this excellent Shoot for the Stars × Capertee workshop being held at this location with Luke Tscharke & Jay Evans from Fri 2nd to Sun 4th September this year.

Our first morning at Glen Davis and we woke to these amazing orange hills. Well not exactly… we woke earlier and couldn’t really figure out where to go to photograph sunrise :). In the end we ended up in the middle of the property :). From here we face west away from the sun looking back along the Capertee valley.

Standing in this location we’re on a slight rise looking across the fields towards the fabulous Sir Johns Point tower. It rises out of the plains in the middle of the valley, with the valley wall cliffs rising to our sides.

NIKON D750 + 24.0-70.0 mm f/2.8 @ 38 mm, 1/5 sec at f/16, ISO 100

Note: These photographs (especially the wider shots) look much better when larger. To see larger versions in an inline overlay slideshow gallery viewer click any of the images below.

The view here is magnificent (even from the bottom of the valley). The story only get’s better in time. Once the sun rises high enough to light up the cliff faces to our sides and the tower in the distance with a rich orange glow.

We did have some cloud this morning however we only got a little colour in the cloud from the rising sun. Nonetheless it was these vibrant earthy rock faces which literally glow out of the morning darkness which steal the show.

I did try to include some of the old oil shale building ruins behind us in some frames. They are deeper in the valley and wouldn’t see any light for some time though.

Sunrise Glow

NIKON D750 + 24.0-70.0 mm f/2.8 @ 56 mm, 370 sec at f/11, ISO 100

My morning selfie done it was time to move on to something more interesting. An early morning long exposure with the Lee BigStopper (which I hadn’t used in ages). More than six minutes later we’re literally golden.

I just loved those orange hills jumping out of the cool blue streaky skies, job done…

I won a Novoflex single row panorama system (the Classic: VR-System III) late last year. It was part of my prize for winning the panoramic section of the annual Focus Awards.

The prize was supplied by an excellent local retailer Mainline Photographics. These guys are totally awesome and their customer service is second to none so please do check them out.

Milk and Oil

NIKON D750 + 14.0 mm f/2.8 @ 14 mm, 30 sec at f/2.8, ISO 6400 x 14 Frames

Mainline to the Rescue

I already had a built in option for doing single row panoramas with my existing Really Right Stuff BH-40 PC-LR ballhead. I chatted with the really helpful guys from Mainline. Long story short – they offered me a straight swap with a Novoflex Multi Row setup with me only having to pay the difference in price!

So it was I was the proud owner of the Novoflex VR-System Pro-II Professional Panoramas Photography System. This is an insanely well engineered piece of kit with a size, bulk and weight to go with it’s normally hefty price tag.

I added a few extra pieces to the kit to I could more easily use it with my existing fully Arca Swiss style setup. Basically an Arca plate on the bottom so I could easily just attach the whole setup on top of my existing ball head and then an extra arca clamp on the pano rig to attach my camera to it via it’s arca L-Bracket which I never take off.

The whole setup is then over 1700g and quite unwieldy so I’d normally never take it out. Unless I knew I’d definitely be doing panoramas or I was driving to the shoot location and didn’t have to walk.

So this beautifully crafted piece of kit lay unused in one of my photography drawers at home… That is until this trip to the remote darkness of Glen Davis and the ruins of the oil shale works.

So this evening was my first use of the Novoflex pano system…

What can I say but this thing is amazing. I’ve shot a number of manually adjusted milky way panorama’s.

Taking source panorama frames manually is a slow, painful and laborious process, fraught with the possibility of stitching failure. Basically in the dark at night you cannot see what you’re composing or how far you’re rotating in the dark (to ensure you’re getting a roughly 50% overlap). If you’re trying to do this with an off centre/off level tilt the difficulty stakes jumps up a whole new level.

Using this Novoflex panorama system made things effortless. The camera can be rotated horizontally and vertically around the nodal point and the click stops make it trivial and error free in the dark.

The panorama above was created using two rows of seven (7) frames (14 frames in total). The first row was at level 0˚ and then the second row was taken with the camera angled upwards for a roughly 50% overlap with the first row.

The Upper Deck

NIKON D750 + 14.0 mm f/2.8 @ 14 mm, 30 sec at f/2.8, ISO 6400

I took five separate sets of frames for stitched panoramas that night (because it was so easy to do with this kit). Three horizontal panoramas (including the one above) and two vertical panoramas.

I’m saving one of those panoramas – potentially for my exhibition (or at least until after it :)). I will post two of the others (one of which is a full 360˚ pano) soon :).

Oh and these ruins at Glen Davis really are fantastic, day or night…

Entropy * Photographic Exhibition

One concept; 9 Photographers; 9 Interpretations

Side note – in fact if you’d like to see some of my manually crafted milky way panoramics taken in remote outback Australia please do come along to our exhibition.

Our exhibition will be at The Art Space on the Concourse @ Chatswood (Sydney’s North Shore). It’s showing from Wednesday 7th to Sunday 18th September 2016 and entry is Free. If you can make it we’d love to see you there.

Time for a nice wide stitched panorama at Mona Vale tidal pool. Whilst out with friends at this lovely location one morning.

This is the result from stitching six (6) vertical frames taken at a wideish 19mm at 8 seconds each frame. I was also using my trusty Heliopan CPL and the Format-Hitech 3 stop (0.9) reverse grad to hold down the very bright sky. At this stage it’s about 10 minutes till sunrise.

Morning Glow

NIKON D750 + 16.0-35.0 mm f/4.0 @ 19 mm, 8 sec at f/11, ISO 100 x 6 Frames

Note: These photographs (especially the wider shots) look much better when larger. Click any of the images below to see larger versions in an inline overlay slideshow gallery viewer.

I’ve been to this location before but never actually really shot here before (at least not for sunrise or sunset). It’s one of those places like Turimetta Beach that has been shot to death in every conceivable way but it’s “new” to me so… 🙂

Having now shot my panorama at Mona Vale it was time to move on…

After sunrise I was trying to take some images with some rushing water across the pool. As you can imaging the filters copped quite a bit of water spray so I gave this up pretty soon after this :).

All That Glistens

NIKON D750 + 16.0-35.0 mm f/4.0 @ 19 mm, 1/3 sec at f/16, ISO 100

Then it was off to a well earned breakfast and hours of conversation at the local beachside cafe. Good times…

One day I’d like to come back when there’s a stormy king tide and shoot it with water flowing everywhere… one day… 🙂