Rodney Campbell's Blog

Driving through the farmlands on the way to Coolah I noted lots of interesting possibilities for aerial imagery.

Coolah Ranges

FC330 + 3.6 mm @ 3.61 mm, 1/60 sec at f/2.8, ISO 106

Here Vinegaroy Road comes down off the mountain ridge into the valley where the township of Coolah resides. I had my eye on an area of land next to the road which showed some promise. The ridges and folds in the farmland would I hope might look like epic outback mountain ranges from the air.

I wasn’t really expecting to do much daytime landscaping work with the “real” camera. However I was hoping to take the drone out for a spin to capture more in a series of aerial top down landscapes that I’m working on. These pieces are destined for a portfolio and potential future exhibition. I’ll write more about this project in a separate future post.

After we’d arrived and settled in I headed back out to see if I could capture some images. Unfortunately it was extremely windy and threatening rain so I only managed a quick flight before being forced to return.

Coolah Pastures

FC330 + 3.6 mm @ 3.61 mm, 1/230 sec at f/2.8, 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.

Above, a Behind the Scenes (BTS) shot showing the area below which initially drew my attention. I’m way over there next to that road you can see heading up the hill in the middle.

I’d never been up in the top of a working lighthouse before. Not just the room below the main light and the walkway that usually surrounds that. Instead the glass room right up the top with the actual rotating lighting assembly. I’d been up in this section in some other lighthouses that were no longer operation but this was a first.

The ladder was there and the trapdoor open so I poked my head up to take a look. The lighting was great – it was a great big glass bubble after all :). During the day the actual light wasn’t on thankfully.

Lighting the Way

NIKON D750 + 14.0 mm f/2.8 @ 14 mm, 1/500 sec at f/8, ISO 100

Somehow my camera followed and started taking images :). This rotating pillar for the light and the large black flags out each side looked quite interesting. I decided to make a feature of them in the big glass cavern.

I was taking these handheld and it was quite bright both outside and inside (with clear blue skies). The contrast was just a touch too wide here so I decided to bracket my handheld frames just in case.

The first image above is a HDR merge of three exposures (-2 & 1/3EV to -1/3EV) and the image below is a merge of five exposures (-3 & 1/3EV to 2/3EV).

Lightstand

NIKON D750 + 14.0 mm f/2.8 @ 14 mm, 1/500 sec at f/8, ISO 100

It’s not everyday you get to be on the inside of one of these glass domes looking out. Of course these days the light assembly is much diminished from days gone by. When this lighthouse was first built there was probably this huge glass fresnel lens assembly taking up most of the space. Today all that has been replaced by this small LED unit. Still pretty cool tho :).

Our family headed out to Coolah to visit and stay with relatives for an extended long weekend.

Flowing Line

FC330 + 3.6 mm @ 3.61 mm, 1/120 sec at f/2.8, ISO 161

Coolah is a town in the central western part of New South Wales in the Warrumbungle Shire. It’s a small town of around 1,000 people.

On the northeastern side of the area is the Liverpool Range with the Coolah Tops National Park. Most of the region is agricultural with sheep and cattle raising and crops grown along the Talbragar River and Coolaburragundy River valleys.

My wife’s parents live here as they own two farms in the region. We hadn’t been out there for quite some time so a visit was well overdue.

As we were staying for four days I took my usual landscaping camera gear along with my DJI Phantom 4 drone. I was of course hoping to get in some serious night time photography with my D-SLR rig. However what I was mainly hoping was to add to my collection of abstract landscape aerials with the drone.

Unfortunately we had quite a lot of rain during our stay (it pretty much rained for the four days). I did manage to get out for a bit of dedicated photographic work during the infrequent breaks in the weather.

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.

Follow the Line

FC330 + 3.6 mm @ 3.61 mm, 1/190 sec at f/2.8, ISO 100

This is I guess a Behind the Scenes (BTS) shot for the area I’d found to try my hand at some abstract aerials. You can see I was drawn to this area of lovely patterned crops. It had this beautiful dirt road running through the middle which was perfect for what I had in my mind.

From up here you can instantly see what I was drawn to for the images in this post. From ground level however you can usually only glimpse a faint fraction of the final result if at all. You have to really imagine what the landscape is going to look like from directly above. It’s tricky work driving along and then deciding to stop because you “see” something with potential. You then have to unpack, setup and fire up the drone to actually get up there. It’s only then can you see if what you see in your mind will actually pan out in reality.

Over Line

FC330 + 3.6 mm @ 3.61 mm, 1/60 sec at f/2.8, ISO 141

Then it’s about manoeuvring, adjusting the height and position and rotating to get the composition which matches your idea. At this point it’s not really in any way disimilar to the process I go through when landscaping on terra firma. You still have to take your time carefully framing and reframing compositions to get them just right before taking the shot. The only difference in this case is you’re somewhat limited by your less than 25 minute flight time :).

An almost birds-eye view of the fabulous Montague Island. We’d been staying here now for four (4) days now and this was to be our last day.

After many long days and nights of photography everyone was finally too tired now to get up for another sunrise :). We had a lazy late morning on a beautiful spring day.

Montague Island

NIKON D750 + 14.0 mm f/2.8 @ 14 mm, 1/320 sec at f/11, ISO 100 x 9 Frames

This 360˚ panorama was taken from the top of the lighthouse. The source frames were taken handheld whilst walking around the viewing platform around the top of the tower. I don’t normally use the Samyang 14mm for daytime landscape work (because I can’t use any filters). However I wanted a wide view and I already had it on the camera having taken images inside the lighthouse tower :).

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.

Here’s the view in an interactive 360˚ panorama viewer so you can view the scene more “normally”. It will also allow you to manually pan around the scene to view it as if you were there.

You can come across to the island on a day tour. You get to visit a number of sights including the lighthouse. Once the day trippers had left the National Parks guys who manage and look after the island invited us to the lighthouse to photograph and left it open for us to explore.

Like most lighthouses it has a beautiful set of circular spiral stairs leading up the centre. I had the tripod in tow and a nice wide lens (the 14mm Samyang).

The Twist

NIKON D750 + 14.0 mm f/2.8 @ 14 mm, 1/60 sec at f/10, ISO 100

This was perfect for a little sculptural imagery inside with all those fantastic curves and lines. Plus who can resist that fantastic red railing which stands out so nicely against those grey walls and floors.

Spirals II

NIKON D750 + 14.0 mm f/2.8 @ 14 mm, 1/125 sec at f/10, 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.

Spirals III

NIKON D750 + 14.0 mm f/2.8 @ 14 mm, 1/100 sec at f/10, ISO 100