Rodney Campbell's Blog

Out and about on a glorious morning on the farmland.

Farmland Mysteries

NIKON D750 + 28.0-300.0 mm f/3.5-5.6 @ 300 mm, 1/320 sec at f/8, ISO 140

Sometimes the light is just so good, the elements clicking into place and the farmland so heavenly…

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.

Shades of Green

NIKON D750 + 28.0-300.0 mm f/3.5-5.6 @ 300 mm, 1/320 sec at f/9, ISO 280

Even a little portrait of the dog can look perfect in this light…

NIKON D750 + 28.0-300.0 mm f/3.5-5.6 @ 190 mm, 1/200 sec at f/8, ISO 100

Back at the edge of the Blue Lake for the third day in a row…

One thing to note about the Blue Lake is that it is of course very blue. During December to March, the lake turns to a vibrant cobalt blue colour, returning to a colder steel grey colour for April to November.

Edge of Blue

FC330 + 3.6 mm @ 3.61 mm, 1/180 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.

The exact cause of this phenomenon is still a matter of conjecture, but it is generally considered likely that it revolves around the warming of the surface layers of the lake during the summer months to around 20°C, causing calcium carbonate to precipitate out of solution and enabling micro-crystallites of calcium carbonate to form. This results in scatter of the blue wavelengths of sunlight.

On a clear blue sky day like today however. Around the edge of the lake where the water is shallow above the limestone beneath, you’d swear it glows a bright turquoise green.

Edge of Glow

FC330 + 3.6 mm @ 3.61 mm, 1/150 sec at f/2.8, ISO 100

We woke to a glorious golden sunrise on my sister in law’s farm. It was the perfect morning to just go for a little wander with the camera and the all in one ultrazoom lens. There was a little bit of fog about, a little haze in the cloudless skies… a touch of dewy frost on the grasses and the light was soft and golden as it swept across the land.

On the Land

NIKON D750 + 28.0-300.0 mm f/3.5-5.6 @ 300 mm, 1/320 sec at f/5.6, ISO 250

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.

The way the soft light swept across the undulating ground was mesmerising. It was just great to be out and about.

Golden Rise

NIKON D750 + 28.0-300.0 mm f/3.5-5.6 @ 300 mm, 1/320 sec at f/8, ISO 200

Sometimes, very rarely, the results straight out of camera are just right – and so it was this morning. These shots all handheld and as is SOOC except for a little cropping on some. All auto white balance, aperture priority and a touch of exposure compensation for some.

Light and Shadow

NIKON D750 + 28.0-300.0 mm f/3.5-5.6 @ 300 mm, 1/320 sec at f/8, ISO 100

It was the day after the full moon so definitely not the ideal time to be attempting to shoot beneath the stars.

Beneath the Heavens

NIKON D750 + 12.0 mm f/2.8 @ 12 mm, 21 sec at f/2.8, ISO 1600

I’d brought my new Laowa 12mm f/2.8 Zero-D ultra wide angle lens with me on this trip so…

We’d just finished a nice dinner and I figured even tho there were many things that weren’t ideal I’d give it a try anyway…

The full moon was the biggest problem – it washes out the sky and hides many of the stars. The only upside was that I could use it to effectively light paint the landscape (and the house) for me. However the bright conditions forces me to shoot at a lowly ISO 1600 instead of my usual target of ISO 6400 for shooting the milky way in dark sky conditions. Even then it was too bright and I had to manually shoot a number of exposures (20, 10, 5 & 2 seconds) and blend some parts of the darker exposures into the base 21 second exposure.

The Laowa 12mm is very wide and has a fast wide open aperture of f/2.8 which are ideal statistics for shooting the stars. The lens however apparently has a significant amount of batwing coma which makes it much less useful for shooting static starfield shots like this. Instead of having nice points of light for the stars you get smeared out batwing shapes (especially in the corners). The lens will however likely be a useful tool for star trail scenarios where the trailing stars isn’t a problem, in fact it’s probably a benefit.

This image typifies why I’d originally purchased my DJI Phantom 4 drone in the first place. I had in my mind’s eye a vision of all the unexpected top down aerial views that I’d be able to create as an adjunct to my more “normal” landscape photography that I love.

Tree of Life

DJI Phantom 4 - FC330 + 3.6 mm @ 3.61 mm, 1/30 sec at f/2.8, ISO 106