Rodney Campbell's Blog

I’d lugged my freakishly heavy Novoflex multi row pano kit all the way down the vertical drop to the base of the falls. I’d also be looking at hauling myself along with it and the rest of my heavy camera bag back up. So be-damned if I wasn’t going to try and use it whilst I was here :).

Vertical Drop

NIKON D750 + 24.0-70.0 mm f/2.8 @ 31 mm, 4 sec at f/16, ISO 100 x 4 Frames

I was quite happy with how this vertical panorama turned out. It’s composed of four vertical frames stitched into a vertorama of the falls from nearly top to bottom. Well not quite bottom since there was another 100m vertical drop off a cliff just a metre behind me :).

Anyway IMHO the vertical pano put together with 31mm source frames looks a lot better than a single ultra wide angle frame would (assuming I could even get this vertical field of view at 12mm).

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.

Horizontal Flow

NIKON D750 + 24.0-70.0 mm f/2.8 @ 24 mm, 2.5 sec at f/16, ISO 100 x 10 Frames

Alas the horizontal panorama didn’t turn out anywhere as pleasantly as I’d originally envisaged in my mind. In the photography world – them’s the breaks.

Gerry had in mind for us to visit this Glow Worm Tunnel. It was only seventy kilometres or so from Katoomba but it was a more than two hours drive to get there. Who knew it would be nearly 90 minutes of horrendous dirt road experience to get there!

The Tunnel Grim

NIKON D750 + 12 mm f/2.8 @ 12 mm, 117 sec at f/4, ISO 200, 1600 & 2500

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.

Once there it was about a 30-45 minute walk from the carpark out to the tunnel. It was actually quite a nice tunnel (as far as tunnels go). Yes there were some glow worms in the tunnel but seriously not that many.

I was pretty damn surprised how many people were out there walking through the tunnel – it was like grand central station it was so busy :).

Anyway inbetween people walking through your frames we managed to get Gerrys’ pixel stick out for another grim reaper effort. Mixed with some coloured torch lighting and a high ISO long exposure for the glow worms (composited in) and we have the crap above :). Unfortunately that’s as good as the glow worm tunnel got. Lets hope for better things next time!.

The end of a wild and windy session at Mahon pool at Maroubra. After a well earned breakfast I figured I might take the drone for a spin and see what the coast looked like from the skies above. Gerry was going to do some long exposures from the rocks so whilst he setup just north of the pool I setup my drone for flight.

Above Mahon

DJI Phantom 4 - FC330 + 3.6 mm @ 3.61 mm, 1/120 sec at f/2.8, ISO 100

If you look closely you’ll actually see Gerry right down at the bottom edge of the frame above – just left of centre. The shapes of the people swimming in the pool just lift the frame with added dimension.

I hadn’t taken the drone out for a spin in many weeks so it was good to get it out for a run.

Photographing from above just adds another element to an otherwise ordinary view. This is probably simply because it’s a little unexpected and not something everyone would normally see.

I often advocate with landscape photography students that you need to change things up. I suggest changing the height of your tripod so you’re shooting from down low close to the ground or from up higher. Anything than the standard adult height. Most people see the world from roughly five to six feet from the ground. You need to challenge the viewer with something they can’t normally see just by walking up to the scene themselves.

Jigsaw

DJI Phantom 4 - FC330 + 3.6 mm @ 3.61 mm, 1/240 sec at f/2.8, ISO 100

The coastline viewed from directly above looking straight down is definitely something most people wouldn’t normally see. And there’s beauty there to be seen if only you take the patience to look and compose. Obviously with limited flight time (roughly 20 mins max) you can’t just hang around for hours trying to perfect the one shot :).

Ebb and Eddies

DJI Phantom 4 - FC330 + 3.6 mm @ 3.61 mm, 1/380 sec at f/2.8, ISO 100

Still the interesting patterns and colour of the world from above lends itself to some interesting photography.

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.

Mahon

DJI Phantom 4 - FC330 + 3.6 mm @ 3.61 mm, 1/140 sec at f/2.8, ISO 100

Gerry and I moved downstream to the second set of falls. This is less than 100m away from the first sets of falls.

I’d lugged my Novoflx pano rails down here so I figured I’d better put them to use. Gerry is doing the same so I figured I’d include him in the final shot.

Middle Earth

NIKON D750 + 24.0-70.0 mm f/2.8 @ 26 mm, 3 sec at f/16, ISO 50 x 8 Frames

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 curve of the water flow was working for me (at least in my mind) so I figured I’d go with it and have it flow down and around the bottom corners of my frame.

Frenchs Frills

NIKON D750 + 24.0-70.0 mm f/2.8 @ 24 mm, 61 sec at f/16, ISO 50

This was another very full and wide set of flows – pretty perfect really and probably beyond our expectations.

For this one I wanted to really drag the shutter and let that water turn silky smooth. So I dropped in the Lee LittleStopper to drag the exposure time out to a minute.

After checking out of our overnight accommodation and partaking of a needed hot breakfast in Leura we headed to Katoomba Falls for the morning.

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

With sunrise a bust and still some overcast skies we were hoping for better things at Katoomba Falls for our next session out here in the Blue Mountains.

Katoomba Falls

NIKON D750 + 16.0-35.0 mm f/4.0 @ 19 mm, 4 sec at f/11, ISO 100

The falls were nice enough and for a while the weather was kind enough as the clouds hung around. It really needed more water to be flowing however. Beggars can’t be choosers however and we had hiked all the way down here so make do with what you’ve got.

Katoomba Flow

NIKON D750 + 16.0-35.0 mm f/4.0 @ 19 mm, 4 sec at f/11, ISO 100

One could say I’m now in my golden years (now that I’ve passed 50!). So perhaps the title of this selfie is a bit more profound than originally intended :).

Golden Ages

NIKON D750 + 16.0-35.0 mm f/4.0 @ 19 mm, 1 sec at f/11, ISO 400