Rodney Campbell's Blog

More opportunities for some mirrored reflections whilst hiking in Berowra. This time with the mangroves hanging over this pool of water.

Double Take

NIKON D750 + 28.0-300.0 mm f/3.5-5.6 @ 135 mm, 1/160 sec at f/5.6, ISO 1250

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.

I’d only brought the camera body with one lens (the all purpose Nikon 28-300 ultrazoom) on this weekend trip away. The extreme focal range is very handy – especially for a hike like this. Having such an all purpose lens does come with some compromises however. One of those is the fairly nervous bokeh it can introduce in the out of focus areas. Sometimes you can even use it to some good effect.

Nervous Crossing

NIKON D750 + 28.0-300.0 mm f/3.5-5.6 @ 300 mm, 1/320 sec at f/5.6, ISO 1100

and here is one of my daughter on this chilly morning… don’t have to worry about the bokeh if you frame so the background in the distance is in darkness still :)…

NIKON D750 + 28.0-300.0 mm f/3.5-5.6 @ 300 mm, 1/800 sec at f/5.6, ISO 100

I mostly photographed my daughter and her friends doing their normal activities whilst we were hiking and camping on their practice Duke of Edinburgh expedition at Berowra. I did however manage a few other “landscapey” images whilst I was there.

Frozen Fingers

NIKON D750 + 28.0-300.0 mm f/3.5-5.6 @ 82 mm, 1/100 sec at f/5.6, ISO 1600

We woke to an extremely cold morning camped down here next to Berowra creek. It must have dropped to near zero overnight with the ground, tents and our gear covered in frost in the morning. Our extremities were freezing!!

The fog on the river was however quite beautiful, the way it sat down low above the millpond still water. This gave me the opportunity to craft a few handheld images before returning to camp activities.

Weeping

NIKON D750 + 28.0-300.0 mm f/3.5-5.6 @ 50 mm, 1/50 sec at f/5.6, ISO 800

Berowra Reflections

NIKON D750 + 28.0-300.0 mm f/3.5-5.6 @ 116 mm, 1/125 sec at f/5.6, ISO 1400

This past weekend I had the opportunity to be deep in the mangroves…

Actually I’d volunteered to assist my daughters school with a Duke of Edinburgh practice expedition. We’d be overnight hiking in the national park surrounding Berowra here in Sydney’s north.

Deep in the Mangroves

NIKON D750 + 28.0-300.0 mm f/3.5-5.6 @ 170 mm, 1/200 sec at f/5.6, ISO 2800

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.

I’d not really been hiking or camping since my youth so it was a good opportunity to reach back into my childhood. It was of course also good to get out amongst nature and share it with my daughter and her friends.

Winter Warmth

NIKON D750 + 28.0-300.0 mm f/3.5-5.6 @ 52 mm, 1/50 sec at f/8, ISO 125

It was also an excuse to get out and shoot some photos. I’d not been out for a landscape shoot in over three months now. Whilst this wasn’t what I’d call a “real” landscape session (I was just shooting handheld with the trusty D750 and the 28-300mm ultrazoom lens) it was at least an opportunity to photograph something.

This is a revisit of some images I made on a trip with some good friends to Coalcliff one evening over a year ago 🙂

Plasma Reptile

NIKON D750 + 16.0-35.0 mm f/4.0 @ 19 mm, 204 sec at f/8, ISO 100

Plasma burns were really on the cards since Vonny was going to be playing with fire (literally). More on that in the next post 🙂

First up tho I had a play with some of my EL wire with the landscape showing the remnants of twilight (and some light pollution) in the long exposures.

Cosmic Spew

NIKON D750 + 24.0-70.0 mm f/2.8 @ 24 mm, 197 sec at f/8, ISO 100

The shot here is actually a blend of a couple of exposures. A shorter wide open high ISO shot to try and capture the stars (which actually turned out a lot better than I’d hoped). Mixed with a couple of exposures for the light painting. The end result a Cosmic Spew :).

Some mornings are not quite so spectacular, but there’s just something there to peak the interest.

The Dolphin

NIKON D750 + 28.0-300.0 mm f/3.5-5.6 @ 116 mm, 1/500 sec at f/5.6, ISO 1600

So it was this morning with some OK pastel colour but what really drew my attention was this cloud formation. It totally reminded me of some huge Dolphin swimming across the sky above the cityscape in the distance.

It must have been a very still morning this morning – even after having a shower the cloud formation was still almost in the same place.