Rodney Campbell's Blog

We had originally thought of staying in Wyndham for the evening but it was still early so we left Wyndham and headed south. Eventually we arrived at the crossroads between the Great Northern Highway and the Victoria Highway

There isn’t a lot here – it’s an intersection of two major highways after all :). However there were a number of other caravans and campers setup here in the rest area so we figured we’d join them

Crossroads

NIKON D750 + 14.0 mm f/2.8 @ 14 mm, 30 sec at f/2.8, ISO 4000

There were a few nice looking Boab trees in a semi clear area nearby. So I went for a wander with my daughter just on sunset for a bit of a recce. Surprisingly even though we were literally in the middle of nowhere we had good mobile reception here. So as the sun set over the Kimberley’s we Facetime’d the family. They could enjoy the sunset behind the boab trees with us 🙂

After dinner I went back to the boabs to see if I could make use of the clear skies and the stars again. The moon was well and truly out by this stage. Quite high in the sky and more than a quarter moon. Very much not ideal for shooting the milky way. The moonlight did however light the landscape turning night into day so I had to work with it as best I could

I figured the best way to deal with it was to simply include it in the frame. For the image up top I’ve moved up quite close to the boab to let it fill a lot of the frame

Boab Dreamtime

NIKON D750 + 14.0 mm f/2.8 @ 14 mm, 30 sec at f/2.8, ISO 2500 x 3 Frames

I then took three horizontal overlapping compositions moving from top to bottom to create a vertical panorama. I had to drop the ISO down to 2500 so as to not totally blow out the upward facing frame

I really like this final image with the milky way reaching way up into the sky

This spot is literally metres from he caravan on Lily Creek Lagoon. I was too tired to go out. So I figured attempting a little relaxing set of star trails right at my door would have to do

The lake is filled with many ghostly dead trees. White and grey twisting trunks and branches reaching up out of the water. The result of the diversion dam of the nearby Ord river creating this man made lake

Ghosts

NIKON D750 + 14.0 mm f/2.8 @ 14 mm, 30 sec at f/2.8, ISO 4000

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 would have liked to have shot from right at the waters edge or even out in the water. With nice bare trees in the foreground and the stars reflecting in the water. However the dead trees were quite a long way out and the water nearest the shore was covered in dead water Lily leaves… Well that and the fact that these waters were crocodile infested might have had something to do with it! :). Being made a ghost myself might not be the best idea ;). I opted instead to include this most fortunate and fabulous ghost gum large in my foreground

Lily Creek Lagoon

This is basically in the town area of Kununurra so I was a little unsure I’d be able to shoot this so cleanly. Still these darks skies are very good (even with a little bit of moon out and little bit of town light pollution). In the end I was able to shoot the above at up to ISO 4000. It wasn’t quite dark enough to go to ISO 6400 or beyond

Ghostly Trails

NIKON D750 + 14.0 mm f/2.8 @ 14 mm, 61 sec at f/2.8, ISO 1250 x X Frames

With that in the can I setup for star trails and set the sequence going – 61 second exposures at f/2.8 and ISO 1250

Frankly I’m pretty surprised they worked. During the trails sequence I had a number of people walking through the frame with torches along the lakeshore searching for crocodiles. Thankfully it looked like no one shone their torch directly into the camera and I was able to just darken the bottom of those frames I needed

Lake Argyle also hosts the Argyle Diamond mine

Rio Tinto owns and operates the Argyle diamond mine in the remote East Kimberley region of Western Australia. The mine has been operating since 1983 and has produced more than 800 million carats of rough diamonds. It is one of the world’s largest supplier of diamonds and the world’s largest supplier of natural coloured diamonds. The most famous being their very rare and very beautiful Pink Diamonds

How appropriate I’d come up here to photograph these gems in the sky over the lake. The conditions were still very good for photographing the stars. Absolutely no clouds (of course) and it was only a few days after the new moon. The moon was also very low in the sky to my far right and moving towards setting

Argyle Reaching

NIKON D750 + 14.0 mm f/2.8 @ 14 mm, 33 sec at f/2.8, ISO 6400 x 7 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.

I setup for the arch of stars over this dead tree right up close in my foreground for my panorama composition

My final panorama is the result of stitching seven (7) frames taken with the 14mm – 33 seconds @ f/2.8 and ISO 6400

After dinner I’d headed off into the Gurrandalng wilderness to setup for some more Milky Way goodness

It was still close to the new moon. So the skies were dark and the galactic core of the Milky Way was very visible in the skies above

It was back out with the Samyang 14mm and time to work

Gurrandalng Dreaming

NIKON D750 + 14.0 mm f/2.8 @ 14 mm, 30 sec at f/2.8, ISO 5000

The framing I was looking for here was to look cleanly through the arch with the tree on the other side nicely silhouetted. The ground on my side was blackened by fire but the pebbly walking track nicely stood out white against this background

I shot this vertical composition at a lower ISO whilst the twilight light was still in the sky. With some added light painting in the foreground to balance the shot

At the time I thought the image may end up too light and washed out. However I was very pleasantly surprised with the final result

Gurrandalng Vortex

NIKON D750 + 14.0 mm f/2.8 @ 14 mm, 61 sec at f/2.8, ISO 1600 x 114 Frames

Later in the evening I returned to this vertical composition for some star trails action. Nearly two hours (114 x 61 second frames) of rotation

Continuing with my quest for capturing the Milky Way in a giant archway from horizon to horizon over the landscape

I figured the arch of the Milky Way over this fabulous smaller rock arch in the Gurrandalng wilderness would fit the bill 🙂

Gurrandalng Archways

NIKON D750 + 14.0 mm f/2.8 @ 14 mm, 30 sec at f/2.8, ISO 5000

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.

Archways

NIKON D750 + 14.0 mm f/2.8 @ 14 mm, 30 sec at f/2.8, ISO 5000 x 6 Frames

As before to include well above the top of the arch of the Milky Way I have to angle the 14mm lens upwards for the shots

Also being incredibly dark, looking through the viewfinder was essentially pitch black. Making the practice of adjusting the frame somewhat difficult – when you can see nothing 🙂

So it was again a practice of manually rotating the ball adjustment between frames both to keep the same vertical orientation and estimate a 50% overlap rotation :)… the end result a panorama stitch of six (6) vertical frames…