Rodney Campbell's Blog

Nitmiluk National Park is around a series of gorges on the Katherine River and Edith Falls. Previously named Katherine Gorge National Park, its’ northern edge borders Kakadu National Park. The gorges and the surrounding landscape have great ceremonial significance to the local Jawoyn people, who are custodians of Nitmiluk National Park. In Jawoyn, Nitmiluk means “place of the cicada dreaming”

Cracked

NIKON Z 7 + NIKKOR Z 24-70mm f/4 S @ 24 mm, 1/50 sec at f/11, ISO 64

Rivers of Red

NIKON Z 7 + NIKKOR Z 24-70mm f/4 S @ 24 mm, 1/30 sec at f/11, ISO 64

This is the spot where an episode of Masterchef was shot in the most recent season. All the kitchen benches were lined up on the flat area of rock at the bottom

Jawoyn

NIKON Z 7 + NIKKOR Z 24-70mm f/4 S @ 24 mm, 1/40 sec at f/9, ISO 64

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.

We were staying in Katherine for a couple days so we booked on a cruise up Nitmiluk Gorge

Located on the lands of the Jawoyn people, rock art sites dot the park and dreaming stories bring the silent gorge walls to life

Nitmiluk Gorge

NIKON Z 7 + NIKKOR Z 24-70mm f/4 S @ 70 mm, 1/100 sec at f/5.6, ISO 64

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.

Art

NIKON Z 7 + NIKKOR Z 24-70mm f/4 S @ 70 mm, 1/80 sec at f/5.6, ISO 200

The Crossover

NIKON Z 7 + NIKKOR Z 24-70mm f/4 S @ 24 mm, 1/40 sec at f/11, ISO 64

We even saw a few freshwater crocodiles

Freshie

NIKON Z 7 + NIKKOR Z 24-70mm f/4 S @ 70 mm, 1/80 sec at f/11, ISO 180

This is the longest (in terms of time) set of star trails images I’ve ever shot. Having the camera a couple metres from the van helps :). I just set things running and left it and returned around midnight to collect it

The Longest Trail

NIKON Z 7 + 14.0 mm f/2.4 @ 14 mm, 60 sec at f/2.4, ISO 1000 x 258 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 image is the result of stacking 258 one minute exposures (258 minutes (4 hours and 20 minutes) of elapsed time)

Being so far north (near Katherine) means that the celestial pole is quite low and close to the horizon

This requires some thought for the composition when including the centre of rotation. This is especially tricky when the moon is out and I also have to actively exclude it from the frame. (it was just out of frame on the right)

In the end I’m pretty pleased with how it turned out

We stayed at a random rest area beside the highway heading north towards Katherine this evening

Luckily this nice bare tree was metres from the van. Given minimal clouds and a smallish crescent moon which should set within a few hours of sunset. The tree provided a half decent foreground interest for some further astro work

I setup a potential composition whilst it was still light and took the below twilight image just after sunset

Twilight Moon

NIKON Z 7 + 14.0 mm f/2.4 @ 14 mm, 1/13 sec at f/2.4, ISO 640

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.

Then when it was almost dark enough to shoot some star trails exposures. I took the following test shot after further refining my composition

Reaching for the Stars

NIKON Z 7 + 14.0 mm f/2.4 @ 14 mm, 15 sec at f/2.4, ISO 5000

We’d travelled far enough north now for the ant hills to start…

Any by ant hills, I mean not just a few here and there but millions upon millions of them. Most of them are around 50cm to 2m tall but so particularly impressive ones are over 3m tall

Millions upon Millions

NIKON Z 7 + NIKKOR Z 24-70mm f/4 S @ 70 mm, 1/320 sec at f/5.6, ISO 110

The photo above was taken out the passenger window as we drove along. It’s pretty typical of what you see going out across the land into the distance

The ant hills change in form across the region. Here they are mostly more vertical and pillar like. In the Pilbara they are enormous wide mounds. They also vary widely in colour based on the soil in the area. From these reddy brown ones to orange and really deep red ones, beige, cream, brown, grey, charcoal and even almost black ones

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.

Pillars

NIKON Z 7 + NIKKOR Z 24-70mm f/4 S @ 70 mm, 1/80 sec at f/11, ISO 100

Zig Zag

NIKON Z 7 + NIKKOR Z 24-70mm f/4 S @ 70 mm, 1/100 sec at f/8, ISO 64

Counterbalance

NIKON Z 7 + NIKKOR Z 24-70mm f/4 S @ 70 mm, 1/80 sec at f/11, ISO 100