Rodney Campbell's Blog

The earth is massively cracked around these parts. Which is what gives rise to these fantastic deep red gorges made famous in Karijini

Millions of years of water and wind erosion doing their work in iron ore rich lands

Cracks

DJI Mavic 2 Pro L1D-20c + 28.0 mm f/2.8 @ 10.26 mm, 1/30 sec at f/2.8, ISO 100 x 21 Frames

It’s only when you can view it from up here that you can see the extent

In this 21 frame 180˚ panorama the aptly named Red gorge is that large craterous crack across the foreground. Knox gorge comes inwards off that on the far left of frame. Near the middle and right is the junction of Hancock and Weano gorges. Oxer lookout is towards the end of that pointy bit of land inbetween those two gorges. Joffre gorge also joins there and leads off away towards the distant middle of the frame. That puts the ECO Retreat way way (15kms) in the distance in the middle of frame at the other end of that gorge

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.

DJI Mavic 2 Pro L1D-20c + 28.0 mm f/2.8 @ 10.26 mm, 1/30 sec at f/2.8, ISO 120

I got up early for what was probably only my second early morning sunrise session of the trip so far

Hancock Dawn

DJI Mavic 2 Pro L1D-20c + 28.0 mm f/2.8 @ 10.26 mm, 1/20 sec at f/2.8, ISO 400

Today I was heading back to one of my favourite locations in Karijini National Park – Weano Recreation Area. Home to Hancock and Weano gorges

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.

It’s about a 10km drive on dirt from the ECO Retreat to the gorges. I was yet again here at stupid o’clock (before sunrise). I stopped on the side of the road about one kilometre from the car park and put up the drone for some aerial views of the gorges

The road in follows along the upper reaches of Hancock gorge so thats what you can see here in these images

Hancock

DJI Mavic 2 Pro L1D-20c + 28.0 mm f/2.8 @ 10.26 mm, 1/30 sec at f/2.8, ISO 200 x 21 Frames

This was another of those shots I’d been meaning to take when I was last staying at the ECO Retreat four years ago

Retreating Stars

NIKON Z 7 + 14.0 mm f/2.4 @ 14 mm, 15 sec at f/2.4, ISO 6400 x 6 Frames

A vertical panorama from six (6) horizontal frames. One of the deluxe eco tents at the base with the milky way streaming off into space above

Just lucky there was one of these empty on hand as I was leaving Joffre gorge

Ten minutes later and the milky way is pretty much as aligned with the vertical seam of the gorge as it was going to get

… and quickly moving to the right so we had to shoot quickly

Vertical Seam

NIKON Z 7 + 14.0 mm f/2.4 @ 14 mm, 15 sec at f/2.4, ISO 6400 x 6 Frames

My new friend was shooting with a wider focal length than I was (24mm vs my 14mm). This meant he was overlapping less (I was at over 50%) and needing to shoot more frames. And he was manually moving the camera on a ball head vs my relatively simple panorail step movements

I was doing the light painting of the gorge walls during our exposures which gave him the time to shoot and adjust

I’d do one minimally lit exposure time followed by a more well lit one and repeat. This gave us two options for each composition frame for stitching later

This image here is a result of stitching a set of more well lit frames which I darkened a little in post

I made the descent down into Joffre Gorge whilst it was still early twilight. It wasn’t quite time for the alignment of the milky way with the roof of the gorge but it was still light enough to see

Alignment

NIKON Z 7 + 14.0 mm f/2.4 @ 14 mm, 15 sec at f/2.4, ISO 4000 x 6 Frames

Light enough to see being a useful trait when scrambling down a very sketchy cliff face in darkening light

I was here a little early so I spent some time doing some test shots with my panoramic rail just to test the framing, composition and lighting

My new German friend arrived not long after it got quite dark, and we started shooting in earnest

This is one from early on (7:20PM and just after astro twilight ended) with minimal low level light painting on the rock walls of the gorge above

The resultant image is the panoramic merge of six (6) overlapping horizontal frames with the 14mm lens

What you see here is well over 180˚ field of view from top to bottom. The bottom of the frame looks forward along the base of the gorge towards Joffre falls. The image then pans upwards to see the tall (100m) narrow gorge walls to either side and above. Eventually at the top of the image you’re actually seeing the base of the gorge behind us

So that “crack” in the roof of the gorge with the milky way along it is the visible portion of the sky when standing at the base of the gorge and from top to bottom is perhaps 120˚ or so long