Rodney Campbell's Blog

This is a panorama taken from further away which shows the road leading into the carpark below and the short trail up to the sunrise view lookout (which is the brighter area just below the cliff face jutting out)

Sunrise Viewing

DJI Mavic 2 Pro L1D-20c + 28.0 mm f/2.8 @ 10.26 mm, 1/40 sec at f/2.8, ISO 100 x 21 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 road off to the left follows along the face of the range and is how we got here. Temple Gorge Campground is down that way just past where you can see the road curving back to the right. That other road heading 90˚ to the right leads into Honeycomb gorge (which we’ll visit later)

One of the locations at Kennedy Ranges is called Sunrise View Trail (a Class 3, 300m return walk)

As the name suggests this location is best viewed at sunrise and is an ideal spot to watch said sunrise

Sunrise View

NIKON Z 7 + NIKKOR Z 24-70mm f/4 S @ 24 mm, 30 sec at f/8, 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.

My dad and I decided to get up early and get here before sunrise to photograph and watch the sunrise

It’s just a few minutes drive from the Temple Gorge campground and then a short walk up to the raised viewing area, which has a fabulous view of both the sunrise and the battlement-like face of the range behind you

We arrived quite early (like 5:30AM and well before sunrise). Which gave us time to get up here in the dark and setup (both for some still camera on tripod and drone photography)

This stitched pano using the drone was taken just after 6AM and still well before sunrise. It’s facing towards the Kennedy Range directly away from where the sun would rise. The lookout viewing area we are on is essentially below the drone

Pretty surprising what the Mavic 2 Pro camera can do even in very dim light at ISO 400

Kennedy Twilight

DJI Mavic 2 Pro L1D-20c + 28.0 mm f/2.8 @ 10.26 mm, 1/30 sec at f/2.8, ISO 400 x 21 Frames

Well I think the image and the title speak for themselves really 🙂

Bridging Two Worlds

NIKON Z 7 + 14.0 mm f/2.4 @ 14 mm, 15 sec at f/2.4, ISO 3200 x 8 Frames

Lighting of the landscape care of the moon. The rest I leave to the pano rail running fully vertically for a view in both directions. Or the two worlds up and down in this case…

OK so here we were a few hundred kilometers from… well… anywhere. In an isolated national park with basically no human created light pollution

Whilst this would normally be ideal for some astro photography… unfortunately the moon phase was certainly not ideal. It was just before the first quarter moon and it was already up well before sunset 🙂

Temple Tracks

NIKON Z 7 + 14.0 mm f/2.4 @ 14 mm, 15 sec at f/2.4, ISO 1600 x 5 Frames

My only real option was to essentially include it in the frame and deal with it. We also had a nice red dirt track through the ironstones all over the ground

The upside was I get a nice moonlit landscape so I don’t have to do any light painting myself. The downside I have to shoot at around ISO 800 to 3200 instead of something like ISO 6400. Actually I bracketed each frame at ISO 800, 1600 and 3200 so I’d have frames to work with in post… and… well… the moon also blows out in the frame… and if you’re not careful you get horrendous flare

Having setup at the Temple Gorge Campground we went for an afternoon walk along the Temple Gorge Trail. A Class 3 and 4, 2km return trail

Temple Rocks

NIKON Z 7 + NIKKOR Z 24-70mm f/4 S @ 57 mm, 1/60 sec at f/5.6, ISO 1100

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.

Starting at the Temple Gorge campground, the first part of the trail is Class 3 and leads to a fork in the creek under a prominent rock face referred to as The Temple. The left fork is a short picturesque walk, and apart from a few step-ups, is relatively easy. The right fork is rated at Class 4 and is a longer, tougher, boulder-strewn walk up to a small seasonal rock pool

Holey Temple

NIKON Z 7 + NIKKOR Z 24-70mm f/4 S @ 33 mm, 1/40 sec at f/5.6, ISO 450

Red

NIKON Z 7 + NIKKOR Z 24-70mm f/4 S @ 70 mm, 1/80 sec at f/6.3, ISO 1100

Temple Gorge

NIKON Z 7 + NIKKOR Z 24-70mm f/4 S @ 33 mm, 1/40 sec at f/6.3, ISO 450