Rodney Campbell's Blog

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

We were leaving Dales Campground today to head around to the western end of Karijini National Park and the Karijini ECO Retreat

The Anthill

NIKON Z 7 + NIKKOR Z 24-70mm f/4 S @ 53 mm, 1/60 sec at f/8, ISO 80

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.

Once settled in there I went for a walk to nearby Joffre Gorge which is right within the ECO Retreat area

Once at the bottom I headed left to shoot up the gorge where you can see these fabulous weathered layered gorge walls. Like thousands upon thousands of thin layers of coloured rock

Joffre

NIKON Z 7 + NIKKOR Z 14-30mm f/4 S @ 26.5 mm, 1 sec at f/11, ISO 64

In the other direction the brighter red cracked rocks fill the gorge area heading towards the waterfall

Red on Green

NIKON Z 7 + NIKKOR Z 14-30mm f/4 S @ 24 mm, 1.6 sec at f/8, ISO 64

When I was down the bottom photographing I met this nice young German couple

We got to talking and we had a shared keen interest in photographing the Joffre gorge under the milky way

Checking PhotoPills we worked out that tonight was going to be pretty ideal to have the vertical expanse of the milky way lined up with the gorge itself

We could setup in the bottom of the gorge near Joffre falls and look up at the sky with the tall 100m high gorge walls on either side of us. For a short while the milky way would line up with the narrow crack of the gorge. We had a short window of opportunity straight after astronomical twilight (an hour to 90 minutes after sunset) to shoot

So we made a plan to meet back here around 6:30PM (after sunset and in the dark :)) to shoot the milky way from just after 7PM

Red and Green

NIKON Z 7 + NIKKOR Z 14-30mm f/4 S @ 14 mm, 2 sec at f/13, ISO 64

I drove away from Kalamina Gorge after sunset. Before heading back to the caravan I made a side trip to Fortescue Falls

I had this plan to shoot from the bottom of one of the gorges with the milky way streaking through the sky above

Unfortunately the milky way didn’t line up with the gorge or the falls as I had initially hoped. It was more diagonally across the gorge rather than lined up with the gorge

Shooting at the Circular Pool end of Dales Gorge *may* have been better but stuffed if I was going to go down that cliff in the dark to get there 🙂

The Falling Milk

NIKON Z 7 + 14.0 mm f/2.4 @ 14 mm, 15 sec at f/2.4, ISO 6400 x 4 Frames

I tried a handful of different compositions and light painting efforts here. This last composition just before leaving was probably the best of them

Before long and the sun had set and twilight had come

I could shoot over this carved land with lovely pastel twilight colours in the sky before it got too dark to shoot

Carved Land

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

Looking away from the sun over Kalamina Gorge as it snakes off into the distance

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.

A 180˚ view with a 21 frame stitched panorama

Kalamina Twilight

DJI Mavic 2 Pro L1D-20c + 28.0 mm f/2.8 @ 10.26 mm, 1/30 sec at f/2.8, ISO 120 x 21 Frames

Water and time have carved out a spectacular region here in Karajini national park

If you ever get the chance to come (it is a very very long way to a very out of the way place) – definitely add it to your list

and then all too soon it was dark and time to go…