Photographer's paradise

Karijini National Park, formerly known as the Hamersley Ranges. If you don't know where it is, frankly, I'm not telling because there were too many people there when we visited at Easter time!

None-the-less, this place is a photographers paradise - despite the constant threat of you falling down a gorge or dropping your camera off a cliff. For those of you who followed my previous blog while we were traveling, you will have seen shots of this place before, and heard a couple of stories about how treacherous but rewarding this place can be! They advertise a five or something days trip out here, just for photographers for, I kid you not, around $3,000. Better to just visit it yourself.

We visited with some friends of ours, camping at Dales Gorge for four nights. Karijini is one of the largest National Parks in Australia, and consists of several subterranean gorges. These are great fun to climb down, swim in and just admire. They are full of colour in the banded rocks and interesting rock formations carved out by water. But the colours, oh the colours, are just sensation. Deep, vibrant reds against clear deep blue skys, with white silhouette of snappy gums. Purple, blue, grey, red rocks are prolific.

Your typical Karijini banded rocks - how mind blowing are those colours? Taken with Betsy and my Nifty Fifty down the bottom of Joffre Gorge. Minor editing in RAW - increased warmth and slight magenta hue to bring out the purple rocks. Increased contrast and brightness

It is very isolated though, so being prepared is crucial. I took two batteries and two CF cards. I used both.

This trip was not what I expected. I went with the full intention of getting great photos of huge, impressive gorges - one in particular down the end of Hancock Gorge, however twas not to be - the sun was so blinking bright! I am convinced that the sun is more concentrated in the Pilbara. There is simply, more of it here. Makes it very difficult to take photos during the day.

As it turned out, I had some success with the water shots (after the sun started making its way to bed), which I will write a separate post about, but also a couple of wildlife shots, shown below.

Taken with Betsy and my 18-200mm lens, focal length 187mm. f/5.6, ISO 250, 1/400 shutter.  Minor adjustments in Camera RAW - contrast, exposure, clarity, vibrance and saturation.

 This shot of the golden orb is, ironically, one of my favorites from the trip. I also snapped one of him sucking a dratted fly dry, however is front legs were slightly out of focus on that one. A good zoom is great for shots like this. I may not have needed to go to Karijini to get a shot like this, but this harps back to lesson one: be prepared for every opportunity!

Betsy and my long lens again - 1/640 sec shutter, f/5.6, focal length 200mm ISO 250. Increased contrast, vibrance and saturation in Photoshop.

 This little guy visited the camp one morning. Unfortunately, I ran out of room on my CF card, so instead of shooting in RAW+S JPEG just shot in LG JPEG. This shot was just a JPEG but still came out ok. Plus, this guy is just way too pretty!

Betsy and long lens - 200mm, 1/2500 shutter, shutter priority program. f/5.6, ISO 250. Slight adjustments in Camera RAW - contrast, brightness, warmth, vibrance, saturation.

 Spinafex pigeon! Back in QLD, these guys are grey and called top knots and are considered quite, well, ordinary. But these guys have terrific colouring and cruise around the rocks and the spinafex - it's quite amazing to see these little guys getting around in such a harsh environment!

Keep an eye out for the second Karijini edition - water.