A Tale of Two Pilbara Symbols

There are many things that symbolise the Pilbara for me. This is one of the reasons this place is a wonderful place for photos. Everything has a meaning and a story to tell.

When more than one symbol connect, the picture created is even better.

One of these symbols is the sunset. They are truly magnificent in the Pilbara. I am of the opinion it is because of the vast open spaces, giving plenty of space to God to create his canvas of colour. We can see the big picture, with no buildings or structures interrupting our view. Just clouds of colours.

I hear that the best way to photograph sunsets is with a split filter. I have split filters, but have not yet used them much as I keep forgetting that I have them...oops. But in this case, it would have been tricky as I was photographing a sunset with another Pilbara symbol - the iron ore train.

One of the longest trains in the world and I would guess one of the most valuable. Literally millions of dollars are rattling by when they go past. Train tracks spread across the country as far as they eye can see, and waiting at a crossing for one of these bad boys to go past is not uncommon.

Thus sets the scene for this story. On our way home from Millstream one day, the sunset just got better and better, until I convinced my husband it would be a good idea to pull over. Luckily our friends in the car ahead had the same idea. We pulled off to the side of the road where we had one of these vast views and started snapping away. We realised that although we had a great view of the clouds, we could not see the horizon due to the railway track mound. When climbing on top of the ute didn't suffice, we decided to run to the track to see if we could get a better vantage point.

Rain is scarce in the Pilbara, but we had had some that week. Unfortunately, as nice as the rain it it usually means one thing for the Pilbara in the following weeks - insects. We ran towards the track, hit a mud patch with small stagnant pools. It was here that we were set upon by the most violent mosquito attack known to mankind! One swipe down your arm could kill up to 15 mosquitoes at a time, but that didn't stop the little critters from attempting to eat us alive! I am sure they were starving, and saw us as their salvation. They followed us all the way back to the car and we spent the remainder of our trip scratching every patch of bare skin as each one was covered with bumps and bites.

At least I managed to snap this baby. A split filter would not have helped in this situation due to the silouette effect, and I had to crop some power poles out, taking away the wide angle effect, but in the end, I love what it symbolises - The Pilbara. Mosquitoes and all.

Canon EOS 50D, 10-22mm Wide Angle lens. f/5, 1/200, ISO 250, 21mm cropped. Slight enhancements in Photoshop.