One of those photos from one of those moments

Have you ever experienced a time when you take a photo, purely because you have a camera, there's something in front of you to take a photo, so you are like, what the heck? Only to come home, edit the photo and realise it's actually one of the best photos you have ever taken?

That's this photo for me. I took it, because I was bored. We had packed up camp, and we were waiting for something, I can't remember what, so I walked a little way off with my camera, fitted with my wide angle lens.

I had just discovered that my Samsung Galaxy takes a pretty mean panorama. I mean, it put's a lot of my distorted efforts to shame. So I was in a state of denial, determined to out-beat my smartphone and take a cracking panorama on my camera. I decided to use a technique I have seen others use but I admit, I have derided. That is putting your camera on burst mode and taking heaps of photos as you pan around. It's a pretty good option if you don't have a tripod and the sun is bright.

So off I traipsed determined. I soon realised that I had to time my pan to be faster at the start and slower towards the end, to match my camera's memory speed. One thing I have noticed about my CF card, although it's a pain I need a card reader for it and they are hideously expensive, they are actually really fast at capturing information. Or maybe I just lucked it out on a good one.

The results - yeah, I was pretty happy with them. And yes, hands down beats out the smartphone! Take that Galaxy!

Young Grasshopper...

So I don't know if this guy was young...but he was naive.

He landed on a sticky plant while trying to hop away. Silly grasshopper - thank you for getting yourself conveniently stuck so I could take photos with my macro till my heart was content...or frustrated, take your pick.

These were very low, as in, ankle high shrubs that came alive with grasshoppers when you walked through. The shrubs have long fingers on the shoots that are sticky, oily, grimy and just generally not nice to touch. They smell nice when disturbed though - a strong but natural smell. Almost like a toxic cleanse - it's not a particularly nice smell like roses, but it feels good to be smelling it in the fresh air and early morning light.

Mulla mulla wannabees

These flowers have always confused me. They aren't mulla mulla but they look like mulla mulla - kind of. I call them mulla mulla wannabees.

Took advantage of some morning light and used the macro to capture these fluffy, purple beauties. Who would have thought fluffy and purple would be words to describe something of Pilbara beauty?

Early Morning Light...

One of the reasons I love camping is because by the time morning arrives, you are normally so uncomfortable in bed, you can't wait to get up. This provides ample motivation to take photos in the early morning light.

There was not a lot of motivation on this trip to climb any hills - but this is a pretty awesome scene to wake up to in a swag surrounded by friends.

And people ask why we stay in the Pilbara?

Poor Paw Print

To be honest I only titled this 'Poor Paw' because of the alliteration.

Do you remember that scene in the Lion King, when Simba puts his small paw into Mufasa's big paw? Aww, so cute.

So when taking photos of water droplets, and I saw a natural paw print, naturally, I had to take a photo...

Love the macro!

Where did Python Pool go?

Python Pool was running! Where did it go?

Groan. That's a dad joke.

We visited Python pool after rain to finally, after 4 years see the waterfall. It did not fail to impress. In my opinion it should be running more often!

Python pool is an interesting beast. It's a great swimming hole, but only for a few weeks after rain. After than it gets green and scungy. But I saw a different side to Python pool today. The brown side! But at least the water was fresh.

Last time I went to take photos here, I was attacked by horse flies and was taking anit-histamines for a week.

This time, while trying to compose a different shot, I was attacked by meat ants. But I had to take the shot from right on top of their nests - all I had was thongs. So, I would run up, take a few shots, then run back into the water to kill the suckers that had latched on. This happened several times.

The other cool thing about this visit is that we ran into an old friend we hadn't seen since about a month after we arrived in town who had moved to Port Hedland. Ahh, the Pilbara, the people you meet and then meet again!

The one above is six vertical shots stitched together into a panorama using a nifty fifty. I've got to tell you, the more I use that nifty fifty, the more I love it! It's taken a while, you definately have to get used to it, but it's so much fun.

Below is just a good close up of the waterfall.

What Is Pilbara?

While driving home today, I mentioned to my husband that no other region is revered quite like the Pilbara, to my knowledge at least. Maybe the Kimberley.

You know, a region, not a state or city but a region, that has set a name for itself. It rivals Kimberley. Other regions like the Hunter, the Barossa, Margaret River, they are tourist regions. Set up to attract tourists. The Pilbara is different. It's rugged, remote and not set up for tourists. I rather like it that way. It's a part of the country we can enjoy without the hype or the expectation.

The Pilbara is unique in Australia. No-where else will you find a region with such a name, that people don't want to go because the perception is that it's just mining! Just a hole in the ground! HA!

When I think of Pilbara, this is the scene I think of. It's not the greatest photo of the Chichester Ranges, but this isn't about the photo. It's about the Pilbara. And to be honest, there are too many highly edited photos of the Pilbara going around with all the wanna-be photographers around (yes I know, myself included). This is it. This is real. This does not do the stunning countryside justice.

Water Monitor

The final one from our Karijini whirlwine, Phew!

This guy was hanging out on the path. I love it when lizards make it easy for you like that. We watched this guy for a little while, as he snapped up a bug or two and cruised around on the rocks. He was very obliging.

Of course, being on the path, other people came and went, including a pair of camera nerds who had two 7D bodies between them and the guy decided he wanted a photo as well - he changed his lens three times. That's pretty dedicated.

I like this one, because he wasn't the most fantastic looking specimen, but his head and neck look pretty cool with his textured skin and scales.

Misty water in the sunlight

On this last trip to Karijini we managed to take my parents up and down each and every gorge you can visit in the park and then some.

We visited this little known gem, Kalamina Gorge. It's not really that interesting, but it does have some lovely little cascades. We were there late morning, but the shade was just nice enough to expose the cascades correctly to mist them up nicely while still getting the greenery around.

This photo actually caught me by surprise - it's one of many I took for a HDR, but I think it works just fine on its own.