Ruins of History

We stumbled upon an old station. These buildings must date back to the 1800s. Out in the middle of the Pilbara. One can only imagine the life lived on the station, in the heat, among the rocks, and wildflowers and skippies and spinafex.

Hopefully there are some tales in town of this station, but for now, what I have are photographs.

Mulla Mulla at the Station

We went 4WDing with my in-laws recently. We may have gotten slightly lost, due to some misdirection - or faulty directions. It's hard to say which ones which.

But the scenery. We reached our destination, ate a late lunch and by the time we were about to leave, the sun was entering the golden hour. Not only that but there were mulla mulla carpeting the Pilbara Savannah. Despite not wanting to get lost on the return trip in the lowering light, I was distracted by the light and made the most of it.

PS Compression did not do the second one justice!

Silhouettes at Sunset

A classic sunset technique seen everywhere are silhouettes. An outline of a black object with the colours behind to make them pop. These next photos were taken well after the sun went down, and all I had to work with were the last remaining rays from the sun making their way above the horizon I could see from my vantage point at Cape Range National Park.

Colours of a Sunset

Editing Sunsets in Raw is hard. There I said it. There are too many colours, too many tempting options too many sacrifices to be made! Do I enhance the orange and sacrifice the green? Do I add a magenta hue for dramatic effect?

Photo editing has become a way of life for people - look at photography blogs all over the place and you find over-edited photos, HDR photos that REQUIRE editing to even exist. So to those who turn their nose up at photo editing, I really don't care because it is an art-form in and of itself.

But, nothing beats taking a photo that requires little or no editing. That's how I approach sunsets because they are too difficult to edit to my satisfaction! The best creator of colours at sunset is God so I try and capture what he does at the end of each day rather than make my own creation.

I was trying a few techniques from the Understanding photography book, using the flash for the foreground while retaining the sunset colours. This required no editing.

Balance and Poise

This Understanding Photography book has given me heaps of inspiration. I must admit, I can't actually remember if I took this photo on purpose or if I discovered it while editing my photos. Let's say I took it on purpose, as a good photographer always does I'm sure.

I can't decide if it looks like a lollipop, a balloon, or a moon perfectly positioned to balance on a blade of grass.

It reminds me of the small and insignificant is often aligned with the grand and mighty. One blade of grass, aligned with a body circling the Earth in Space, pulling on our oceans to create tides, and yet here they are together. A matter of perspective. How great is our God who knows not only the blade of grass and the moon in the picture, but the sands I was lying in, the creatures in the water behind me, the stars that are not visible in this photo but are there...just to name a few things.

"Who has measured the waters in the hollow of His hand, And marked off the heavens by the span, And calculated the dust of the earth by the measure, And weighed the mountains in a balance And the hills in a pair of scales?" Isaiah 40:12

A new Pathway to the Moon

When I first heard of the staircase to the moon, I thought it sounded awesome - a moonlit path to the moon over the sand, how exciting! I had visions of glittering moonlight dancing off the sand with stars speckled behind, a rough, rickety staircase meandering up to the moon, telling a story of adventure and cold beauty.

Boy was I disappointed.

Not that staircase to the moon isn't beautiful - it is - just not what I was expecting. To be honest, when you have your cynical hat on, it's just a line of light...A beautiful line, but a line nonetheless.

So while at Cape Range, we would watch the sunset over the ocean and the moon would be rising behind us (no staircase to the moon there). I got so many sunset photos of the water and the colours (just wait, they are coming...) I decided to run around the sand dunes taking photos of the moon. It's one of my mottos actually. Number one is to not take photos of things that move because its too hard (which I break all the time for obvious reasons) and the other is to ALWAYS look BEHIND yourself at sunset - the colours are completely different, the light is different and you can get some amazing photos.

This day, I must have looked like a crazy sand hill lady. Running, yes running, with my camera and then slamming into the sand dunes on my stomach, twisting and turning trying to get the best composition for the moon with all sorts of things.

I had been reading the Understanding Exposure book on the beach to pass away the time of peace and restfulness, in which they talk a bit about wide angle lenses and how they are built to be able to 'fill up the foreground'. They push the details to the back so you have to consciously fill up the foreground. This is what I have been trying to do. So I present to you a NEW pathway to the moon.

Sand Dune Sunset

Living an outdoor lifestyle is unparalleled. It has its tradeoffs - most of the interesting work in my field is actually found in cities, and you can escape the city if you know where to go, but nothing beats being able to live a quiet life in the region. The outdoors is on your doorstep.

In truth though, the above is merely a reflection, because it took us eight hours to get to this spot.

But that's just it - driving from Karratha to Exmouth, there is not a lot in between. A few turn offs to small towns, two roadhouses, and well, a lot of cows, spinafex, wildflowers, rivers, (a mine, yes), and just, nothing. For six hours or so! Those hours move into a blur of not much when you look back - just colour, beauty and whatever book you had to read in the car.

Travel of this nature is not for everyone - but it does offer a time of reflection and watching the landscape subtly change from the rocky Pilbara to the sandy Gascoyne is pretty impressive.

None-the-less, we arrived at Cape Range, camped behind a sand dune and were blessed with the peace only a beachside camping experience can offer - silence but for the waves and conversation.

“These things I have spoken to you, that in Me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation; but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world.” John 16:33

Fabulous Finches and Robins

One of the things I have tried and tried again to photograph are finches. These guys are so cute - subtly they fly around with a quaint chitter. Now, patience is not one of my strong suits, but you have to be patient when photographing birds, I understand that now. Although, it still doesn't come naturally to me.

This day we were camping at Cape Range National Park - so not quite Pilbara, but beautiful all the same. I decided to stalk the birds in the morning. I chased these guys around and around the campground. I changed my lens twice - given its zoom capacity the 18-200mm did quite nicely for this in the end. I increased the shutter to try and freeze these guys in motion.

What's below is a start.

The last one is a little robin - isn't he cute? These guys were easier to capture than the finches, I think these guys were the babies.