Saturday, October 31, 2015

Favourite Experiment

Yes I edit most of my photos. Lately I have been experimenting with editing with colours and hues for dramatic effect. I was inspired by Instagram - during this trip I took a number of photos that turned out surprisingly well with filters and colours changed a little so I tried to replicate that feeling when editing some of my photos in RAW.

I love this photo. Yes, it's edited for dramatic effect but I love it. I love the ripples, the fact that it has people in it shows the scale and adds elements of a story of walking on the beach, I love the colours and the contrast.

A happy experiment that paid off.

Again, you are crazy for not visiting the West if you have never been here.


Sunday, October 25, 2015

His Eye is on You Everywhere

My favourite part about Broome was exploring the cliffs. My husband and his Dad went well ahead of my mother in law and I, we spent far too long looking into every nook and cranny. I only had to change my memory card once.

Do do this walk, you need to do it at low tide so you can get past all the cliffs and rocks. We happened to time low tide perfectly - in the late afternoon when there is the best sun (rivaled only by the morning sun which I don't see terribly often).

We found this window, this eye. I love these features in nature, that remind you of God who created all things and watches all things.

Where can I go from Your Spirit? Or where can I flee from Your presence? If I ascend to heaven, You are there; If I make my bed in Sheol, behold, You are there. If I take the wings of the dawn, If I dwell in the remotest part of the sea, Even there Your hand will lead me, and you right hand will lay hold of me. If I say, "Surely the darkness will overwhelm me, and the light around me will be night," Even the darkness is not dark to You, and the night is as bright as the day. Darkness and light are alike to you." Psalm 139: 7-12.






Saturday, October 24, 2015

Hermy

I love meeting friends with my macro lens. This hermit crab was ready for a new shell so he could not hide from me. Mwhahaha!

Poor thing, I picked him up and turned him around so often before finally getting a photo I was happy with. But he lived in a pretty amazing place, and all I wanted to take was photographs so hopefully he forgives me.



Sunday, October 18, 2015

Cliffs, Mini Bungles and Beach

If you spend all your time on the East Coast and never get your butt over to the West, this is what you are missing. That is all.




Friday, October 16, 2015

Travelling North

I have put quite a few photos up from adventures down to the Gascoyne - Exmouth, Coral Bay and Ningaloo reef. Now it's time for the northern side - Kimberley.

Broome is beautiful. You are mad if you never come to this part of the country. I can understand if you aren't making a bee-line for Karratha or Port Hedland (you should make one for Karijini) but you should make one for Broome.

This was the final hurrah before my husband's parents left for home in QLD. We went o Eco Beach for a long weekend. It's funny, because we went to Barn Hill on our travels and didn't really think much of it at the time. Little did we know that just a few kilometers up the beach were stunning cliffs and beautiful caves.

I love this photo - it has the red that characterises Broome beaches, but a beautiful pristine beach untouched by footprints (soon to be touched I might add).


Sunday, October 11, 2015

Colours of a Sunset

It's always nice to take a photo with the sunset behind you - particularly when the sun is still high enough to create that golden hour of time that makes all things magical. But in particular the Pilbara.  Contrast this photo with the last post - these were taken approximately 10 minutes apart and the landscape (and admittedly, the angle of my camera) has changed dramatically!


Saturday, October 10, 2015

Pilbara Waterways

The Pilbara, although not desert, is arid. It's dry and dusty and harsh. I miss water and green - even in the driest times in Queensland you could still head into the rainforest, the green, and see waterfalls and tranquility. I miss our day trips to the Sunshine Coast Hinterland, the Bunya Mountains and just driving around the South East in general - playing in dams and rivers and waterways.

The stunning landscape of the Pilbara is that - stunning. But it's not green and there is often not much water. If it is green, it's not the soft green of grass, but the harsh green of spinafex - you know that rolling around in the rocky hills is going to be painful between the rocks and the spinafex even if it is green.

So, when water presents itself in the Pilbara, you have to take advantage - capture the moment to prove it to the naysayers who say its not true. In the previous post I described how my husband encouraged me strongly to get out and take a photo this day - I was sick and hungry and wanted to go home, but there was water in the Pilbara and it was sunset!

We pulled off the road and to be honest I was happy as soon as I was out of the car! I took about a hundred photos I think.

Pretty soon the roadside wasn't enough, I had to climb down the rocks to go to the waters' side. I was busy taking photos of dead trees and wildflowers when I heard the husband call out that there were swans on the lake! Swans, colours, sunset Pilbara would equal AWESOME photo so I ran.

I got maybe ten steps when my offroad boots sank into mud. Sticky mud. My boots are ankle high and the mud was above both of them! Neither my husband or my mother in law wanted to venture out into the mud themselves to save me, so I had to squish and squelch my way out. What's the point of offroad boots if they don't save you from mud? I may as well have been in bare feet as in other adventures!

Of course, by the time I got out the swans were far away so my photos of them were inconsequential. But I did get this panorama of dead trees.


Sunday, October 4, 2015

The opportunities presented by dead trees

Dead trees have character. Have you ever thought about these things - here stands something that once was living, but now its glory has gone, it is a shadow of what it once was, and yet it holds its own beauty and character.

This photo was taken thanks, once again to my husband. He is a good egg who looks out for me and encourages me not to take the easy road out when I'm feeling lazy.

We were driving home from another Pilbara adventure with parents (his parents). The sun was fading. I had warned my husband that if we came across a field of mulla mulla lit up by the dying sun we would be stopping.

We didn't come accross that field (well, we did but it was shadowed by a Pilbara hill) but we did come across a waterway lit up with magical sunset colours - the behind the sunset colours (looking behind yourself at sunset). A magical waterway. My husband asked if I wanted to stop - I hesitated. I actually was not well that day with a massive headache and cold so of course I hesitated. I was hungry and wanted to be home.

But, a conversation ensued - a 'it's not very often we are here, you should take advantage of the opportunity' conversation. So I did. I'd love to paint you a picture of someone who is always happy, always keen and enthusiastic but the truth is sometimes I need a little push. I think we all do. I snapped a couple of Pilbara sunsets. So yes, my husband and I are a team and I am so grateful I have him to encourage me and cajole me into taking photos at times.


Saturday, October 3, 2015

Table Top with a View

One of the things that escapes me about 4WD-ing is the fun of climbing steep, rocky hills. Especially when you are miles from anywhere and meeting someone coming the opposite direction would mean certain death.

We drove up a mountain the other day. In the Pilbara. My only regret was not seeing an iron ore train from above the car level - that would have been terrific. Still, the colours, the scene, the Pilbara, does kind of take your breath away.