Pilbara Panorama

Just thought I would share this panorama with you - the Pilbara.

Following a mud map to 'Chocolate Topped Mountains'

I published this first on ABC Open, again under the Pic of the Week project. If you have time, check out ABC Open, it is a collection of stories from regional Australia.

Gathering family together for a camping trip produces bonding, mateship, friendship and all kinds of good stuff among the stresses of heat, flies, spinifex and the close proximity of a tent.

In a place like Karratha, where few have spent their lives and live with family generations, your friends become your family. Connecting with people through workplaces, clubs, churches and hobbies is paramount to staying sane so far from home.

We organised a church camp to bring the congregation together - combining 'Pilbara family' and hobbies. To give people time to connect with those they wouldn't normally connect with. The thing about the Pilbara is that most people are transient - here for many reasons but connected by a commitment to the place for a time. A camping trip is one way to give people one weekend of family fun - to know they have friends and a network even when most of us come from so far away.

We are blessed in our church members, to have some community strongholds who have been here for a lot longer than most. The true locals who have seen this town grow and change, but can bring us back to the reality of the landscape that just goes through cycles. These people shared with us the camping spot on their station, provided us with directions on a 'mud map' to find the best camping spot for fun that had easy access.

We followed a dirt road, spied the 'chocolate topped mountains' as they have been described by a dear friend, turned off the road to a grassed area by a waterhole. The sun had taken more than its fair share of the water, but the mud, the water, the walking, the photos and the stillness still had attraction enough to inspire people and help them connect.

JRR Tolkein once said through his writings: "The road goes ever on and on. Down from the door where it began. Now far ahead the road has gone and I must follow if I can". Follow the road, follow the mud map, you may be surprised where it takes you - friendship, connection, love, acceptance and family away from home.

Editing colours of flowers

I just wanted to do a quick post to demonstrate to you the difference between editing JPEGs and RAW photos.

I have trouble sometimes with the colours of RAW because there is just so much information that I can never quite replicate the colours taken with the JPEG that my camera puts out. So I edited both the JPEG and the RAW image of this photo to see just what the difference was and was astounded but also delighted to find that despite its trickyness, the RAW one still came out way ahead of the JPEG.

Yes, it is more mulla mulla. The edited JPEG is first, the RAW second.

I like how the JPEG captures the glow of the light, but you can correct the white balance in the RAW - notice how the first image is slightly green? Not true colour - we are in the Pilbara remember!

Pilbara Bluebells

Bluebells are normally a sign of Europe - somewhere. United kingdom, I don't really know. But they make me think of Beatrix Potter, perfect English gardens and forests with foxes and rabbits.

In the Pilbara, we have what most people call Bluebells - but they are Pilbara style. Tough, rough, hardy and glowing in the morning sun.

It's quite funny, I uploaded this photo to ABC Open Pic of the Week when I took it (the rules are you have to put up photos taken that week). It got picked up by ABC News and went onto their Facebook page across the country and there was quite a debate on what these flowers actually were. Funny thing was I did actually research (briefly) what the name of these gems were and found 'Rough Bluebell'. I think this matches perfectly so that's what I'm sticking with.

More Mulla Mulla on the Station

Seriously, you never, ever grow tired of Pilbara wildflowers.

Here are more of the same mulla mulla, just from a different angle.

Let me tell you about the place we were camping. We went on a church camp to Kialrah pool on Warrambie station. The owners go to our church and are some of the ridgy didge locals.

We had an amazing time of fellowship and fun out here - peaceful, tranquil, surrounded by Pilbara mountains, wildflowers and joy.

Fields of Mulla Mulla

Mulla mulla are everywhere in the Pilbara. They are the wildflower that connects pretty much the entire region. That's probably why it is the official flower of the Pilbara.

We organised a church camp a while back.

Photos from this camp are bittersweet for me. As I write, my camera, Betsy, is in the mail, destined for the Canon service centre and she literally stopped working overnight on this camp. I am truly devastated but secretly hoping she may be beyond repair and I can upgrade....is that wrong?

Anyway, hopefully by the time this is published she will either be back in my hands and I will have taken more photos or I will have a new camera, all without a bump in photos on the blog.

So, on this camp one morning I got up to take photos of the mulla mulla. These guys, standing tall in the morning sun are glorious and epitomize what the Pilbara looks like. If only you could feel the wind, smell the spinafex, hear the rocks as well and you would know what this harsh landscape has in store for you and you too will never leave.

Collecting Shells

My mother lives in QLD, I am in WA. As you can imagine, she is not too pleased with where we have decided to settle but she puts on a brave face.

I miss having coffee with my mum on a regular basis but I still think of her and think she is a champion. She loves shells, collecting shells. She has an amazing eye - can always see the best ones. That's the best lesson she taught me in life - always look for the best in people and love them as Jesus loves them. Her heart of compassion and love rivals no ones - she is the ultimate in unconditional love and I can only hope to have a heart that is as loving of all people.

So whenever I go to the beach I look for shells - not for me but for my mum.

Traditional Beach Colours

We used to rent a lot of beach houses growing up. This was how we spent our holidays - renting houses, filling them with sand and laughter.

You soon realised that many beach houses employ the use of 'beach colours'. These traditional beach colours of turquoise, yellow sand, white, grey, blue appear in almost every beach house adorned with shells. These photos, hopefully show you why this is so.

Close Encounters

My mother in law is a real go-getter.

We went for a walk up the other end of the beach at Eco Beach one morning. The landscape was completely different, with more of your traditional beach colours.

The tide was rapidly approaching - WA has massive tides, bigger the further north you get (Derby, right at the top has 10m tides...). While walking, a channel started to form between us and the shore. We soon realised that this channel was filled with baby shovel nosed sharks! These guys blended in with the sand but would soon scoot off if you got too close. They scooted everywhere, even over our toes at times!

We were happily enjoying these precious little ones, when we spotted something that was rather larger...a shark, yes. Hopefully, from my research done later, just a gummy shark (as it has two fins) so therefore not a bitey one, but it's not the sort of thing you want to take chances with! Thank goodness for the 18-200mm zoom so I could prove our bravery.

Although I must admit that while my mother in law wanted to swim I requested that we move out of shark territory before we do so - I'm a bit practical when threatened with a chunk bitten out of my leg. My mother in law wins the bravery award for wanting to swim in shark territory.