Hancock Gorge - #5

Panoramas.

I wanted to take the wide angle down the gorges and take some panoramas. I got two in the end, that I was pretty happy with.

The first is below. It has a couple of muppets in it, but hopefully that gives you an idea of where we were, how we traversed the rocks and water to the views, and the kind of terrain I was taking photos in!

Also, this one is particularly cool because I had an accidental whirlpool! Cyclone Gorge!

Hancock Gorge - #4

So there are going to be a few more of these than I realised.

I did spend a good deal of time with the water in Hancock gorge, given that we missed it last time!

It's great when you discover little gems. Both of these photos were taken as part of would be panoramas, but the final product of them individually was enough! Loving the wide angle lens down the gorges!

PS How cool is the whirlpool???

Hancock Gorge - #3 (Kermits Pool)

One of the most popular spots at Karijini - Kermits Pool. Green pool, in a narrow gorge, fed by a waterfall. Paradise!

I love the colours in this shot. They have been played with a little, but only to bring out the pool's natural beauty.

The other thing I love, even though it's over-exposed, is the flash of orange and red flowing into the pool from the other side from further down the gorge. It adds a depth of colour. This shot was taken as part of a set of three with my wide angle, but when stitched together they were not as appealing! This one does just nicely I think.

Hancock Gorge - #2

Karijini is the kind of place where you can spend half an hour taking a photo, then take two steps down the gorge only to find another angle, another viewpoint, another perfect spot.

So of course, before heading down the spider walk in Hancock Gorge, I looked back at the little waterfall, and realised, oh my gosh that's just as stunning, if not more!

A key feature of Karijini is the flat rocks. I love how the water cascades over them. In this photo I love how the gorge is reflected on the cascade but made blurry by the movement.

It was very difficult to get the colours right in this shot, as the water is supposed to be a beautiful turquoise but I think the water was still settling from some recent rain.

If only there weren't spots on my lens!

Hancock Gorge - #1

We went to Hancock Gorge last time, but didn't get great photos because we went at the wrong time of day. This time, I made sure I was down that gorge in the morning, before the sun got there, and before the backpackers and grey nomads alike.

There are numerous shots of Hancock, so there will be numerous posts.

The only thing that was annoying is that I knew we were being followed by a bunch of loud backpackers. So I had to be quick. As quick as I was, they still managed to photo bomb a few of my shots! Over the next few posts, see if you can spot the backpacker...

But this one is nice and clean...I stopped to take it despite the oncoming loudness because I had not seen this section in shadow before. Seize the opportunity!

Hello Karijini...we meet again

That's right. We went to photography paradise. Karijini National Park - not the only place you can break your neck while taking photos, but in this part of the country, the odds do increase dramatically.

It's just stunning. Every time I visit, it blows me away. So this visit, I tried to take a few photos that we missed last time.

Sometimes I feel bad about making people wait for me to take photos. But not this trip and not here. How can you complain about waiting in a place like this?

So, let's kick it off with a nice little cascade from Dales Gorge, where we went the first day. I missed these cascades the first time around, and we were in the gorge just before the sun went down so the light was even. How could I resist?

I don't want to speak too soon. But I think this is a favourite. I was pleasantly surprised to come across this baby while editing.

While you're set up...

After taking pictures of the blood moon, I thought, hey, what the heck, I'm already set up in the front driveway, why not give stars a whirl?

Heaps of light around, and not a great lens, so you are never going to get a brilliant shot, however I was happily surprised by the results - I got many more stars than I was anticipating! And yes, the fancy angle was on purpose.

When there's blood on the moon...

Now that's a bit of an ominous title!

We have had a couple of blood moons recently. The first, I didn't even attempt to photograph, the second, I took my gear up the hill but it was murkey and hazy, and I was feeling lazy.

So when this one came around, I wasn't even going to bother, but I was in the kitchen and my husband came in the front door, all 'quickly have a look at the moon!' so I went out, and realised, you know what? I could shoot that from my driveway - no climbing, no shoes, not much hassle, just tripod up, camera on, point, shoot, bang you're done.

So that's what I did.

Admittedly, it's not a great blood moon shot. Heck, it's not even a good one! But it's a good first attempt, and much better than I was expecting, given the light all around. And not having the correct lens. I believe I shot this with my 18-200mm in the end (set at 200mm) which doesn't give the greatest focus but at least its zoomed as close as I possibly could.

That's right...another dragonfly

But I love them. You want to know why? Because they always fly back to the same spot! Butterflies - you can't tell where those devils are going to next, but dragonflies...they come back to the same spot. So do you know what that means? You can focus your macro on that leaf, or straw or piece of whatever, and your selected dragonfly, if that's where you found him, there is approximately an 80% chance of him coming back. Roughly. It doesn't always work, but it's a lot easier to predict than other insects.

Now, if only I had the presence of mind to get the composition right, we would be set! I hate getting home and realising I've cut wings off....

Classic Pilbara Rocks

Part of my inspiration for chasing the sunset lately is to snap an awesome photo to enter into a Pilbara landscape photography competition.

I don't have the photo yet, but while attempting to capture the right shot, I did capture what I call, classic Pilbara. Which for me is rocks, spinafex, sky and colours.

This is the Pilbara. This is our home right now. Who knows where we will be tomorrow? Let's enjoy today, let's enjoy where we are, make the most of it. That means getting out and taking photos  TODAY.

Sparkles

Where did the concept of sparkles come from?

This is something I have often wondered. Was it the reflection of the waves as the sun rises and sets? Was it small pieces of metalic rocks and gems that shone in the light that caught our eye?

Or perhaps, it was a more common occurrence across all lands, oceans and nations. How water droplets catch the sunlight after rain. Much akin to the rainbow.

When packing up to go on a camping trip after a night of rain, I decided to take the macro out and take some photos of water droplets on the  magnolia out the front of our house.

I tried two things - first, I tried to take a photo of a leaf through a water droplet. This didn't appear to be working at all, when I noticed the early morning sunlight catching on the side of the droplet. I wonder if I can flare that, I thought?

I made the aperture small and the shutter as slow as I could - in this case only 100mm as I was hand holding my camera. The small opening allows less light through, while the slow shutter captures the movement of the light.

It took a lot of experimenting but I finally caught. And caught it in focus none-the-less! What was really cool however, was that while viewing on my laptop, I noticed a leaf was visible in the droplet! Love it when that happens!

Finally, what I love about these photos is that they are unedited. These are as taken. The lesson? I should make the most of early morning light more often!

What was cooler again about this, was that I was able to capture the sparkle in not one but three different colours! How amazing is light? While looking through the camera, the light bouncing into my lens was whole and therefore, white as above. But at other times it was broken, so that it became blue, green, orange and red.

Again, none of these are post-edited.

I would just like to once again marvel at how light works, how it has been created to create all colours imaginable. You cannot imagine a new colour, it's all there in the light, waiting to be reflected, refracted and absorbed to bounce back to provide a huge gamut of colour that is amazing. No camera could capture that.

Once the sunset...

So finally the sunset over the gas plant and I could take some pictures!

I spent a good half hour, trying to get the lights to starburst and twinkle, capture the foreground and the colours of the remaining light in the back.

It was a great challenge, and I felt it worked ok. I would have stayed longer, only the wind decided to pick up and started blowing my tripod over. With the shutter open for 30 seconds or so, it pretty much rendered my picture taking exploits useless!

The other challenge was that one of the gas valves (I think they are valves) decided to flare, so I have a couple of pictures of an overexposed twinkle! I didn't put them up here, because at the end of the day, the composition is pretty boring, but I do like how you can see Withnell Bay in the background, and you have so many colours!

I would just like to point out that impatient me waited patiently for an hour for this photo! And my very kind husband waited patiently at home for me to come home before we had dinner. I am blessed indeed to have the freedom to take these photos after work!

The Sun Still Hasn't Set...

So even after finding a skippy and some awesome little flowers, the sun still hadn't gone down for me to take photos of the gas plant.

So I took photos of the sun. Take that, sun!

There were powerlines in the way though - that's the problem with living in an industrial area. If you want to take photos of industrial stuff, well, you kind of have to, you don't have much choice.

It was a pretty spectacular sunset though, I love it when there is a slight green tinge, and the colours bring out clouds you may not necessarily notice. And the powerlines? Well, they are a nice silhouette. At least that's what I'm telling people.

Now, it would be un-Australian for me not to say this.

But may this photo serve as a reminder of man's ability to generate electricity! (And then inspire you to go and watch The Castle :) )

It's the small things in life

I took many, many photos while bored at the gas plant. You see, I had to wait for the sun to go down, before I could shoot, otherwise the lights of the plant were not bright enough.

With a macro lens, things take on a whole new perspective. While walking back from shooting the skippy (with the lens, I don't own a gun) I looked down to see these amazing tiny pink flowers breaking through the surface of the earth, coming to life.

They were so tiny, but so strong, I actually found it quite inspiring to see them bursting through the earth. It must take incredible energy to burst through the earth like that, how incredible is nature! How awesome is our God? The heavens and the earth cry out his name, no man has an excuse for not believing in the Creator, and even the smallest things can bring joy and life.

"For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen, being understood through what has been made, so that they are without excuse."

Romans 1:20

How Does One Survive?

I took a trek up to the Gas Plant one evening intent on taking photos of the lights.

Inevitably, I got bored while waiting for the light to go nice (I remembered this is why I don't normally do this) so I started scouting around for things to shoot. There is not a lot in a makeshift car park, but this guy caught my eye.

Skippies are everywhere up here, so they aren't too thrilling to see, but in my patient boredom, I did wonder, how do they survive in the spinafex and the rocks? Surely it can't be a great life. But this guy seems to love it.

He was a little shy, and I had my 100mm lens on, so I had to move to zoom in and he kept hopping away into the bushes. I do like this shot of the Pilbara landscape with one of its natural inhabitants, pleasantly enjoying an evening meal, only to have it ruined by a bored person with a camera!

Come to think of it, this is one of my favourite skippy photos. I'm glad I was bored. I should wait for the light more often!

Chasing the Sunset

When I feel down I need to remind myself to take photos at sunset. It always makes me feel better.

Sunset in the Pilbara is stunning. Over summer it seems to last forever. The light makes the colours come alive during this golden hour, so even the most boring scene can become astronomically beautiful.

The shot below, I was searching for a place and running out of light so I pulled over to the first escarpment I could find.

Surf's up

I just thought I would share this little photo with you - My first photo of a surfer! The waves at Main Break in WA appear to an untrained eye like mine to be perfect.I just ignore the white caps. One thing you don't get in the Pilbara is breaks like these...and little surfer dudes like that.

Black and White Beachscape

The clouds at Hamelin Bay were impressive. Coupled with my polarizing filter, bright sun and stunning water, it made for prime opportunity for a dramatic black and white beach scene. The beachscape I call it. Dramatic.

I love it how you can crank up the saturation to 100% if need be for black and white photos - increasing the drama without the fake-looking colours. It was also fun messing with the different colour channels - making the yellows really light while making the reds really dark. Made for some great contrast in the seaweed.

Another photo taken this holiday with an alternative intention than just "quick, catch this scene". I wanted this photo to be black and white purely for the clouds.

Stingrays of Hamelin Bay

When planning our holiday to South West WA, I came across Hamelin Bay - a little place where friendly stingrays come to the shore. I'm sure they do this because they are lazy and expect to be fed by the tourists (which many do...naughty) but they are a lot of fun. They are massive - stingrays and eagle rays. They come right into the shore, so close you can touch them (if you dare...I don't think you are supposed to...).

They provide the perfect photography subjects on a beautiful beach! If only there weren't so many other people crowding around. Fortunately, I did manage to snap a few.

This beach is quite beautiful even without the stingrays - nice sand, rocks, seaweed and just general beach stuff. Too bad us northerners were too cold to swim...

The first one is my favourite. I learn't while editing this photo that rather than increasing brightness, you should increase the exposure and decrease brightness and increase contrast...in this case and most cases, it retains the details. See the ripples in the water near his tail? Details = retained.

Boat Harbour Panorama

Taking panorama photos with a wide angle lense is a challenge. You have to watch the distortion, the angle, how far you are panning. But occasionally - it works! I love it when it works.

This is one of those rare photos where I actually considered the composition, not just thought, "I gotta catch me all of that!" I wanted the rocks and the shrubs in the foreground, and luckily they were spared the final crop. When stitched together, sometimes my foreground needs to be sacrificed because of the distortion that has occurred..,but fortunately in this case, it worked!