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.

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.

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.

Water Like Cotton Candy

While on holidays at Cape Range National Park, was reading my book 'Understanding Exposure', which was great, it had a few tips I hadn't yet come across, although much of the information I had already read elsewhere. I found it funny that he described the 'misty water' effect as making it look like cotton candy. I guess I can live with that.

What I can't live with is the fact that I nearly lost my camera this morning. I had my tripod, was looking for leading lines and had to keep the shutter open for about 30 seconds as the sun wasn't yet up. Of course, the predictable happened - wave came along and I am very lucky that it only splashed a little bit of salt water onto my lens!

What that meant of course, is that the photo shoot was over, or other wise useless. I had nothing on me to clean my lens with me on the beach (I was in my pyjamas with a tracksuit on top - I got ready in a hurry) so the rest of my photos all had salt spots on them darn it!

It has just occurred to me that many of the misadventures I share with you on this blog involve me being quite clumsy...

Sunset on the Beach

One of the most obvious things that is wonderful in the west is watching the sunset over the ocean. While camping 10m from the sea at Cape Range National Park I made the most of my wide angle lens and the gorgeous light each afternoon.

Of course, there were some afternoons when the camera was put away, and I simply enjoyed the show. But not now. This was an experiment with finding leading lines, and inspiration from reading my book on Exposure.

On second thoughts, it's a little dark. Oh well. That's why we call it experiments. 

Room with a View

Every now and then I get distracted.

Well, I confess, it happens all the time.

But I was running around the beach at Cape Range, chasing the sunlight as it set over the ocean, creating golden hues bouncing off the water and the sand when I came accross this guy building his home for the night.

He was going between two pieces of grass that were approximately 2m apart. You you could hardly see his web yet, but the golden hues did not forget to touch him and light him up nicely.

He must have had one heck of a view from up there. And eight eyes to enjoy it with to boot.

I know every bird in the mountains, and the insects in the fields are mine. Psalm 50:11

Backlight Sunlight

I've seen quite a few photos taken recently into the sun during the golden hour at sunset. They are stunning. These are not silhouettes or overexposed, just golden goodness.

We took a trip down to Cape Range National Park to camp by the reef, so being by the beach watching the sun go down, I took the opportunity to give this technique a go.

I found some purple flowers in the sand that added some tremendous colour to the landscape, and were lit up with the back light of the sun. So, I crouched down, at all costs preventing my camera from falling into the sand and causing disaster, and started shooting away. I'm pretty happy with the result - as always, not quite what I had pictured but you get the idea.

Bubblegum Flowers

My favourite wildflowers up here are these purple ones. I have completely forgotten their real name, I have just aptly named them 'bubblegum flowers'. They smell like Bubblegum.

Sea Shells by the Sea Shore

With all my excitement with light sparkles and glints, I guess I never expected to get glints on a tiny sea creature, cruising along as the tide went out.

This guy was on the tide line, heading off on the long journey toward the ocean, and I got distracted. When I realised I was in the perfect angle for glints from the sun, I stayed distracted and I had to run to catch up to everyone.

Face to Face with Death - All 10cm of it

There are often jokes made about all the things in Australia that can kill you.

Snakes, spiders, crocodiles, sharks...drop bears...

Then, if it doesn't kill you, it will likely bite you and make you itchy, or poison you, or make your hand swell up like a balloon.

Let's face it, we may not have any of 'the big five' or carnivorous land dwellers, but Australia is a pretty scary place.

One of the things you always hear about is the blue ringed octopus.  This sucker, with is eight tentacles of suckers can kill you in three minutes. In a really horrific way. It's one of those things you always hear talked about but never see...like drop bears.

Until you see two of them at Point Samson while out reef walking.

Thank goodness I was actually in shoes this time.

We were with my sister and brother in law who were visiting. My Brother in law spotted the first one - and kept him out of his hidey hole with a rock until I could get there with the macro. Inches away from death. And this creature, I kid you not, was no longer than 10cm and the most vibrant blue rings I could ever imagine! The Blue rivaled glacier blue, it was almost fluorescent! We had fun taking photos, from a relatively safe distance. It was just a shame that my husband didn't see it - he had decided that he needed to confirm that there was indeed nothing at the end of the spit.

But, we did spot another one in the end. If you head over to my Instagram feed, you can see a short video I got of that one, and you can see his blue rings pulsing - getting brighter, even darker around the edges as he gets scared.

I have never been more grateful for the macro. They swam very fast but I managed to snap a few.

My Favourite - Blue Ringed Octopus cruisin' - giving these humans the evil eye

It's a pity the tentacles are out of focus in this one, but I love his eyes

One of the most fascinating things - other than the potential for a 3 minutes of excruciating death (unless someone basically performs CPR for 24 hours...) - is that the rings get brighter, but the skin around the rings also gets darker to make them stand out even more...you really can't say the don't warn you.

Sea Feathers

Out at Point Samson you can walk on the reef at low tide. The reef in this instance refers to a small spit that juts out in front of the Point Samson Tavern (home of the best fish and chips - EVER) where the old jetty used to be. The rocks are covered in oysters, they have thin layers in classic Pilbara style, and at low tide there are numerous rock pools to explore with coral, Christmas tree worms, clams, slugs and octopuses. I'm sure there's more there because every time we go back we discover something new.

On this occasion it was some feathered - not sure if it's coral or some kind of aquatic plant. But it was cool to look at and on a glassy day, the macro did wonders.

Wisdom

A fool gives full vent to his anger, but a wise man keeps himself under control.
Proverbs 29:11

This proverb is about more than anger. It's about self-control. Self-control is one of the fruit of the spirit, and it's one I believe that does not get as much air time as, say, love. But it is so important. Personally, sometimes I wonder if it was listed last in Galations because it sums up all the other eight fruits - love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness - they all relate to self-control in some way. It is self-control that helps us choose to love when we are angry and frustrated, chose joy in the dark times, be patient when we want to surge ahead, be kind when we don't feel like it, choose the right thing because it is good, remain faithful and be gentle with one another. When we struggle with fruit, it is self-control that gets us through - the self-control and discipline to turn to Jesus when the going gets rough and not simply act out on our emotions because that's what feels good. Or alternatively, turn to Jesus when the going goes well, not just act on our emotions because that's what feels good.

This tree reminds me of wisdom. Proverbs is one of the wisest books I know, hence the reference. 

These are a few of my favourite things

Growing up my favourite animal was the black swan. This was before I realised how vicious they were when they were after bread, and the hideous noise they make when calling out to each other (I was taken aback at just how un-graceful that sound is!).

But I have to say, on a side note, my older brother ruined it for 6 year old me - he used to pretend to point out dead swans to me just to get a rise. I would inform him that there were none there, and proceed to get quite cranky at his stirring. This is also the person whose pet name for me was 'mozzie'. Thankfully, we are now older and wiser, and the one thing (among other things) my brother and I have in common these days is photography. I love to chat with him about photos he has been taking and tell him why Canon is better than Nikon (Nikon aren't bad...but they aren't Canon) and look enviously at his photos from Europe...

Anyway, back to the swans. The very ALIVE swans.

I still love them - I love how they move in pairs, mate for life, are graceful, peaceful and calm. The picture of tranquility (provided they don't make a noise...or you have ear muffs). These guys were on a waterhole we went by on a 4WD trek. We were the lead car at that stage of a convoy of three. I'd tried capturing some swans (on camera) earlier that day but they flew away. This happens a lot with me and birds. And animals. And people. They just don't do as they told!

So of course, when I saw a bevy (yes a bevy - Wikipedia says so and it sounds better than flock or herd) of swans cruising placidly down the river, I could not resist. I stopped the car, which thus stopped the convoy, and ran out in my thongs on the stony riverbed to capture the swans. I didn't hold out much hope for this photo, as it was taken in a rush, but was pleasantly surprised. I love it when you have the right lens on a the right time for that quick moment! (we just won't talk about the Jabiru we saw later in the day that I promptly scared away by slamming the car door shut in my haste to get my camera...rookie mistake...)

I have two favourite things about this photo - one, the stunning light. Everything is exposed correctly except a couple of overexposed feathers. Two the fact that it seamlessly stitched together (two landscape photos) despite the movement of the swans.

This one is for my brother. The Alive Swans. Hope he likes it.