Rodney Campbell's Blog

Today we were heading out to the westernmost park of the island – the aptly named West Bay.

It appeared we saved the roughest most car rattling ride for this our last full day on the island!. About 20km’s of rough dirt road (West Bay Road :)) leading west from the Flinders Chase Visitor Centre leads you to the most spectacular bay and beach.

We were here on a beautiful summers day, the conditions could not be more perfect for a day out on this wild and remote beach.

Note: These photographs (especially the wider shots) look much better when larger – so click any of the images below to see larger versions in an inline overlay slideshow gallery viewer.

The girls enjoyed paddling, exploring and just relaxing…

NIKON D600 + 24.0-70.0 mm f/2.8 @ 70 mm, 1/800 sec at f/3.5, ISO 100

NIKON D600 + 24.0-70.0 mm f/2.8 @ 70 mm, 1/1000 sec at f/3.5, ISO 100

It was also an opportunity for me to start working on a new portfolio piece. Something a little different to my usual landscape work… lets just say it involves seaweed – more when the project comes to fruition 🙂

It was just a day to enjoy the location, we were the only ones here so we had this whole paradise to ourselves…

Summer Joy

NIKON D600 + 24.0-70.0 mm f/2.8 @ 70 mm, 1/800 sec at f/3.5, ISO 100

The Bracelet

NIKON D600 + 24.0-70.0 mm f/2.8 @ 70 mm, 1/100 sec at f/8, ISO 100

This was even the perfect place for a little interpretive art photography in camera with some intentional camera movement.

Summer Motion I

NIKON D600 + 24.0-70.0 mm f/2.8 @ 70 mm, 1/15 sec at f/22, ISO 50

Summer Motion IV

NIKON D600 + 24.0-70.0 mm f/2.8 @ 70 mm, 1/20 sec at f/22, ISO 50

NIKON D600 + 24.0-70.0 mm f/2.8 @ 56 mm, 1/250 sec at f/9, ISO 100

and then it was time to go (everyone was getting hungry :)).

West Bay Blues

NIKON D600 + 24.0-70.0 mm f/2.8 @ 27 mm, 1/125 sec at f/11, ISO 100

I’ve recently purchased a second/backup camera body (the Nikon D750) for my full frame Nikon D600 D-SLR. In a couple of months I’ll be going away on a long trip in remote areas of our wonderful country and I don’t want to be camera-less should some accident befall it. The D750 will become my primary camera body and my trusty D600 will become the backup. There’s absolutely nothing wrong with the D600 and there was no need for the “upgrade” – they are both just about equally epic cameras – I just need a backup for this once in a lifetime trip.

I’m a compulsive researcher and ADD list maker so I’ve done some research on all those little settings which are available in camera. Therefore I figured I might just share the result of my detailed study and how I’ve setup my D750 for daily use (basically all my default settings).

Firstly I should say that I primarily shoot in Aperture priority mode or Manual. This is mostly because I like to be able to control my depth of field – because I’m mostly taking shots of landscape, people, portraits or things.

So on to the D750 camera settings I use… The following lists mostly show the settings I’ve changed which are different from the Nikon D750 Defaults…

D750 Playback Menu:
Playback display options: Highlights & RGB histogram & Overview
Image review: On
Rotate tall: Off

D750 Shooting Menu:
Image Quality: RAW
Color space: sRGB (default)
Active D-Lighting: Off (default)
Auto distortion control: Off (default)
Long exp. NR: Off (default)
High ISO NR: Norm (default)
ISO sensitivity settings: ISO 100, Auto ISO: [Max: 12800, Min Shutter: Auto]
Remote control mode (ML-L3): Quick-response remote

D750 Custom Settings Menu:
a6 Focus point wrap around: On
a9 Built-in AF-assist illuminator: Off
c1 Shutter Release Exposure Locking: Off (default)
c2 Standby timer: 10s
c3 Self Timer Delay Setting: 2s
c4 Monitor Off Delay: 20s, 1m, 20s, 10s, 10m
c5 Remote on duration: 5m
d1 Beep: Off (default)
d2 Continous low-speed: 3 fps (default)
d6 File Number Sequence: On (default)
d7 Viewfinder grid display: On
e1 Flash sync speed: 1/200s (Auto FP) (if own external flash) < -- I only do this since I own an SB-900 flash which supports Auto FP high speed sync e3 Flash cntrl for built-in flash: TTL or Commander mode: TTL (if own external flash), Channel: 2 < -- I only do this since I own an SB-900 flash which supports wireless mode f1 OK button: Playback mode: Zoom -> 1:1 (100%)
f2 Assign Fn Button: Press -> Top Item in My Menu
f4 Assign AE-L/AF-L: AF lock only (AE Lock (Hold)?) (AE/AF lock is default)
f7 Slot empty release lock: Lock
f8 Reverse indicators: -O+ (default)

D750 Setup Menu:
Copyright Information: …

D750 Setup MyMenu:
Setup -> Virtual horizon
Shooting -> ISO sensitivity settings
Shooting -> Interval timer shooting
Shooting -> Multiple exposure
Custom -> e3 Flash cntrl for built-in flash

On top of this I also use the two User settings mode dial slots (U1 and U2) to store extra customised shooting settings for quick access (e.g. one tailored for tripod style shooting (night time, land and sea scapes, etc) and one for portrait/street photography). These U1 & U2 slots start with the above general settings and have the following additional starting point customisations.

U1 – Landscape: Aperture Priority & f/11, ISO 100, Auto ISO Off, Single-Servo AF (AF-S), Single-Point AF (centre point selected)

U2 – Portrait/Street: Aperture Priority & f/4, Auto ISO On [Min Shutter: Auto*2], Continuous-Servo AF (AF-C), 9-point Dynamic Area AF (for Street I might then switch to Auto-Area AF)

Sport/Wildlife: Aperture Priority & f/2.8, Continuous-Servo AF (AF-C), 51(21)-point Dynamic Area AF (or 3D-Tracking AF), Auto ISO On [Min Shutter: Auto*2], Custom Setting a1: AF-C priority selection: Release priority, RAW 12 bit compressed (increases buffer depth), (Custom Setting f4: Assign AE-L/AF-L: AF-ON ?)

Second last day on Kangaroo Island so it was my last chance for our last rise at Remarkable Rocks.

My two youngest daughters were joining me for a sunrise session this morning so we woke very early (around 5AM). The skies were clear (again as usual) so I wasn’t expecting anything epic in the sunrise department but it’s always nice to be out and about in such a fabulous place at this time of day.

The Lion

NIKON D600 + 16.0-35.0 mm f/4.0 @ 20 mm, 8.4 sec at f/11, ISO 100

Before heading across to Remarkable Rocks we made a quick detour to the Lighthouse next to where we were staying for our last chance at seeing it’s last rise under the stars…

Note: These images (especially the wider shots) look much better when larger – so click any of the images below to see larger versions in an inline overlay slideshow gallery viewer.

5:33AM and still 50 minutes till sunrise but already the sky looks very bright when you’re trying to expose for the stars…

Look to the Stars

NIKON D600 + 14.0 mm f/2.8 @ 14 mm, 25 sec at f/4, ISO 400

Then it was over to the rocks and we were setup before 6AM and some some pre dawn colour was strong in the sky – perfect for the silhouette of one of the very interesting rock shapes at Remarkable Rocks heading up this post.

The colour didn’t last long and soon it started to fade to soft pastels and then grey 🙁

I decided this morning to take some nice landscapes including my children – one because I love my children of course but also they add a nice sense of scale to the image. It’s hard to really appreciate the sheer size of these rock sculptures in 2D images until you see images like these where you can get a feel for just how large they are.

Sometimes my children’s patience really surprises me and is appreciated. Try getting your young ones to stand perfectly still for 47 seconds in the cold at 6:07AM when it’s still 15 minutes till sunrise 🙂

Last Rise

NIKON D600 + 16.0-35.0 mm f/4.0 @ 19 mm, 47 sec at f/11, ISO 100

This is my favourite of the pre sunrise session – and I only needed them to stay still for a mere 11 seconds for this one 🙂

Guardians

NIKON D600 + 16.0-35.0 mm f/4.0 @ 19 mm, 11 sec at f/11, ISO 100

We watched the world get slowly lighter and just before sunrise we setup for this selfie where I’d done one by myself the previous day.

Morning Rituals

NIKON D600 + 16.0-35.0 mm f/4.0 @ 19 mm, 1 sec at f/11, ISO 100

Shooting into the rising sun and not having silhouetted people isn’t really possible with a single frame so this is a blend of three exposures in photoshop (-1, 0 and +1EV) using luminosity and hand painted masks.

Once the sun was up and clear blue skies too over it was time for a little fun :)…

Sitting in Time

NIKON D600 + 16.0-35.0 mm f/4.0 @ 19 mm, 1/4 sec at f/11, ISO 100

and yes I purposely positioned both the girls and where I shot from :).

and just after 7AM it was time to say our final farewells to the Remarkable Rocks – we’d likely not be back here again…

Thinkers

NIKON D600 + 24.0-70.0 mm f/2.8 @ 52 mm, 1/100 sec at f/8, ISO 100

Sometimes it’s the details of mother nature which are most interesting. I typically shoot larger, grandiose landscapes. However sometimes, and I should definitely do this more often – I should focus on the details…

These scribbles, the wanderings of an insect cutting through the smooth skin of the aptly named scribbly gum tree.

Scribbles

NIKON D600 + 90.0 mm f/2.8 @ 90 mm, 1/3 sec at f/22, ISO 100

These zigzag tracks are tunnels made by the larvae of the scribbly gum moth and follow the insect’s life cycle. Eggs are laid between layers of old and new bark. The larvae burrow into the new bark and, as the old bark falls away, the trails are revealed. The diameters of the tunnels increase as the larvae grow, and the ends of the tracks are where the larvae stopped to pupate.