Rodney Campbell's Blog

One thing you notice pretty quickly out here during the day is how impossibly blue the skies are.

With incredibly clear skies and not a cloud to be seen all 360 degrees of the horizon it’s amazing just how blue it is.

We stopped at Saddle Creek rest area for a morning tea stop. The cliffs here were very pretty with trees growing out of the sides. It was an opportunity to shoot more of these lovely Snow White stemmed ghost gums against the impossibility blue skies.

Impossibly Blue

NIKON D750 + 28.0-300.0 mm f/3.5-5.6 @ 300 mm, 1/320 sec at f/8, ISO 500

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.

Ghost

NIKON D750 + 28.0-300.0 mm f/3.5-5.6 @ 300 mm, 1/320 sec at f/8, ISO 720

NIKON D750 + 28.0-300.0 mm f/3.5-5.6 @ 92 mm, 1/100 sec at f/8, ISO 200

and a little side story…

We’d driven almost 1,000 kilometres from Darwin into the remote wilds of the Northern Territory and as you can imagine traffic signals are not something one expects to see out here in… well… nowhere. I mean we don’t even see intersections for days let alone red lights…

But here you go – even in the strangest of places…

Stop on Red

NIKON D750 + 28.0-300.0 mm f/3.5-5.6 @ 85 mm, 1/500 sec at f/5, ISO 100

The main event for the evening was to take the frames for a star trails composite image. Standing here feeling alone in the universe is a humbling experience.

Out here alone in the absolute darkness with the universe of stars above filling the heavens with sparkling diamonds oh too many to count or fathom.

Three Slices of Heaven

NIKON D750 + 14.0 mm f/2.8 @ 14 mm, 30 sec at f/2.8, ISO 6400

The first task was to select a suitable composition. I wanted to include these three fantastic Boab specimens (perhaps the rule of odds at play :)). I aligned my location and composition so that the boabs would be reaching up into the heavens with the centre of the rotation of the stars being aligned with the right hand tree. At the time I possibly would have preferred to align with the centre tree but it wasn’t possible to do that and include the three trees cleanly – in then end having it on around the third probably works better anyway.

First some test shots with some light painting of the foreground to potentially later use to blend in as the foreground image.

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.

Then it was time to let the intervalometer run. I was taking frames at 14mm, 61 seconds @ f/2.8 and a staggering ISO 1600 (it was so amazingly dark skied out here and still the background was dark!).

The sequence started at 8:30PM and I let it run for 89 frames. By 10PM I’d had enough of sitting alone in the dark with all manner of strange noises in the dark. All sorts of animals and birdlife out in the darkness moving about. Plus I was camped here in the absolute darkness right next to a potentially crocodile infested river. Strange thoughts do eventually creep into your mind :).

The end result was worth the wait however I’m saving this image for an exhibition I’ll be doing with the Parallaxis group next year so this teaser will have to do till then sorry :)…

Another day, another perfect location for stars.

This Savannah scene was ideal fodder for a Milky Way arch and star trails behind a giant Boab.

I played with a few compositions with the grassy foreground, and some Boabs all being light painted with the lowest setting of my awesome new Zebralight headlamp.

Savannah under the Stars

NIKON D750 + 14.0 mm f/2.8 @ 14 mm, 36.00 sec at f/2.8, ISO 6400

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.

Eventually I opted for the arch of stars over these three main Boabs for my panorama composition.

My final panorama is the result of stitching six (6) frames taken with the 14mm – 30 seconds @ f/2.8 and ISO 5000.

I’m saving this image for an exhibition I’ll be doing with the Parallaxis group next year so this teaser will have to do till then sorry :)…

These amazing Boab trees were starting to be more frequent. Before coming here I was mentally under the impression that they weren’t all that common and that we would see them every now and then. How wrong I was…

The Boab tree is (as with other baobabs), easily recognised by the swollen base of its trunk, which forms a massive caudex, giving the tree a bottle-like appearance. Endemic to Australia, boab occurs in the Kimberley region of Western Australia, and east into the Northern Territory.

… and they were everywhere :).

Boabs Reaching

NIKON D750 + 14.0 mm f/2.8 @ 14 mm, 8 sec at f/8, ISO 100

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.
It was going to be another perfect night for stars.

Unfortunately there was nothing useful for foreground interest at or near the campground. With time to spare I went for a recce in the hot afternoon sun to search for a suitable shooting location.

I walked down the Victoria Highway and over the bridge about 500m from the campground. Looking down the river I could see some nice looking Boabs so I walked down along the river about 250m and found this grove of large Boabs in the tall grasses.

It was on private farm land but I was hoping the owners wouldn’t mind :). There were farm tracks heading to here so I followed them back and out to their entry road and then the main highway.

I came back after dinner just in time to catch the end of sunset and quickly setup a few twilight shots with a touch of light painting. If only I’d had more time and been here half an hour earlier…

The Boab Savannah

NIKON D750 + 14.0 mm f/2.8 @ 14 mm, 30 sec at f/7.1, ISO 100

Still the stars were my main event…

We’d been passing many military vehicles, trucks and tanks travelling in the opposite direction this morning.

My daughter decided a game of counting military trucks was in order to pass the time.

When we got to the service centre at Victoria River crossing there were a large number of assorted military vehicles parked everywhere. The U.S. Marines were in town.

USMC

NIKON D750 + 28.0-300.0 mm f/3.5-5.6 @ 82 mm, 1/200 sec at f/8, ISO 100

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.
My daughters count – 60 vehicles.

We chatted with some of the marines for a bit before heading down to the bridge for some photos.

A pano stitch of ten (10) handheld frames taken looking down the Victoria River from the middle of the bridge.

Victoria River

NIKON D750 + 28.0-300.0 mm f/3.5-5.6 @ 28 mm, 1/160 sec at f/8, ISO 100

NIKON D750 + 28.0-300.0 mm f/3.5-5.6 @ 98 mm, 1/100 sec at f/8, ISO 125

Banded Curves

NIKON D750 + 28.0-300.0 mm f/3.5-5.6 @ 180 mm, 1/200 sec at f/8, ISO 280

Highlight

NIKON D750 + 28.0-300.0 mm f/3.5-5.6 @ 190 mm, 1/200 sec at f/8, ISO 360

Then it was time to leave Victoria River and continue on our journey past Timber Creek and Bradshaw Bridge.

Straw

NIKON D750 + 28.0-300.0 mm f/3.5-5.6 @ 230 mm, 1/250 sec at f/5.6, ISO 125

Golden Straw

NIKON D750 + 28.0-300.0 mm f/3.5-5.6 @ 250 mm, 1/250 sec at f/5.6, ISO 180

These massive Boab tree’s are pretty amazing. We were hoping to camp at this Big Horse Campground for the night but it was completely full which was a pity because I was really looking forward to using this Boab for foreground interest with some star trails :(. So it was onwards before camping the night at East Baines River rest area.

Big Horse

NIKON D750 + 28.0-300.0 mm f/3.5-5.6 @ 55 mm, 1/250 sec at f/5.6, ISO 100