Rodney Campbell's Blog

In the morning we visited the WWII Oil Tunnels which were built to protect the tanks after the bombing of Darwin during World War II.

WWII Oil Tunnel

NIKON D750 + 15.0 mm f/2.8 @ 15 mm, 1/15 sec at f/4, ISO 125

Following the bombing of the fuel oil storage tanks at Stokes Hill on 19 February 1942 in the first Japanese air raid, engineers began looking at British government designs for oil storage tanks in underground tunnels secure from aerial bombardment.

The Oil Tank

NIKON D750 + 15.0 mm f/2.8 @ 15 mm, 1/15 sec at f/5, ISO 1250

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 tunnels were, on average, designed to be about 15m underground. The longest tunnel, Tank 10, was nearly 200m long. Pipe headings connected the rear ends of the tunnels to an underground pumping station. The tanks were designed to hold distillate, diesel and furnace oil.

This is the view looking back along the longest tunnel.

NIKON D750 + 15.0 mm f/2.8 @ 15 mm, 1 sec at f/5.6, ISO 100

I think my daughter most enjoyed controlling this robot made out of old plane ruins and a ship which had been bombed during the war.

NIKON D750 + 15.0 mm f/2.8 @ 15 mm, 1/15 sec at f/5.6, ISO 640

Today we decided to go cruising – taking a relaxing sunset dinner cruise on Darwin harbour with Cape Adieu Harbour Cruises.

Looking out to Sea

NIKON D750 + 28.0-300.0 mm f/3.5-5.6 @ 116 mm, 1/125 sec at f/5.6, ISO 125

Ahoy

NIKON D750 + 28.0-300.0 mm f/3.5-5.6 @ 90 mm, 1/320 sec at f/5.6, ISO 100

It was a very pleasant way to while away a number of hours, eat dinner and watch the sun go down over the water out to the west.

Dancing in the Light

NIKON D750 + 28.0-300.0 mm f/3.5-5.6 @ 92 mm, 1/1000 sec at f/8, ISO 100

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.

The family enjoying the cruise and the view…

Cruising

NIKON D750 + 28.0-300.0 mm f/3.5-5.6 @ 28 mm, 1/30 sec at f/8, ISO 320

Again the sunset colour was rich and then subtle as the sun dipped over the horizon. We even had a touch of thin cloud today which was unusual for our trip.

NIKON D750 + 28.0-300.0 mm f/3.5-5.6 @ 300 mm, 1/320 sec at f/8, ISO 560

In the evening we went to the famous Mindil Beach markets, we had dinner there and watched the fabulous sunset out to sea over the beach.

Mindil Markets

NIKON D750 + 28.0-300.0 mm f/3.5-5.6 @ 85 mm, 1/100 sec at f/6.3, ISO 1600

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.

The pre-sunset and sunset (as they usually are up here) was red – insanely, unbelievably red!. With the beach exposed at low tide the reflections on the rippled wet sand surface of Mindil beach was superb.

Mindil Red

NIKON D750 + 28.0-300.0 mm f/3.5-5.6 @ 210 mm, 1/250 sec at f/11, ISO 220

Sure I wished I’d had my tripod, but I was on holidays. The D750 shot handheld with my new travel lens (the Nikon 28-300mm) would have to do.

Lined

NIKON D750 + 28.0-300.0 mm f/3.5-5.6 @ 28 mm, 1/80 sec at f/5.6, ISO 100

Twilight Beachcombers

NIKON D750 + 28.0-300.0 mm f/3.5-5.6 @ 300 mm, 1/320 sec at f/5.6, ISO 2000

As it got darker I had to push the ISO higher and higher. I’m actually pretty damn impressed with the D750’s high ISO performance. This shot at an eye watering ISO 12,800 taken at the end of twilight is testament to that…

NIKON D750 + 28.0-300.0 mm f/3.5-5.6 @ 190 mm, 1/60 sec at f/5.6, ISO 12800

After our first night sleeping in the caravan we headed out to explore the sights of Darwin.

First up we headed to the suburb of Nightcliff. We checked out the local Nightcliff markets there first before heading to the coast.

Nightcliff

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

We went onto the Nightcliff jetty and explored the very cool looking patterned rocks and coastline nearby.

NIKON D750 + 28.0-300.0 mm f/3.5-5.6 @ 98 mm, 1/100 sec at f/6.3, ISO 200

I must confess to looking at the area through landscapers eyes, with the view to potentially coming back here later to shoot during the golden hours :).

NIKON D750 + 28.0-300.0 mm f/3.5-5.6 @ 72 mm, 1/80 sec at f/6.3, ISO 220

It was going to be very interesting being up here in the north west of Australia. In Sydney we are usually shooting sunrises (because we are on the east coast of the country) we mostly have good sunrise seascape locations and few sunrise locations. Over here I’d have an abundance of sunset opportunities instead.

NIKON D750 + 28.0-300.0 mm f/3.5-5.6 @ 72 mm, 1/80 sec at f/8, ISO 320

We also checked out nearby East Point. There were a number of former military installations dotted along the coast here.

Next we headed into the city of Darwin for lunch and a wander around. We visited the modern Northern Territory Parliament House. Driving back to the coast we visited the Northern Territory Art Gallery and Museum. Eventually we decided it was too hot to walk around much more so we headed back to where we were staying so we could go for a swim.

NIKON D750 + 28.0-300.0 mm f/3.5-5.6 @ 48 mm, 1/500 sec at f/8, ISO 100