Rodney Campbell's Blog

Having stayed up late for many nights and after a busy full day the previous day I really was’t planning on getting up early… Let alone head out for a sunrise shoot on Griffiths Island.

I had planned to go out to the Lighthouse On Griffiths Island at some stage (either sunrise or sunset) during my stay in Port Fairy. The promitory of land on Griffiths Island where the lighthouse resides sticks out as the easternmost point of land so technically both sunrise and sunset would probably work here.

Port Fairy Light

NIKON D750 + 24.0-70.0 mm f/2.8 @ 26 mm, 246 sec at f/11, ISO 800

PhotoPills had indicated a couple potential scenarios including some milky way and star trails if the weather would be kind at night. However sunrise looked like it would be the most likely candidate with somewhat stable and dry land at your feet :).

So I was planning a sleep-in but for some reason I woke early (way before sunrise) and I figured… what the heck…

So I got up, got dressed, got the gear ready and headed out. I had mentioned at the information centre in town the previous day about walking out to the lighthouse to take photos and they had indicated it would take around an hour.

How very wrong they were :)… They had obviously not factored in a sunrise photographer in the total darkness keen to get on location. Sunrise was at 6:23AM and I usually like to be on site about an hour beforehand (the start of astronomical twilight). I was over thirty minutes too early and was taking first test shots before 5AM :).

The image up top was a natural four minute long exposure (at ISO 800 :)) taken at 5:17AM. Of course with a little light painting of the black foreground and the lighthouse silhouette :). That ball of light on the horizon is not the sun (which is way over the horizon off to the right). They would I expect be the lights of Warrnambool in the distance.

Having shot the classic composition looking straight down the path eastward facing the lighthouse (and a horrendous long exposure panorama attempt :)) I decided to investigate elsewhere.

The below may not look like it but this is a three frame stitched long exposure panorama which I’ve then cropped square :). The source frames were taken just before 6AM (so almost thirty minutes before sunrise). You can see the cool funkilicious black boulders which fill the foreground and much of the area around the lighthouse.

Mercury

NIKON D750 + 16.0-35.0 mm f/4.0 @ 20 mm, 93 to 123 sec at f/11, 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.

Here a more traditional single frame landscape composition from a nearby position. As I was using a 3 stop reverse grad filter for this to hold down the sky I took two frames – one with the filter and one without so I could manually blend back in the darkened lighthouse into the final frame.

Cloudburst

NIKON D750 + 16.0-35.0 mm f/4.0 @ 20 mm, 41 sec at f/11, ISO 100

It was time for us all to travel across the border from South Australia to Victoria to the sleepy little coastal town of Port Fairy where we’d be spending the rest of our holidays. We’d booked two appartments at a nice little place on the main street – one for our family and one for my sister in law’s.

It was only about a two and a half hour drive there so we still had much of the day to explore and get lost :).

Handy Wave

NIKON D750 + 16.0-35.0 mm f/4.0 @ 20 mm, 369 sec at f/11, ISO 50

Whilst the others continued to check out the many boutique little shops in the main street I decided to head out to the beaches on the eastern side of town. I’d seen what looked to be a number of Groynes along the beach on Google Maps and was hoping to recce the spot for a potential sunrise or sunset shoot.

Initially I’d parked too far south along the beach but I could see a number of wooden structures on the beach further up so after a quick adjustment to my location I was here.

Unfortunately the tide was fairly low so the structure was mostly out of the water. A quick check of the tides however showed that this was actually close to the daytime high tide at this time of the year.

I decided to make best use of the conditions now whilst I had them (there were at least some clouds in the sky and the wind was blowing so they were moving quite rapidly). It was time to put together some daytime long exposures.

The image up top is the result of a six minute long exposure using the Heliopan CPL, the Lee BigStopper and a Lee 3 Stop Grad over the sky.

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.

Below we have a more conventional shot which I’ve still stretched out to 4 seconds to slightly smooth out the water.

Holding back the Tide

NIKON D750 + 16.0-35.0 mm f/4.0 @ 20 mm, 4 sec at f/11, ISO 100

Finally I was looking to put together a really simplified composition and ended up with this vertical composition looking straight along the Groyne from above. I really like the feeling of loneliness and being lost with this image, though in the interests of full disclosure my wife doesn’t like it at all :).

Lost in Time

NIKON D750 + 16.0-35.0 mm f/4.0 @ 20 mm, 246 sec at f/11, ISO 100

After dinner that evening I went out again in search of a decent sunset location. This bridge – which crosses the Moyne River (and is the only vehicular bridge in town) is just a minute from our accommodation. Even with just a few minutes travel time I still arrived too late and what little colour there was in the sky was done before I was setup. That’s what happens when you leave right on sunset :(.

This 400 second long exposure with the Lee LittleStopper was the best I could manage in the rapidly falling light.

Streaks on Moyne

NIKON D750 + 16.0-35.0 mm f/4.0 @ 19 mm, 405 sec at f/13, ISO 50

There was an incredible glow in the sky even though it was late in the evening (8:45PM). Sunset in this part of Australia at this time of the year is quite late (after 8:30PM) but tonight was special. There was a band of cloud right on the horizon and some very thick black moody clouds up high in the sky so the sunset itself was unremarkable. However it was after sunset during twilight that the magic started to happen. Inbetween the sandwich of cloud the sky started to glow and the soft magical light started to wash across the land.

Glow

NIKON D750 + 28.0-300.0 mm f/3.5-5.6 @ 230 mm, 2.5 to 20 sec at f/8, ISO 100

The farmhouse of course backs right up against some fields (or paddocks for those who care) so I was literally able to just grab the camera and shoot over the back fence.

I tried some handheld shots at first (because I though the light would fade fast) but I was shooting near 300mm and handholding bracketed slow shutter frames at insane ISO’s. It was time to grab the tripod and do this properly :).

Because the contrast was so great I was taking multi frame exposure brackets.

This vertical composition above was just after 9PM and is a manual layer blend of a five frame bracket from -2EV to +2EV.

This horizontal composition is a manual layer blend of a seven frame bracket from -3EV to +3EV. It was taken only a couple of minutes later but the light was dropping rapidly so I had to punch the ISO just to keep the shutter in a usable range.

Divining

NIKON D750 + 28.0-300.0 mm f/3.5-5.6 @ 85 mm, 0.6 to 20 sec at f/8, ISO 400

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.

Sometimes nature just puts on a subtle but beautiful show and you just have to be there to enjoy and if you’re lucky capture it.

Whilst down at Bradley’s Head for sunrise I took a few sets of images for stitched panorama’s whilst I was there.

The first was a spur of the moment thing when I saw Gerry out at the end of the stone pier at Bradleys Head. He was shooting across the harbour towards the city and was positioned pretty nicely for me to shoot this quick sequence of images just ten (10) minutes before sunrise.

Taking in the View

NIKON D750 + 24.0-70.0 mm f/2.8 @ 58 mm, 8 sec at f/13, ISO 100 x 9 Frames

This was a stitch of nine (9) vertical frames taken at a slightly longer 58mm focal length with the very trustworthy 24-70/2.8.

I’d stacked the 3 stop Lee ND grad with the Heliopan CPL for this shot. Normally I don’t advocate using a polariser when shooting panorama frames but sometimes I just can’t be bothered to remove it and this time with a longer focal length it doesn’t matter as much.

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.

As with all things panoramic there’s an option to panospherise it to see what you get…

Life Raft

NIKON D750 + 24.0-70.0 mm f/2.8 @ 58 mm, 8 sec at f/13, ISO 100 x 9 Frames

Before going to Bradleys Head I had an idea for a shot in my mind – where I’d shoot very long exposures with both a vertical and a panoramic view of this Bradleys Lighthouse looking straight out from up on the headland looking out and down onto it. The idea being to have just the misty water behind the lighthouse for a super simplified scene.

Alas my plans were bust when I discovered the view from up top was pretty much obscured by some large vegetation. My idea wasn’t going to happen without some serious deforestation going on… probably not a great idea in a National Park :)…

So it was from down the bottom instead that I had to shoot.

I took seven (7) vertical frames at a mid 48mm focal length again with a 3 stop Lee ND grad stacked with the Heliopan CPL.

Gerry’s excellent Navigation at the edge where he’d completely cloned out all the city and land skyline behind was very much along the lines of what I had in my mind. So inspired by his super simplified rendition I figured I’d try the same with the editing of my own panorama. The result with near cloudless pastel skies goes quite a way towards what I’d originally had in mind…

Isolated at the End

NIKON D750 + 24.0-70.0 mm f/2.8 @ 48 mm, 2 sec at f/11, ISO 100 x 7 Frames

One other thing I can say about this final result – thank the lord that I’d taken one central test exposure before taking my pano sequence. The centre frames of the pano sequence were taken at 6:54AM and the single test frame was taken at 6:53AM. This was just a few minutes before sunrise this morning. Somehow that beautiful green light on the lighthouse must have automatically turned off in the minute between the central test frame and the pano sequence and thus in my pano the light is not on. I was able to simply layer my test frame on top of the final pano and align the images in photoshop and paint in the nice lit green light. I love it when a “plan” works :).

At the Edge of the World

NIKON D750 + 24.0-70.0 mm f/2.8 @ 48 mm, 2 sec at f/11, ISO 100 x 7 Frames

So as luck would have it after another overcast day and a nice cloudy sunset the clouds once again cleared at night. So after driving back from Mount Gambier and dropping the rest of the family off I headed out to those little laneways I’d visited the previous evening to see if I could rectify my mistakes :).

Heavens Laneway

NIKON D750 + 14.0 mm f/2.8 @ 14 mm, 30 sec at f/2.8, ISO 5000

I first went to the corner of the paddocks where I’d stuffed the frames for a panorama the previous evening and tried once again. Learning from my mistakes I both took more frames with better overlaps and also moved back a little this evening (to get a better view and angle of the rough dirt laneway going off into the distance in each direction).

This time eight (8) vertical frames encompassing around a 200+ degree field of view did the trick. I’m saving the final result for a potential candidate for inclusion in a forthcoming exhibition later this year.

With that in the can I moved on to the next location. One with a fabulous laneway through the tall grasses – two white lines left by vehicle tracks running over and over head off into the distance through the grass.

The spot I chose was perfect for what I wanted in almost every way. The tracks ran up a slight rise into the distance. We had lovely straw coloured grass on both sides and down the middle. The chalky white of the worn paths contrasted so well against the grass. The horizon line was relatively flat and the grass spreading out evenly and flatly on both sides. There was this nice shaped silhouette of a tree in the middle in the distance. The only downside was we were facing a little south east which meant facing towards the light pollution from Mount Gambier in the distance. Ah well you can’t have everything I guess :).

Up top my test shot for a stitched panorama at this spot with a little light painting of the foreground.

The final panorama consisting of seven (7) stitched vertical frames is excellent (IMHO) and unfortunately again I’m definitely saving this one for the exhibition :).

Driving a little further along the laneway and after it curves slightly to the left we shift the Mount Gambier light pollution off the frame to the right but incur other problems. The path is on more of a left to right downward slope so both the horizon and the foreground slope downwards. Still a single silhouetted tree right at the vanishing point may save my composition.

Farmers Drive

NIKON D750 + 14.0 mm f/2.8 @ 14 mm, 30 sec at f/2.8, ISO 5000

Here I present two versions of this composition. One just with the foreground lit with warm torchlight. With the second, well…

I’ve taken out some of my new EL wire I recently purchased and made into some light painting tools. Selecting the vibrant green I bought I’ve lit just the tracks vanishing into the distance for this more surreal effect. This one for my enlightened friends…

Enlightened Cosmos

NIKON D750 + 14.0 mm f/2.8 @ 14 mm, 219.00 sec at f/6.3, ISO 100