Rodney Campbell's Blog

Tunnel Creek is located in the Napier Range and required driving on a pretty sketchy corrugated dirt road to reach

The natural cave through which Tunnel Creek flows is the major attraction here

With a length of approximately 750m that runs underground and it one of the oldest cave systems in Western Australia. The reef was first exposed around 250 million years ago and the first cave systems began to form, the present cave systems were created about 20 million years ago

Tunnel Creek

NIKON Z 7 + NIKKOR Z 24-70mm f/4 S @ 24 mm, 1/25 sec at f/8, ISO 180

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

Tunnel Reflections

NIKON Z 7 + NIKKOR Z 24-70mm f/4 S @ 24 mm, 1/10 sec at f/5.6, ISO 25600

There are large pools of water on the floor of the cave in which freshwater crocodiles live

It’s a little disconcerting walking along in the dark wading through these pools of water and to suddenly come across this in the water in front of you 🙂

I saw about half a dozen crocodiles on my way through the tunnel system

What Lurks Within

NIKON Z 7 + NIKKOR Z 24-70mm f/4 S @ 70 mm, 1/80 sec at f/4, ISO 16000

Reflected

NIKON Z 7 + NIKKOR Z 24-70mm f/4 S @ 42 mm, 1/50 sec at f/5.6, ISO 320

Up Close and Wild

NIKON Z 7 + NIKKOR Z 24-70mm f/4 S @ 70 mm, 1/80 sec at f/4, ISO 2000

and how could one call it the RAAF “Boab” Quarry if there wasn’t a boab featured somewhere

So here we have “The Boab and the Stars”

The Boab and the Stars

NIKON Z 7 + 14.0 mm f/2.4 @ 14 mm, 15 sec at f/2.4, ISO 6400 x 4 Frames

… and here is the full 360˚ spherical panorama of the milky way scene

A little magic at the blog end and you can view the end result as an interactive 360˚ photo. Using your mouse or keyboard (arrow keys) you can control your view and pan around the scene (and even zoom in and out).
Clicking the square box icon towards the top left corner also allows you to run it full screen

This allows you to go there and see what it was like under the stars standing at exactly the spot I did. Look around and marvel at the beauty of the universe

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

and below is flattened out equirectangular image of the entire scene

Star Quarry

NIKON Z 7 + 14.0 mm f/2.4 @ 14 mm, 15 sec at f/2.4, ISO 6400 x 25 Frames

More milky way goodness at under lovely darks skies at the RAAF Boab Quarry rest area

Devonian Skies

NIKON Z 7 + 14.0 mm f/2.4 @ 14 mm, 15 sec at f/2.4, ISO 6400 x 17 Frames

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

In comparison to the vertical panorama’s I posted previously this is a wide horizontal panorama encompassing the entire milky way arch

As the milky way was quite high in the sky (almost vertical overhead) I had to shoot this as a multi row panorama

This one is also a full 360˚ wide (so technically in the real world the left and right sides of the image join up (forming a cylinder))

This is taken as eight (8) vertical orientation exposures facing straight out, then another 8 with the camera angled upwards at 45˚ and then a single exposure pointing straight up. Then all those frames are stitched into the result you see here

Hmmm… so here I am in really dark skies territory and the moon won’t be rising for a while. I’m camped literally 50m from this epic little valley with boab trees, epic rock formations and nice spinifex grasses. Hmm, what should one do…

It’s definitely astro panorama time…

Boy – this Novoflex multi row pano rail certainly makes things much easier for taking the source frames for these panorama’s

Be they vertical single row pano’s like this – taken from horizon to horizon so they represent a bit over 180˚ of view

Spinifex Streak

NIKON Z 7 + 14.0 mm f/2.4 @ 14 mm, 15 sec at f/2.4, ISO 6400 x 8 Frames

When taking a vertical panorama like this I’m aiming to include pretty much the entire visible milky way streak in the sky. With the milky way essentially vertical in the sky. What this flattened image is showing you is how the milky way goes from one horizon point in front of you straight up into the sky and over your head and down to the horizon 180˚ behind you

In the image here I’ve left in the view in the other direction behind you (at the top of the image) so you can see what I normally crop out of the final image

Road to the Stars

NIKON Z 7 + 14.0 mm f/2.4 @ 14 mm, 15 sec at f/2.4, ISO 6400 x 8 Frames

To take these images I’m taking a sequence of exposures with the camera horizontal. First one take pointing downwards in front of me. The one taken pointing straight ahead (actually rotated 36˚ up from the first exposure). Then another raised again (another 36˚ up). Repeating this process rotating the camera upwards 36˚ at a time. Then I’m pointing straight up then slightly behind me and so on. Eventually I’m pointing towards the ground behind me and that’s done