Fog

Here in the desert we don't get fog too often so I like to try and get out and make the most of it when it happens. Last week we had some decent rain and with some cold mornings forecast for the days following, it looked to be shaping up well. Sure enough, saturday morning I drag myself out of bed at 7 (after staying up to watch the tour de france) to be greeted with a nice thick fog. My first destination was Kyumba reserve which has some nice rock-formations and calltris pines that I thought would look cool shrouded in mist. Unfortunately, Kyumba was an island of clear air in a sea of mist!

However, driving back towards Alice I came across some scenes on the side of the road worth shooting. This is an ironwood backlit by the sun which was distorted through the fog.

A little further on I came across some powerlines with the upper parts of shiny metal glowing in the mist. I don't think Ive seen this before but it was very cool, made it look radioactive!

As the sun started to shine a large fog 'rainbow' appeared. No colour, just a white semi-circle. Has anyone seen this before?

This is my last shot in the fog. Its a river red gum on the banks of Roe Creek with the rays of sun just catching the last of the fog. Ive softened it up a little to give it a more dreamy look and accentuate the rays of light. Let me know if you think it works.

Brinkley's Bluff

Over the weekend we walked section 4 of the Larapinta Trail. The highlight of this 20km walk is the 1200 metre exposed summit of Brinkley's Bluff and this is where we camped the night. This was the last section of the Larapinta Trail that I had left to walk (having walked the other 11 sections over the last couple of years) and it was well worth the effort of lugging 20kg of food, water, camping and camera gear up there. Im a bit of an endorphin junkie so I know that with the pain of physical exertion comes the pleasure of an endorphin high and I think some of my best photographic work comes when Im buzzing after exercise.

In saying that, I was a little dissapointed with my photos, mainly because I couldn't come up with a 'classic' strong landscape composition of foreground leading off into the distance. I think I could also have done better with my 70-200 f.28L for more distant shots but this is a bulky, weighty lens and I made the call not to pack it. My kit ended up being 5DmkII, 24-105mm f4L, and a lightweight tripod. This is probably my best landscape photography option when I wish to travel light as it's reasonably versatile in terms of zoom range. The lens isn't without its flaws (notably distortion and vignetting at the wide end and chromatic abberations at smaller apertures) but some of these can be worked through in processing and others through careful comosition and zoom selection. I'd love to return to this location now that Ive got some idea of the layout and some ideas for better compositions. I'd be an amazing location in a storm but it's also one of the last places on earth I'd want to be with extreme wind and lightning!



Mount Gillen 2

Yesterday after work I climbed the range again but this time no BFRW's to be seen up near the radio towers. However, I did have a good view of a grass fire burning adjacent to the suburb Gillen down below.

Although it looks a little like spinifex from a distance, the grass in this photo is all Buffel grass (Cenchrus ciliaris) which was introduced to central Australia (from the middle east and northern Africa) as a pasture grass for cattle and for soil stabilisation. Although its been of great value for these purposes, it can also create very high fuel loads and once it browns off, becomes highly flammable. It's also of ecological concern as it tends to greatly reduce plant diversity, readily outcompeting native grasses and forbs and killing more fire-sensitive shrub species, such as Mulga and Ironwoods, through increased fuel loads and fire frequencies. Last year we had very high rainfall across arid Australia (more than 3 x the annual mean in many regions) and this has meant that the buffel grass has thickened up and, with conditions now drying out, is primed for a big fire season. Already there have been dozens of smaller fires throughout Alice Springs.

Anyway, back to photography. Although I didn't see any BFRW's the Dusky Grasswrens were out in force and I came across at least three different groups over a couple of hundred metres. These birds are very much characteristic of the range country surrounding Alice Springs and I really enjoy watching and trying to photograph them. Although most people probably just see them as a flash of brown skipping along the ground, they are actually a really attractive bird viewed at close quarters and through binoculars or a telephoto lens. I took this photo from the second group I encountered. Most of the time they don't sit still but they can be inquistive and this individual sat on this rock checking me out long enough to reel off a few shots. I love the colours in the late afternoon light, all browns and reds and a nice balanced shadow. Also, unlike yesterdays wallaby shots, this photo is a little more characteristic of my style, where I like to show animals in their environment, rather than just tight portrait shots.

Here's another shot from a few month back, harsher light but a more complete shot of the bird itself. This was taken with my partners Canon 7D which has a far superior autofocus system than my 5DmkII and I'll talk more about this in future posts. Both shots were taken with my 400mm f5.6L and I think at f7.1, ISO 400.

Mount Gillen

Mt Gillen is situated on the Heavitree Range, south of Flynns Grave in Alice Springs. The location is a popular day walk for Alice Springs locals and offers a nice view of the town. Further east towards Heavitree Gap is one of my favourite photography locations, partly because it's pretty much my backyard but mostly because there is some great wildlife to be seen and photographed. Black-footed rock wallabies (BFRW) are one of the regularly viewed residents but one that i haven't really managed to do photographic justice.

Yesterday after work I climbed the range and came across this really healthy looking adult male up near the radio towers. BFRW's tend to be pretty flighty in this area (probably because there is less human contact than in more heavily visited areas) but this one was really quiet and allowed me to photograph it at close quarters until sunset.

I tend to travel as light when exploring this range so I can cover as much ground as possible and I only had my 400mm f5.6L with me. This meant some pretty tight framing (none of the photos in this post are cropped) which, although probably not ideal, I think worked ok. These shots are with about 15 minutes to go until sunset. They really can be beautiful animals.

A major downside of minimising weight was that I didn't pack my tripod! The sun briefly ducked behind a cloud and then popped out for the last minute or two before hitting the horizon and produced this light. Unfortunately, even with maximum aperture and ISO800/1000, these (the better shots) are still a bit fuzzy. To add insult, the wallaby yawned just after the second frame just as I'd filled the CF card! Might try again this afternoon.



Welcome

Hi there, welcome to my blog. Here I will be mostly documenting and sharing my experiences photographing landscapes and wildlife in central Australia. Currently, I don't make any money from taking photos but nature photography is something that gives me immense pleasure and I thought it was about time that I share this with a wider audience than just my family and friends. Feel free to post any comments, criticisms and advice because I have a long way to go in becoming the photographer I want to be. I hope you enjoy.