Stormy nights

I love lightning photography! Its really fun but there's really not much skill involved, just making sure the scene is in focus, setting a fairly wide aperture and allowing a long shutter to do the rest. However, there's still a large degree of luck in where the lightning will strike and how many times and I always end up deleting dozens of photos for every one I keep.

For a while now Ive been waiting for the right storm to loom over the pituresque Mt Sonder. Finally, a couple of evenings ago my wish came true as an intense electrical storm approached Mt Sonder from the north west, just after dusk. Although not entirely satisfied with these photos, I do quite like the first one. With a moon over my back, there was just enough illumination to bring out some detail in the front of the mountain. Unfortunately, the shutter mechanism in my canon 5D broke the day before so I had to use my alternative camera. Not sure when I'll get the 5d back from the canon technicians but im missing it already!














 7D, ISO 100, 70-200 f2.8 @ 2.8, 15 sec

  










7D, ISO 100, 70-200 f2.8 @ 2.8, 20 sec

2 mile

Most mornings of late Ive been cruising down to the 2 mile area at sunrise. 2 mile is the name given to the uppermost section of the mighty Finke River and includes a string of long, reed-fringed waterholes. There's a stack of birdlife there at the moment, including various ducks, egrets, herons, ibis, spoonbills, cormorants and more. In country where wildlife viewing can be hard work, 2 mile can be a real gem. All of the following pics were taken there over the last few days.

 Pink Cockatoo, Canon 7D, ISO 320, 400mm f5.6 @ 7.1, 1/1600

 Dingoes, Canon 7D, ISO 500, 400mm f5.6 @ 5.6, 1/320

 

 Black-fronted Plover, Canon 7D, ISO 200, 400mm f5.6 @ 8, 1/160

Darter, Canon 7D, ISO 400, 400mm f5.6 @ 8, 1/500

Darter, Canon 7D, ISO 200, 400mm f5.6 @ 8, 1/800

Wildfire

The last few days Ive witnessed some of the most intensive wildfires ive ever seen. A bad combination of dry storms, hot weather and low humidity has resulted in extensive wildfires burning throughout the western part of the West MacDonnell NP. Although some areas did burn with incredible intensity, the magnitude would have been far worse had park staff not implemenented a widespread and effective control burning regime over the last couple of years. For this they should be congratulated.

I took the following couple of photos of the fire front burning on the western Heavitree Range on New Years Eve/Day, when I stayed up till about 3am to shoot. To give you an idea of scale, in the first shot the front is about 7km long. All photos taken with canon 5D mkII, other specs follow each photo.

 

ISO 400, 70-200mm f2.8 @ 2.8,  15 sec

 ISO 100, 70-200mm f2.8 @ 2.8,  5 sec

The next few photos were taken on new years day in Ormiston Pound.

  ISO 100, 17-40mm f4 @ 8,  1/400 sec

  ISO 200, 70-200mm f2.8 @ 5,  1/640 sec

  ISO 200, 70-200mm f2.8 @ 5,  1/400 sec

I took the last couple of photos yesterday morning. A combination of higher humidity, favourble winds and a coordinated team effort between ground and aerial crews saw the entire western front extinguished. 

 

  ISO 1250, 70-200mm f2.8 @ 2.8,  4 sec

 

  ISO 320, 24-105mm f4 @ 5,  1/800 sec