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Coongie Lakes in the North East of South Australia is a very special spot.
Coongie Lakes in the North East of South Australia is a very special spot.
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Mar, 2015Views
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Behind The Lens
Location
I took this photograph at Coongie Lakes in the North East of South Australia (notice all that is missing is a reference to West!) in one of the most remote regions in Australia. The relatively shallow lakes lay in the heart of the desert regions and are literally an oasis albeit a huge one. The wildlife that depends on the lakes for life is so diverse and the little known region is rarely visited so it is "my kind of place" , a photographers paradise! I am so captivated by the area I am setting out on another visit there in a couple of weeks, should be an eight thousand km round trip so as we say here in Australia it is just "up the road"Time
I captured this image just post sunset when the colour had drained from the sky, the wind had pretty well dropped off to nothing, I waded out into the marshy weeds a bit more to try and fill the frame with tree, set up on a tripod and shot away. The muted colours were just spectacular, I know that sounds a bit weird but there is so much colour out there in the desert (predominately reds) to see the landscape naturally sans colour was funnily enough, exciting.Lighting
The lighting was all natural as you would expect in this type of image. Not so much in this instance but generally I shy away from flash preferring to use what ambient light is available. I think that sentiment stems from not really understanding flash or artificial lighting to any great extent and falling in love with the concept of using what is there at the moment.Equipment
This particular image was taken with my old D200 Nikon through a Tamron 28-75 2.8 lens, no filters other than a UV. Exposure was at 48mm 1/40th second at 2.8 apeture and set at 100 ISO. I used my (very) old Manfrotto Art 190 tripod and my by now wet feet.Inspiration
Peace, it was almost surreal, as I said in your opening question this region is so remote that there was just no one around, we had just crossed the Simpson Desert and it had been a week of constant motion and rattles bouncing around on the very rough, sometimes hard to find tracks and crossing the 1100 odd sand dunes in my 4x4. We got to the lakes and decided to have a spell for a couple of days. If you have ever been in the Aussie bush at sundown the incredible variety of birdlife just go crazy prior to the sun setting then the silence wraps its loving arms around you as the birds settle down for the night and all is good in the world. I think this scene captured that feeling perfectly.Editing
No but there is a story behind that! Well it was one of those defining moments, not the image capture but weeks later when I realised that I had deleted (and lost totally) all of the high res files of this trip off my laptop so sadly all you see here is the low res back up so there really wasn't enough information on the file to work with, you will probably note that I hadn't even straightened the horizon. My biggest lesson in photography to date.... Multiple backups to multiple sources and as soon as you can!In my camera bag
I have progressed in the quality of my gear in the years since this shot. I am still a Nikon tragic and now use a D800e, what a wonderful piece of kit it is too. Lenses I carry are all Nikon with one exception so in my bag is my everyday 28-300, Nikons mind blowing 14-24 2.8, Nikon 80-200 2.8, Nikon 85 1.4 prime and the odd man out the brilliant Sigma 35 1.4 Art. Spare batteries and memory cards, cleaning kit, some filters a torch and pocket knife Flash is a Speedlight SB910 that I rarely use. I use a Manfrotto monopod for pretty well everything (age does that too you) and my newest acquisition to retire my old heavy Manfrotto Tripod is a light(ish) Carbon Vanguard Alta Pro 283 with a Vanguard ball head. One thing that I have found and absolutely love is the Wondapana filter kit for the 14-28, so far it seems like a fantastic solution to the huge bulge of all that Nikon glass on this lens with a Polariser wet bush, creeks and waterfalls are no problem anymore! I bought a Cam Ranger a couple of weeks ago and delighted in sitting atop a mountain in freezing conditions and remotely configuring and triggering my camera from the car, in relative warmth.. I am starting to love this bit of kit too!Feedback
The best advice I can give is firstly just get out there and take photos. The more you take the better you will understand your gear. Get off "P". Set your camera to manual and take heaps of pics of the same subject then.... The dead heat winner for this question is to always shoot RAW and use a processing software like Lightroom etc. Not so much to better your image at first but it is easy to sit at your desk and analyse what you did, why is this a better image than the other similar one? Look for the changes in the image itself then look at your camera settings displayed on your computer screen, was the exposure longer? What did that do? The aperture was smaller in this one so I can now see what that does, there is way too much grain so I won't set the ISO too high. Critique your own photos, study them, learn what makes them good and equally important what made it bad, what can I do next time to make it a better shot? Re visit (if you can) and try out what you learnt and shoot it again! Join your local Camera Club, peer support and sharing is a great experience.
