I burst a tyre about 30 km west of Marble Bar, requiring a trip to Port Hedland for a fix. That was yesterday. I stayed at a caravan site that was nestled perfectly between a truck route, the airport and the main rail route to port. Probably slept for a total of about four hours, which made today's 600 km drive to Broome a particularly challenging one. Here I am safely in Broome absolutely lapping up the peace and quiet. This shot was taken early this morning about 40 km east of Port Hedland. It's an iPhone shot, edited on my iPad with Filterstorm. Tom Price speedway was without question the worst speedway meet I've ever been to. There wasn't much ambient light to work with, but the light got interesting as the smoke from the 'burnout' being performed in the centre of the track drifted my way. I set the camera to ISO 6400 and shot what little I could see through the viewfinder. With some work done in Lightroom, I produced this image. I may try this again. That's shooting at night at ISO 6400, not Tom Price Speedway.
I'm finding it....frustrating. The rocks are basically all dark brown. The shadows in the gorges are harsh. The vegetation is all pale green. Doesn't make for very exciting images. Not for me anyway. I think monochrome offers something different that I can work with, so I have been working on a couple of images. I like this one the best so far. My new fish eye lens was very handy here.
...are fucking freezing, to be frank. Nevertheless, I got my new fish-eye lens out one evening and fumbled around trying to find (a) my torch (found, batteries dead) (b) my ultra-strong reading glasses (not found) and then (c) the focus ring on the camera (not visible to me without (a) and (b). So it was guesswork, and that usually means useless images. Not so this time. C'mon!!!!
The drive from Cue to Newman is tedious. Once you get past Newman and its hi-viz charms, you're in the Hamersley Ranges and everything changes. The drive to Dale Gorge should have taken around an hour and a half, but it took me the best part of four hours. I found myself stopping every 10 minutes or so to shoot. This is an iPhone shot taken about 10 or 20 km west of Newman. Some time later, I crossed a railway with what I think is Mt Meharry in the distance. This is the highest point in the state, towering 1253 metres above sea level. We don't really do mountains in W.A. Again, an iPhone shot.
Den spotted me shooting in the main street of Cue. He invited me over to take a shot of his new emporium "Hardly Normal". His shop is full of amazing old stuff - posters, musical instruments, bottles and newspapers. Pop in next weekend, it's only 650km up the road.
So, I'm taking a ho-hum shot of the old bank in Cue, when this guy and his mates showed up, looking for someting to do. Finally hit the road yesterday. I'm in no hurry, so I took a fairly leisurely 450 km drive, finishing at Payne's Find. Learned my first lesson - in a location such as this, 'accomodation' means 'donga'. Froze my ass off in a bed that will have seen many a trucker's bum. |
ME
I shoot for fun, with a Sony A7rIII, a Mavic Pro and my trusty iPhone 11. Archives
May 2020
|