So Many Pixels…But A Name is Missing

I am planning, plotting and possibly scheming. I have two and a half months to implement my plan. I must not fail. Blog land depends on me. I need your help.

Help protect the pristine Kimberley

I have blogged about James Price Point several times before, recent post from March is here. Thankfully, thanks to the campaigns to save the Kimberley and James Price Point and a recent Four Corners program on Australia’s ABC; the debate about the proposed LNG gas complex project is on again. You can watch the Four Corners show online here, highly recommended as there are some great interviews and new information. Do read Christian Fletcher’s post as well.

Wilderness Society in Australia is running a new multimedia campaign, you can visit here and please support by adding a message. We are not just trying to save James Price Point, we are trying to save the entire wild pristine Kimberley area and wildlife from being destroyed forever by becoming a built up industrialised area. Most people realise that the gas development needs to happen in some way, we all need energy. I am no saint myself, far from it, I travel a lot so I unfortunately pollute more than most people, and that is quite a shameful fact. But we want everyone in charge to realise there is already a huge infrastructure in the Pilbara’s which can be utilised. We do not want the remarkable, the spectacular Kimberley coast ruined, there are alternatives and public pressure can hopefully change the decision and pipe the gas to the Pilbara. If you can and like, please help save the Kimberley!

I will end this short post with another of my images created at James Price Point. This is almost straight out of camera, just a bit of levels and sharpening. I left the image as is to show the natural beauty of this place, at low tide this is really what you can expect at James Price Point:

I have also updated my James Price Point video:

  

Links:

Wilderness Australia Multimedia Campaign

Save The Kimberley

Hands Off Country blog

Wilderness Society Australia – Kimberley

ABC 4 Corners Kimberley Special

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Big Australian Rock in Heaps’a Water

Sugarloaf Rock. It is a famous rock on the beautiful Southwest coast of Western Australia. Australia has a great tradition of very uninspired place names – Mount Bruce, Mount Sheila, Lake Disappointment and I could go on all night. With this tradition in mind, Sugarloaf Rock is actually not too bad. I would have expected it to be called ‘Big Rock In heaps’a Water’. That reminds me, I still have to write the Places With Wrong Names To Be Renamed list to the Australian government (Kakadu, Nourlangie, Alligator river etc). So much work!

I got a couple of scoops of Sugarloaf back in February. We met up with True North Mark and he took us to the Big Rock In Heaps’a Water. Christian Fletcher we had met earlier, but he was unable to come out and play that night, something about having sold his house and car for a Phase One camera.

Big Rock In… really is a big rock. Images do not do it justice as it really is much bigger than it looks and it is a really gorgeous location for a sunset shoot. Mark being Mark, he naturally climbs the highest and hardest to get to rock straight away and sets up shop for his shot, then iphone browses while he waits. I climb around a bit, try a few locations but having never been here before I end up searching too much and do not really find my sweet spot. My best image from the first night is this dusk panorama, shot while escaping mossies on the way back to the carpark:

We went back the night after and the light was completely different and I created this panorama that I quite like. A dark and moody Sugarloaf is going to sleep image:

Both images are stitched panoramas from about 3-4 horizontal images. It is easier with less images when you have moving water. Long exposures using stacked Lee filters made stitching fairly easy. I export all the layers to Photoshop from PTgui so I can manually mask and blend them and get the waves looking natural, also I can choose the best wave from each image.

Looking at both of them it is clear I did not nail it, did not get the job done. In both images I feel I am too far away from the scene, feels too passive, not enough drama or motion. I want to be down in the water with the rock towering in front of me and the waves crashing into me. Something I have learned about seascapes, the ones I like have action and drama and needs to be shot standing in the water basically. I look forward to tackling Big Rock… again some day, see you down there mates!