50 kms from Alice

This is a photo from 2006 taken at Standley Chasm about 50 kms from Alice Springs. Not a lot of water in these areas but the huge rocks provide ample shade. This was in June. Daytime temps still tolerable.

Ormiston Gorge. Would have been nice to have this shot without footprints in the sand but.. black & white conversion shows a lot more detail than the colour image for these rocks. Especially for this shot which has had a yellow filter applied. If you shoot in jpg as I had too for this trip due to not having adequate card storage, underexposure is a must. 

The black & white image

I thought to post some further thoughts on my experiences with the Olympus OM-D EM5 now that I have been using it for a year. But I find that after working on an image (below) taken with that camera I became absorbed in elements of the image making the technical qualities of the camera much less significant. In other words, I might have take this photo with just about any recent version of a 4/3 or APS-C or full frame camera. I also could have just post-processed the image in colour paying attention to exposure, sharpness, contrast etc. Even converting to black and white with a standard process through PS or other software and left it at that. However that would not have satisfied my 'artistic' vision at least for this image. Of real significance for me was that as a black & white image, the blacks were not as black as I wanted the in the places I wanted them. Adding black in the same way that you might add eye-liner (not that I have ever done that myself) created definition increasing the 'dimensionality' of the image. A little like selective contrast. The final image has far more impact for me than the straight conversion to b&w. I'm not really a documentary photographer nor strictly a landscape photographer. I rarely do big vistas and in this case this image reflects more of what interests me artistically - personal expression through the medium of photography.

Did someone say rocks?

I don't know where my obsession with rocks came from. You'd have to agree though, the patterns and colours that combine with shapes and in various sizes are pretty spectacular sometimes. Add some interesting lighting and they can be very ambiguous. I've always maintained that due to detail and the fact that they are often in low lighting situations, a tripod ought to be used. How ever on this occasion (and there will be more) time didn't allow that luxury. The downside being you can't really incorporate focus stacking into your routine. I've known about this place for most of my life but never attempted to do any photography here. Tidal movements make it awkward to access as well. Nevertheless, I'm posting a few shots here. When I have another opportunity I'll return with tripod.

Naturally reflective (mostly)

I'm not a big fan of the digital images that have no organic origin or at least have been altered so much that none is visible. That's not to say there is no market for them but they don't hold much attraction for me. Overly saturated nature scenes fall into this category as well especially where very little else is featured except for say, a sunset.

Having said that, I was photographing by a stream today and one image in particular, admittedly subject to post processing, reminded me of a stained glass window in a church. Other shots of the moving water were more abstract and contained some beautiful colours. The original palette was modified somewhat but for my eye resulted in a pleasing effect. The third image (shown here) is a subtle out of focus effort with water in the background.