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Today's photo is a follow-up to my previous image, Fragile Land, from The Granites in Western Australia. It is an interesting location just outside the town of Mount Magnet. Our state is reasonably rich in raw materials, such as the iron ore, and that can be clearly seen in the reddish hues of the granite rocks as one travels north into the outback. After visiting some new places in the Midwest and Goldfields regions over the last two years, we were surprised as how much mining actually is done. It could be easy to call Western Australia 'one big mining site' with maybe only the lower southern parts being an exceptions to this. All I can say is that I am glad that they have not dug up the entire place just yet and that there is still plenty of natural beauty around. This area is also of great importance to Aboriginal people and specifically to the local Badimia tribe. There is Aboriginal art that has been dated at around 9000 years old as well as many ceremonial and burial sites.
I took this photo about fifteen minutes after the previous one and if you compare the two, you could see how the light has changed. It was much brighter and yellowish earlier, while here it has taken on more orange and red tones. The clouds were lit up before but they turned darker at sunset and it meant that there was less light reflecting off them to shine on the foreground rocks. Because of that I wanted to find a composition with an interesting foreground. I was looking to find some texture, tones and contrast for the foreground. I have noticed this spot a little earlier and I went back to it to find out if I could work with the dark burnt tree for this photo. I liked the strange element which it added and it also provided the contrast to the brighter rocks around it. Granite surfaces provided further interest with a nice 'v' shaped lines to lead through and frame the scene. I felt that this was exactly what I was hoping to find.
Wind was a big factor to consider when taking photos that evening. There were strong gusts and the trees in the midground moved around all the time. To help with that, I took a number of multiple exposure sequences at different ISO values to reduce the exposure time and to hopefully have a frame or two where the trees remained still. I did not mind some movement here and there but I did not want the foliage to look too mushy and too blurred. The final result is a blend of foreground and sky exposures at ISO 100, as well as foliage exposure at ISO 400 to bring back some of that detail. Other post processing work included dodging and burning, local contrast and tonal adjustments, and balancing the light in the scene. One finishing adjustment, which I do for almost all my photos, is adding a vignette to direct the viewer to the most important part of the photo. It varies in size and brightness from image to image, sometimes it can be done freehand, and I use it in combination with luminosity masks to protect darkest and brightest tones from clipping.
One thing I have done over the last three years is to try and photograph wider variety of scenes. Aussie outback, mountains, rural fields and foggy scenes are just some of the different places I have photographed. I have learned most of my skills on the coast and you know by now that I love seascape photography. Photographing the outback or mountains presents a completely different challenge in terms of composition and light. Especially composition for me. I no longer could rely on waves and motion of the water to take a lot of attention so finding something else interesting and compelling became harder and more critical to fulfil my photographic vision.
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