Central Australia, July–August 2007

Photos from my tour of Outback Central Australia (south of Alice Springs), including Rainbow Valley, Ayers’ Rock, The Olgas, King’s Canyon, and the Finke Gorge National Park.

Flowers • Flowers in the late-afternoon sunlight below King’s Canyon in the Watarrka National Park (Northern Territory).
Flower Grass Trees Winter rhjf 20070730 8111
Sunset over King’s Canyon • The sun sets over King’s Canyon, in Watarrka National Park (Northern Territory).
Flower Grass Rock Trees Winter rhjf 20070730 8128 featured
Sandstone • The clearly-layered sandstone of King’s Canyon in the Northern Territory.
Rock Sunrise Trees Winter rhjf 20070731 8179 version
Sunrise over the rim of King’s Canyon
Moon Rock Sunrise Trees Winter rhjf 20070731 8137
King’s Canyon Rock • King’s Canyon in the Northern Territory is formed from two types of sandstone.
Patterns Rock Sunrise Trees Winter rhjf 20070731 8154
Sunrise over the rim of King’s Canyon • The rising sun lights up the distant peaks of the rim of King’s Canyon.
Moon Rock Sunrise Trees Winter rhjf 20070731 8155
Sunrise over the rim of King’s Canyon • The rising sun lights up the distant peaks of the rim of King’s Canyon.
Moon Rock Sunrise Trees Winter rhjf 20070731 8157
Sunrise over the rim of King’s Canyon
Moon Rock Sunrise Trees Winter rhjf 20070731 8159 version
Shadows on the Canyon • The shadows of some French tourists projected onto an adjacent peak of King’s Canyon in the Northern Territory.
Moon Rock Shadow Sunrise Trees Winter rhjf 20070731 8164
Stones • Piles of stones at the top of the rim of King’s Canyon in the Northern Territory in the early-morning sunlight.
Rock Shrubs Sunrise Trees Winter rhjf 20070731 8165
Stones • A pile of stones at the top of the rim of King’s Canyon in the Northern Territory in the early-morning sunlight.
Rock Sunrise Trees Winter rhjf 20070731 8177
King’s Canyon
Rock Sunrise Trees Winter rhjf 20070731 8180
In the Garden of Eden • Reflections in the ‘Garden of Eden’, a pool at the centre of King’s Canyon in the Northern Territory.
Grass Reflection Rock Trees Water Winter rhjf 20070731 8183
King’s Canyon Sandstone
Patterns Rock Trees Winter rhjf 20070731 8201
Boggy Hole • Late-afternoon reflections at Boggy Hole, in the Finke Gorge National Park (Northern Territory).
Reflection Rock Trees Water Winter rhjf 20070731 8202 featured
Coming for a drink • A dingo comes down to one of the waterholes at Boggy Hole in the Northern Territory.
Dingo Trees Water Winter rhjf 20070731 8206
Boggy Hole reflections • Late-afternoon reflections at Boggy Hole, in the Finke Gorge National Park (Northern Territory).
Reflection Rock Sunset Trees Water Winter rhjf 20070731 8209 featured
Boggy Hole • The rocks and trees surrounding Boggy Hole, in the Finke Gorge National Park (Northern Territory).
Rock Sunset Trees Winter rhjf 20070731 8211
Boggy Hole • Late-afternoon reflections at Boggy Hole, in the Finke Gorge National Park (Northern Territory).

Spot the other photographer! (An off-duty doctor for the Royal Flying Doctor Service.)
Grass Reflection Rock Sunset Trees Water Winter rhjf 20070731 8216 featured
Boggy Hole hill
Rock Shrubs Sunset Trees Winter rhjf 20070731 8236
Star trails over Boggy Hole • The stars pass over the hills next to Boggy Hole, in the Finke Gorge National Park (Northern Territory).

More a proof-of concept than a great photograph: we were experimenting with the technique to capture star trails. This photo is the blend of 255 thirty-second exposures (70–200mm f/2.8 lens @ 70mm, f/2.8) automatically fired (motor drive) over the course of two hours. Each photo was imported into a separate layer in Photoshop (resulting in a Photoshop file of 8.6GB), and the layer blending mode was set to 'Darken'. In fact this resulted in the star trails appearing as a series of blocks, and not as continuous lines: evidently the stars moved far enough during the short interval between each exposure to leave a gap. this was corrected with a selective mask and a motion-blur effect.

Next time, I would try to improve the focus on the foreground interest (as well as have a more interesting foreground). Trying to focus in the dark is very difficult, however.
Rock Star Trails Stars Trees Winter rhjf 20070731 8285 539 blended
Rocks • A pile of rocks catches the early-morning light at Boggy Hole in the Northern Territory.
Grass Rock Sunrise Trees Winter rhjf 20070801 8557
Boggy Hole stone
Patterns Rock Sunrise Trees Winter rhjf 20070801 8562
Boggy Hole stone
Patterns Rock Sunrise Trees Winter rhjf 20070801 8568
Boggy Hole sunrise • The sun rises over Boggy Hole, in the Finke Gorge National Park (Northern Territory).
Grass Reflection Rock Sunrise Trees Water Winter rhjf 20070801 8576 featured
Boggy Hole sunrise • The sun rises over Boggy Hole, in the Finke Gorge National Park (Northern Territory).
Grass Reflection Rock Sunrise Trees Water Winter rhjf 20070801 8579
Boggy Hole sunrise • The sun rises over Boggy Hole, in the Finke Gorge National Park (Northern Territory).
Grass Reflection Rock Sunrise Trees Water Winter rhjf 20070801 8580
Boggy Hole sunrise • The sun rises over Boggy Hole, in the Finke Gorge National Park (Northern Territory).
Grass Reflection Rock Sunrise Trees Water Winter rhjf 20070801 8584
Boggy Hole sunrise • The sun rises over Boggy Hole, in the Finke Gorge National Park (Northern Territory).
Rock Sand Sunrise Trees Water Winter rhjf 20070801 8596
Not going anywhere • A broken-down truck in the Lutheran Mission town of Hermannsburg, in the Northern Territory.
Car Machine Sand Trees Winter rhjf 20070801 8601
Rusting • A broken-down farming machine in the Lutheran Mission town of Hermannsburg, in the Northern Territory.
Machine Sand Trees Winter rhjf 20070801 8603
Standley Chasm • Looking up Standley Chasm in the Northern Territory in the midday sun.
Rock Trees Winter rhjf 20070801 8622
The changing face of Ayers’ Rock 12 • It is frequently said that Ayers’ Rock changes colour as the sun sets. This series of photos demonstrates how true that assertion is.

[Single exposure processed multiple times by Photomatix to produce a High Dynamic Range (HDR) image, which is then re-sampled as an 8- or 16-bit image.]
Bush Clouds HDR singleexposure Rock Shrubs Sunset Trees Winter rhjf 20070728 7837 hdr
The changing face of Ayers’ Rock 13 • It is frequently said that Ayers’ Rock changes colour as the sun sets. This series of photos demonstrates how true that assertion is.

[Single exposure processed multiple times by Photomatix to produce a High Dynamic Range (HDR) image, which is then re-sampled as an 8- or 16-bit image.]
Bush Clouds HDR singleexposure Rock Shrubs Sunset Trees Winter rhjf 20070728 7841 hdr
The Olgas at Sunrise
Clouds Desert HDR singleexposure Rock Shrubs Sunrise Trees Winter rhjf 20070729 7865 hdr
Boggy Hole • The sun sets over the Finke River gorge, which is mostly dry apart from pools at Boggy Hole. The gorge floods perhaps twice a year, when the water reaches a depth of several metres.

[Three different exposures blended together by Photomatix to produce a High Dynamic Range (HDR) image, which was then re-sampled as an 8- or 16-bit image.]
HDR multipleexposure Reflection Sunset Trees Water Winter rhjf 20070731 8233 hdr
Boggy Hole sunset • The sun sets over Boggy Hole, in the Finke Gorge National Park (Northern Territory).

[Six different exposures blended together by Photomatix to produce a High Dynamic Range (HDR) image, which was then re-sampled as an 8- or 16-bit image.]
Clouds HDR multipleexposure Lens Flare Reflection Rock Sunset Trees Water Winter rhjf 20070731 8239 hdr
Boggy Hole police station • During the years 1869–71, Boggy Hole (Northern Territory) was the site of a police station: only the floor and fireplace remain of the station.

The post was shut down after its resident was charged with ordering the murder of local Aborigines. He wasn’t convicted, but the case served to draw attention to the way that some whites were treating Aborigines in Central Australia.
Grass HDR multipleexposure Rock Sunrise Trees Winter rhjf 20070801 8587 hdr
Boggy Hole sunset • The sun sets over Boggy Hole, in the Finke Gorge National Park (Northern Territory).

[Six different exposures blended together by Photomatix to produce a High Dynamic Range (HDR) image, which was then re-sampled as an 8- or 16-bit image.]
Grass HDR multipleexposure Rock Shrubs Sunset Trees Winter rhjf 20070731 8256 hdr
Boggy Hole sunset • The sun sets over Boggy Hole, in the Finke Gorge National Park (Northern Territory).

[Three different exposures by Photomatix to produce a High Dynamic Range (HDR) image, which is then re-sampled as an 8- or 16-bit image.]
Clouds HDR multipleexposure Reflection Rock Sand Sunset Trees Water Winter rhjf 20070731 8265 hdr
Boggy Hole sunset • The sun sets over Boggy Hole, in the Finke Gorge National Park (Northern Territory).

[Five different exposures by Photomatix to produce a High Dynamic Range (HDR) image, which is then re-sampled as an 8- or 16-bit image.]
Grass HDR multipleexposure Rock Sand Shrubs Sunset Trees Winter rhjf 20070731 8268 hdr