[Kombisaurus]

Happy Easter everyone.

I spent my Easter at my g/friend's family farm; a couple of hours drive south-east of Perth.
Relaxing and eating were the two main activities we indulged in, although I did go driving around the surrounding area with my camera on Saturday.

These shots were taken at a place called Lake Taarblin. You can find it in Google Earth by copy/pasting these coordinates: S32 56.481 E117 33.342
I must admit that don't know a lot about it (I even had to look up its name when I got home), but it appears to have a bit of a story behind it.
I assume it is currently dry due to the ongoing drought, but that appears to be the least of its problems. It seems to have fallen victim to the growing problem of rising salinity.

It's hard to believe that up until the 1950s this was one beautiful lake with lush, living vegetation and trees and shrubs across most of the lake floor. [...] Lake Taarblin in the Western Australian wheatbelt has been choked to death by rising salt.
This is the result of increased salinial groundwater rising up under the floor of the lake and, probably, increasing salty flows of water into the lake as a result of clearing of trees and shrubs around the lake.
Western Australia has our largest areas of dry land salinity. Once, this ground was covered with deep-rooted trees. [...]
The clearing of deep-rooted trees caused the watertable to lift, mobilising ancient stores of salt, already abundant in this island continent.
The advance of the salt has sent communities like these into retreat. In this corner of Western Australia, one-third of the landscape could be salinised. [...]
Beyond the dead lake is another in a chain of what were once wetlands.

Full Transcription: http://www.abc.net.au/4corners/stories/s257369.htm

You can see in Google Earth that the lake is over 5km long and about 2km wide, and forms part of a string of empty lakes about 20km long that have all suffered a similar fate. The white salty lake bed and dead trees are all that remain apart from the occassional animal tracks or stubbon little shrub trying to get a foothold. It's quite an eerie place to be wandering around, and beautiful in a strange kind of way.


1. A single shot with my Arsat 35mm f/2.8 tilt/shift


2. A triptych of 35mm tilt/shift shots. Click to view at 1200px width.


3. A 9-shot panorama panning over 180 degrees, shot with an EF-S 17-85 IS and merged using AutoPano. Click to view at 1600px width.

[NT73]

The future of mankind if......?
Love the photos.

[smarti77]

That is a very sweet pano... I love it even though I think it probably cant be fully appreciated at web size. Awesome perspective....
Inspiring stuff once again.

[Wedding Shooter]

That last pano is awesome Adrian.

[Russt]

That last pano is awesome Adrian

I will third that.....excellent!

[Pat]

Great images that tell a story :|

[Banded Drake]

very nice series , the pano is great ....


........ Shawn