DSLR Photography Forum

Now that I've got my new website up and running with a shiny new blog, I'm intending to post more regular little photo stories.
But I will be writing them first and foremost as blog entries on my site, and while I'm happy to share them here on ST too, I don't know whether to just post a link to the blog entry, to copy/paste the content and do a quick reformat, or maybe not double-post them at all?

So what should I do?
I'll do a couple just to test the waters...

Here's a link to the blog entry:
http://broughtonphoto.com.au/?p=1167

And below is the content, reformatted for shuttertalk.


Here I am in outback Australia. This is beyond the black stump, the middle of nowhere, out back of Bourke, woop-woop, or any other nickname you can think of for a remote area. I'm actually in the Uluru-Kata Tjuta National Park in the southern part of the Northern Territory. If you don't know where that is, find a map of Australia and stick a pin right in the middle. You'll find me there, along with a few very big, and very important rocks.
In the eyes of visitors, this is a place that time forgot. In the eyes of the Anangu aboriginies, it's a place where time began. However you look at it, it's a place like no other.


The Uluru-Kata Tjuta National Park is best known as being home to one of Australia's greatest icons; Uluru (Ayers Rock). The massive rock (350m high and 9.5km in circumference) poking up out of the otherwise featureless landscape. But this blog entry isn't about that.
As incredible as Uluru is, it's not the only thing out here. About 25km away is another incredible rock formation that may be lesser-known than Ayers Rock but is equally impressive and significant. This is Kata Tjuta or The Olgas.


Walking through the Valley of the Winds, just a small part of Kata Tjuta (the circumference of the whole area is 35km), felt like stepping back in time millions of years. It was unforgettable. Words and images can't do justice to this place; you need to be here for the experience. And if you get a chance to come this way, it really is worth it. I wish I could stay here much longer. I barely scratched the surface.
This is a very quiet, still, contemplative place, but also jaw-droppingly impressive. It has many layers of meaning, stories going back a thousand generations, hidden treasures known only to locals. But it doesn't advertise itself, cry out for attention, or give up it's secrets easily. It just sits there patiently, inviting you to come in and make your own discoveries.

The second shot give a sense of scale.

Now, this is totally subjective from me Ade. #3 I have to say works in a way that the others do not: its original treatment is both arresting and links with the ensuing text: "the Valley of the Winds" with the image's effective motion blur. I feel quite mean saying this but I find the rest of the images a little underexposed(did the amount of reds contribute to this, I'm wondering?), a little below par in comparison with the zing and panache of your usual shots. Also(for me, I stress, terribly sorry) the text seems to me quite hampered by cliché and the odd technical error, rendering it a little disengaging. That said though, I'm still reminded of a scantily-clad Jenny Agutter in the movie of James Vance Marshall's "Walkabout", so I hope I'm not being too curmudgeonly!

An amazing landscape, captured in your usual exemplary style. This has made me want to dig my hiking boots out of the closet, throw my camera on my back and head out for Australia.Brilliant stuff. I really like your framing of the scene with the cliffs in #2 and your composition in #4.

As to your larger question...I find double posting a pain in the butt, but it does allow you to experiment with crafting your presentations somewhat differently. For selfish reasons, I would tell you to post here as well. While I did read your blog entries about your cross Asia trip, it was sort of on an exception basis. I would remember once in a while and check them out, seeing a big whack of posts all at once. From my perspective,I preferred to see them come up here as I frequently check this site. Anyway, even if you don't post everything here, please continue to post photo stories here as well.

absolutely stunning landscape, very well photographed.

Thanks for the feedback guys. And I appreciate the honesty Zig.

NT, the sense of entering another world where I stood in shot #2 was incredible. This was probably the most memorable view of the whole trip, but the photo doesn't do it justice. I wouldn't have blinked an eyelid in surprise if I saw dinosaurs walking around down below.

Toad, if you enjoy hiking then this is a fantastic place to be. The terrain isn't bad, but the hot weather can be punishing. I was extremely lucky when I was there though, the temps had been up around 40degC before and after I was there, but dropped to 28-31degC while I was walking around. And the clouds made the sky and light more interesting to photograph, although it prevented me from taking any night photos of starry skies which I was looking forward to.

Zig, My "excuse" for any underexposing issues is that I'm doing all my processing on my lappy which needs colour calibrating and In often-changing lighting. To me, #2 looks a little underexposed, but the others look ok.
I found it interesting (but not surprising) that you picked out my writing too Zig. I'm not very confident in my writing skills and feel like I'm a bad judge of what's good or bad, so I appreciate being picked up on it. I was utterly exhausted when I wrote the copy for both this post and the Uluru one (from spending all day scuba diving on the great barrier reef - it's a tough life), so I accept that the writing is pretty poor. I barely remember what I wrote. I may get a chance to rewrite it when things calm down a bit over xmas though.

Beautiful photos. I particular love the second one. Great viewpoint and interesting clouds.
Also enjoyed the descriptions and info you shared.