[loopy]

Any of you West Aussies ever shot here? I'm thinking maybe duck up there Sat morning, is it a big drive? I'm in Bullsbrook at the moment, it doesn't look more than about an hour and a half or so away? I've seen some great shots of this region, looks like it might be decent.

Cheers,


Brad

[shuttertalk]

Cool.. haven't been there, but "desert" conjures up some cool images in my imagination. Should be good, given the right lighting...

[lemangoholic]

I've got a large photo of pinacle as a farewell pressie when I left WA... tis very very lovely

[StudioJ]

I haven't been up there in a couple of years, they have a moon and pinnacles shoot twice a year up there that I'd love to go to as you can't go into the park after hours normally.

You're looking at a bit over 2 hours drive up there and if you're there in the middle of the day the contrast makes it look quite alien.

[Kombisaurus]

ahh.... yes there are some great shots up at the pinnicles. I've only been up there once, and didn't have a camera with me (!!!!), but they are spectacular, especially around dusk apparently. Just avoid the 'roos if you are driving home afterwards

I think its a bit further than 1 1/2 hours though. I seem to remember it taking a lot longer than I expected (but admittedly I was driving the kombi up there).

And speaking of kombis and deserts (nice segway), here are a couple of my favourite photo of my kombi up in some dunes north of Lancelin, taken during a camping trip a year ago.





Disclaimer: There really was a full moon in the scene for both these shots, but I had to overexpose it to expose correctly for the rest of the shot, so I substituted a better exposed moon in there from another shot in post. I also added the glare on the window of the kombi in the 2nd shot. There was also a 2nd vehicle in the 1st shot which I removed, as I didn't have time to move either car when I took the shot - the sun was right on the horizon.

These shots were taken in a huge area of nothing but dunes (probably about a 2x10km patch at a guess), just north of the naval bombing range which is just north of Lancelin. It is only accessible by 4WD (or kombi), and the easiest way to get there is pretty much to simply drive about 20km up the beach from Lancelin, then turn inland when you see the big red and white concrete lookout tower at the far edge of the bombing range (you can't miss it, even though it's about 1km inland). Note that you CAN get lost in these dunes fairly easily, we did in a 4wd that had a split radiator, and nearly rolled it and got bogged and so on. Even after 1/2 hour our tracks had become mostly blown over by the wind on the sand, and there are NO visible landmarks unless you manage to get somewhere high enough to see the ocean on one side and bush on the other. Go with friends and take a GPS and two-way radio.

But the pinnicles, although further away are a lot more accessible.

[adam]

The pictures look so smooth! That's the only word I can describe it with at the moment

Looks like a nice place to take photographs, if you have something to take. Otherwise I'd imagine you go there to take landscape sort of shots, or of rocks.

Would the dust be a problem to the camera? Maybe if you don't change lenses?

[Peted]

Many years ago I drove from Lancelin all the way up the beach to Nambung National Park and through the Pinacles Desert, truly an amazing place. I don't remember taking many photos back then but I will have to have a look through my old stuff (slides) to see what if anything I have. Really must get back there one day. One of my brothers goes to a mates shack up that way somewhere.

[Kombisaurus]

Hey Adam,

Yeah, they do look "smooth". My Oly is fairly noisy in anything but good light, and for photos like this the noise was distracting. I masked off the skies and did some major noise-reduction (and some guassian blurring to smooth out the lumps), and then some careful noise reduction to the kombi and a bit to the sand. I also adjusted the tone curves of the sky and sand seperately to make the most of the contrast in each.
I might have gone a bit overboard, but even if it looks a bit too "smooth" to be real, I think it suits the image.
The kombi was really there, the dunes were there, the sky was there, the sun was giving that great light, and the moon was there (albeit a different moon)... that's enough reality for me - the rest is up to me to interpret as I see fit.

And Pete, you would have driven past this place (which me and my mates have dubbed "Area 51"). Do you remember driving past the big red-and-white striped bunker/lookout thingy that looks like a lighthouse?

[Peted]

It was 25 or more years ago when I went there, I mainly remember that I went at high tide and was on the high part of the beach for the entire trip, poor little Daihatsu F20 struggled all the way over heating because I was in low range with the tyres let right down or I would sink to the axles in the soft sand. I also remember the "petrified trees" and the mounds when you drive through to the other side, truly amazing.

[shuttertalk]

Love #1 Kombi... it's a stunner!