To finish off my little journey featuring ridges of the Flinders Ranges I’ve gone another hundred plus kilometres south to Arkaba station where there is dramatic change in scenery.
This countries lies between Wilpena Pound and the Elder Range near the town of Hawker.
150 or so kilometres south from Arkaroola in the previous picture, this image was taken on the eastern side of what I suppose is the central Flinders Ranges for want of a better term.
A flight out from Angorichina station which isn’t far from the town of Blinman soon reveals row after row of ridges that keep rolling on as far as the eye can see.
Wilpena Pound, Flinders Ranges. Looking south from Gum Creek Station towards St. Mary’s Peak.
Colour is great but don’t forget black and white.
Using the techniques of old, a black and white photograph can sometime make for a much stronger image.
There is a real art to black and white photography…something the old masters used to great effect and it is still worth considering as a process even in the digital world.
It can add drama, subtlety and depth. Removing the colour sometimes takes away a distraction from the story being told.
It doesn’t work for every image though.
The Great Wall of China. Fuji X-Pro 1 f 11, shutter 1/60th sec, ISO 400
Fuji X-Pro f11, shutter 1/75th sec. ISO 400
Another climb to the top of the Flinders Ranges landmark called the Great Wall of China.
The previous trip had been brief and I was only shooting jPegs with the new Fuji X-100s.
I had an ulterior motive for this. Soon I will be using the Fuji X100s and the X-Pro 1 cameras exclusively for about 4 or 5 weeks.
This time I made sure I had plenty of time to walk along the top of the ridges and was using both cameras in Raw mode.
I wanted to see how each would perform on landscapes with their 23 and 35 mm fixed lenses respectively.
Fuji X-Pro f11, shutter 1/60th sec, ISO 400
I made one mistake – I did not take spare batteries and because I had been using the x100s earlier, shooting with it was short lived.
Other than that I quickly got used to shooting with the fixed lenses. Something I thought would be difficult after using zooms for so long.
With both cameras everything is pin sharp throughout and all shots were hand held
Fuji X100s f16, shutter 1/55th sec, ISO 400
The other important issue for me revolves around printing. Can images from these two cameras print on fine art paper to A1 size (84 cm wide) or even to a metre wide?
The file sizes for images from both the X100s and the X-Pro are around 45 megabytes after processing…more than enough but yet to be proved.
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This amazing rock formation is a landmark in the Flinders Ranges easily seen on the Wilpena-Blinman road that runs right through the centre of the ranges.
It’s estimated this sedimentary rock formation is about 350 million years old.
It certainly has that feel about it.
The heigh of these rocks is probably best illustrated in the previous post.
I am working on a little project that requires a small amount of physical exertion. It’s near the town of Blinman in the Flinders Ranges.
The scene is looking north towards Blinman.
Getting my usual equipment for landscapes up here was out of the question.
The Fuji X=100s, which I wrote about earlier was just perfect and again I was impressed with the quality of this and the other images I took.
I took this photograph at the height of the last drought.
It is of Arkaroola in the northern Flinders Ranges with Dinnertime Hill on the left and Mt Oliphant on the right.
It doesn’t look anything like this at the moment.
The regeneration of bushes, trees and all sorts of smaller plant life has been an explosion since the breaking of the drought.
However back in 2008 when this shot was taken, conditions were pretty terrible – so much so that the two mountains and much of the surrounding countryside had lost their vegetation cover.
The bare bones of this rugged terrain are totally exposed.
A photograph taken prior to last Christmas for an R. M. Williams publication called ‘Australia in Style’ out soon.
Early morning over the central Flinders Ranges looking south from Angorichina Station, which was one of the chapters in the book.
f3.5, shutter 1/500th sec. ISO 400
Gum trees are very prolific where I mostly travel in the Flinders Ranges, but every now and then there is a real standout…like this beauty.
It has easily 30 metres (100 feet) and probably it’s taken a couple centuries to grow.
Interestedly it has a pronounced leaning to the left too.
Perhaps it is bracing itself for the next time the creek flows – which is left to right – and that could happen any time soon.
