Category Archives: Weather

Another Prairie Sunset

Posted on March 15, 2012 by Peter MacDonald

Camera details: Fuji X-100 camera fixed lens. f5.6 @ 1/50th sec ISO 400

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A Prairie Sunset

Posted on March 14, 2012 by Peter MacDonald

This site doesn’t set out to be topical or up to the minute, but this sunset is but a little under an hour old.

View from the front porch of my house – a safe place in yet another a thunderstorm.

Camera Details: f6.3, exposure 23 seconds in Bulb mode ISO 100. Canon 5D Mk 2 and Canon EF28-300mm f/3.5-5.6L IS

USM lens.

In hindsight I would have probably used a different aperture setting but with the light disappearing so quickly there wasn’t much time for anything but an educated guess.

Posted in Outback South Australia, Weather | 1 Comment

Summer’s Last Hurrah

Posted on March 11, 2012 by Peter MacDonald

A stark reminder of the drought years of not too long ago.

Summer at its worst with not a blade of grass to be seen.

Sheep grazing country between Hawker and Quorn in the central Flinders Ranges

Posted in Flinders Ranges, Weather | Tagged | 1 Comment

Stormy Skies

Posted on March 7, 2012 by Peter MacDonald

The Elder Range on Arkana Station, just south of Wilpena Pound. central Flinders Ranges.

The calm before the storm…..

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Fire in the Sky

Posted on March 5, 2012 by Peter MacDonald

So much for rain in the face, mud underfoot and dreary overcast skies.

Let’s have a bit of fire to brighten up the morning.

Camera setting details: f16, 1/20th sec, ISO 200, tripod.

Spectacular sunrises and sunsets are pretty regular in my part of the world so they don’t feature in many of my photographs unless I can find some other thing of interest to put in the shot as well. In this case the dead tree fitted the bill pretty well.

Posted in Photography Tips, Weather | 1 Comment

All the Rivers Run

Posted on March 4, 2012 by Peter MacDonald

While most of the creeks and rivers in the FLinders Ranges and the surrounding Outback are now just gently flowing streams, a last chance to show the full force of the recent floods.

Again the Parachilna Creek in the northern Flinders Ranges.

Interestingly, while clambering down the slippery banks of the creek to get these shot I saw what turned out to be a large euro, or hills wallaby bobbing in the waters close to the bank.

The Euro must have been washed downstream in the fast flowing waters but managed to scramble to safety in calmer current.

It quickly disappeared into the nearby bushes.

Unfortunately I wasn’t in a position to record any of this little life and death drama.

Posted in Flinders Ranges, Outback South Australia, Parachilna, Weather | 2 Comments

Running Rivers

Posted on March 1, 2012 by Peter MacDonald

This has been a pretty common sight in the Flinders Ranges and Outback in recent days. Outback floods, fast running creeks and rivers don’t get seen by a lot of people when they are at their most spectacular, mainly because roads are cut by the flood waters too.

This is the Parachilna Creek and about the only place I could get to it without running into trouble.

These waters will probably make it all the way to Lake Torrens to the west, but in many cases it disperses across the plains before reaching the lake.

People thinking of travelling in this part of the world should check on road condition here before setting out.

Posted in Outback South Australia, Parachilna, Weather | 1 Comment

On the Road

Posted on February 29, 2012 by Peter MacDonald

A big contrast to the summer photos of the last few posts. For the the last 48 hours or more a vast area of the outback has been inundated with heavy rains and there’s more to come.

I think it is safe to say that every road in the Flinders north of Hawker and Outback of South Australia is either closed, cut or in some way affected by the rain at the moment.

This is the Warrioota Creek near Beltana which is one of the streams that has isolated the town of Leigh Creek.

It was flowing a metre high and very fast for several hours yesterday then dropped so I could get home late in the afternoon.

However with more rain falling overnight and again today it cut the road once again.

Some very heavy falls have been recorded…perhaps the biggest at Depot Springs east of Leigh Creek where 270 millimetres (10.5 inches) have fallen in the last three days. That’s all of the station’s rainfall last year.

There always seems to be a good consolation though when caught at flooded creek crossing, and for me it’s an occupation hazard. Often there are interesting people to talk to who are also in the same boat (bad pun) as you are.

Posted in On the Road, Outback South Australia, Weather | Leave a comment

Summer Heat

Posted on February 26, 2012 by Peter MacDonald

As a photograph I like this image better than the previous one. It’s just about the same location and shot at the same time but I think the composition is better even though it perhaps doesn’t convey as well the feeling of a super hot day.

However I like the desolate feeling of the place, the fact that there’s nothing apparently living in the scene. The bush on the side of the bank is long dead from the salt and the heat.

It can’t always be grand landscapes that fill these pages.

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Summertime, and the Living Isn’t Easy……

Posted on February 22, 2012 by Peter MacDonald

After posting the last photograph of the ruins at Black Rock I thought it would be a good idea to look for photographs I have made that illustrate the heat of summer in the Flinders Ranges and Outback.

It is generally very hot, many businesses close at least for part of the hottest months, visitors stay away and locals who are used to the heat, tailor their lives accordingly.

Usually the early morning or late afternoon is the time for photography, but using the harsh light of the middle of the day can illustrate the heat of summer.

Like here, where there is a hint of a mirage along the base of Bayley Range on Beltana station in the northern Flinders Ranges that helps tell the story.

I used an aperture of f5.6 to get a sharp foreground and a soft focus on the ranges behind. The shutter speed was 1/125 sec, ISO 100.

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