Laura Bush Camp Day 1

Dec18

Near Laura, Queensland, 13 August 2022
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Click on any image to see it larger (If you are on a PC at least).

We got up early in the morning in Laura and set out into the bush with Johnny Murison of Jarramali Rock Art Tours.

We were zotting along in tiny four wheel drives. This is the one following us.

A brief stop along the way.

No chance of a school bus coming the other way. We are on Aboriginal land with no permanent habitations out here.

Sometimes the road was quite good.

Other times it was a little rougher.

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Definitely four wheel drive country.

From memory, it took about an hour to drive in.

Now we have arrived.

We were sleeping in a tent but there was a communal meeting room and dining room. This is the view from the veranda.

A closer view of the left end of the cliffs in front of us.

Wedge tail eagles appear.

We were sitting down for lunch when a wedge tail eagle flew past the large window, very close, maybe twenty metres away. Of course I had put the camera away and couldn’t take advantage of that opportunity. Soon after it was joined by a mate. They sat in a distant tree for a while and then climbed into the sky.

This is the best shot I got. The eagle is a long way away and the resolution is enhanced by software.

Where the Green Ants Dream (though Hertzog was not in sight).

After lunch we headed for the rock art site. On the way we encountered this ants nest, up in the tree for safety.

This appears to be another one, old and abandoned.

As you can see, we are now at the main rock art site.

The figures you see can be as old as twenty thousand years old or as recent as the late nineteenth century.

Here is Johnny explaining the associations and significance of each figure.

I remember little of what he said so I’ll just leave you to view and wonder.

The Quinkan rock art galleries are in many locations in Northern Queensland with only a few open to the public. They are listed by UNESCO as being among the top 10 rock art sites in the world.

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There is some ochre on the rock at the bottom right.

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An ancient engraving of an emu footprint.

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Walking back, a couple of details on cliffs on the far side of the canyon.

Moonrise at sunset.

Yungaburra to Laura

Dec11

Yungaburra to Laura, Queensland, 12 August 2022
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Click on any image to see it larger (If you are on a PC at least).

View with typical Queensland blood-red sky.

On this day we travelled north from Yungaburra to Laura. Along the way we stopped at a viewpoint for this view.

Somewhat later, the weather was quite different and so was the view.

A rather dreamy vista furher along the road.

This one is quite close by though looking in the opposite direction, which explains why the colours are quite different.

We have now reached Laura, and there are many galahs on the telegraph lines.

Laura is a massive metropolis in Northern Queensland, just like Brisbane in Southern Queensland, although the population of Laura is 228, as compared to 2.28 million for Brisbane. There are not a lot of other differences though. Here are two of the major buildings in Laura. There is the general store on the left and the pub on the right.

Across the road is the Town Hall. To the left of that is a roofed field and basketball court, so schoolchildren can play sports in the rainy season.

It is not hard to find modern technology in Laura.

So this is why the galahs have gathered. It’s feeding time.

Across the road is the motel where we stayed the night.

Later we decided to choose the pub for a meal. Some kookaburra were eating there too. Like Brisbane, there is a great choice of eating establishments in Laura. Specifically, there is the pub and the roadhouse. We’re not in Brisbane so I won’t list the eating establishments in Brisbane for comparison.

The kookaburra were joined by a blue-faced honeyeater (entomyzon cyanotis). Whether the honeyeater had made a reservation for dinner is not clear.

A kookaburra on a branch in the late afternoon sun.

I set out to capture galahs landing on or setting out from the power lines in the late afternoon light.

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This is a helmeted guineafowl (numida meleagris). Not native to Australia, it is from Africa. They are kept in farmyards to kick up a lot of noise when a fox or feral cat comes in.

And yes, there were three infrared images at the start of the post.

Atherton Tablelands Monochromes 2

Dec4

Atherton Tablelands, Queensland, and journey from Canberra, 9 to 11 August 2022.

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Links go to colour posts (with information). If an image does not have a link, the preceding one applies.

(Click on any image to see it in a larger size, if you are on a PC or tablet at least.)

Big Millstream Falls.

Atherton Tablelands in Infrared.

A stream flowing by the path on the walk down to the lower viewpoint at Tully Gorge.

Herberton and Tully Gorge.

Cliffs and trees from the lower viewpoint, Tully Gorge.

The Tully River above where the falls used to be and might be again from time to time.

Looking down also at the Tully River, downstream of the falls, now only occasionally fed by the waterfall.

Krefft’s turtle, Malanda Falls Conservation Park.

Rainforest and Sugar Gliders.

Symbiotic flowering plant.

Grey-headed Robin (Heteromyias cinereifrons).

North Johnstone River.

Funghi by the path.

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Millaa Millaa Falls.

Zillie Falls.

Atherton Tablelands in Infrared.

Zillie Falls.

Rainforest and Sugar Gliders.

Zillie Falls.

Ellinjaa Falls.

Atherton Tablelands in Infrared.

Ellinjaa Falls.

Rainforest and Sugar Gliders.

Sugar glider (petaurus breviceps longicaudatus).

Striped possum (Dactylopsila trivirgata).

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Falls on Barron River near Dinner Falls.

Atherton Tablelands in Infrared.

Dinner Falls.

Waterfalls and Striped Possums.

Mount Hypipamee Crater.

Zillzie Falls.

Back roads to Hastie’s Swamp.

Hastie’s Swamp with plumed whistling-ducks.

Striped possum and sugar glider.

Striped possum.

Atherton Tablelands Monochromes 1

Nov27

Atherton Tablelands, Queensland, and journey from Canberra, 7 to 8 August 2022.

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Links go to colour posts (with information). If an image does not have a link, the preceding one applies.

(Click on any image to see it in a larger size, if you are on a PC or tablet at least.)

Cape Pallarenda and Magnetic Island.

Canberra to Yungaburra (IR).

Probably East Feluga/ Friday Pocket area.

View from Cairns/ Atherton Tablelands Road.

Cathedral Fig Tree.

Our welcoming committee to the Atherton Tablelands.

Curtain Fig Tree.

Herberton and Tully Gorge.

Curtain Fig Tree.

Great Egret, in non-breeding plumage, Hastie’s Swamp.

Grevillea in flower, Herberton.

1942 UK Austin, ex Forestry Department, Herberton.

Boot of dead car.

Steamroller.

Atherton Tablelands in Infrared.

1936 Pontiac Flat head 6.

Herberton and Tully Gorge.

1934 Buick Straight 8.

Ancient machinery.

Atherton Tablelands in Infrared.

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Old harvesters.

From the inside looking out.

Casting a light.

Inside Elderslie House, Herberton.

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The Dispensary, Herberton.

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Atherton Tablelands in Infrared

Nov21

Atherton Tablelands, Queensland, 8-10 August 2022
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Click on any image to see it larger (If you are on a PC at least).

Links go to ordinary colour posts at the same location (for more information and context). If an image does not have a link, the preceding one applies..

A camera with an infrared sensor in broad terms sees infrared, red and green instead of red green and blue. By default the image for my camera comes out in orange/ yellow tones that then requires processing. I am interested in where I can take it for creative effect.

Herberton.

Herberton and Tully Gorge.

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Grevillea Flower.

Big Millstream Falls.

Millaa Millaa Falls.

Rainforest and Sugar Gliders.

Zillie Falls.

Ellinjaa Falls.

Falls on Barron River near Dinner Falls.

Waterfalls and Striped Possums.

Same viewpoint but actually a different image as well as a different interpretation. The water shows a different shutter speed.

Dinner Falls.

Waterfalls and Striped Possums

Nov13

Atherton Tablelands, Queensland, 11 August 2022
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Click on any image to see it larger (If you are on a PC at least).

In our third full day in Atherton Tablelands, we first headed off to Mount Hypipamee National Park. Here we are walking the Dinner Falls circuit.

Falls on Barron River near Dinner Falls.

Dinner Falls.

Next we walked on to the Mount Hypipamee Crater.

This is of course a volcanic crater.

From the viewing platform, there is a drop of 130 metres to the lake which is then a further 73 metres deep. It’s a long way down.

I was intrigued by the patterns on the surface of the lake.

These are partly natural and partly created by people who frequently throw rocks down into the lake. (Personally, I’d prefer it just to be natural).

Panoramic view.

After that, I decided to head off to Zillie Falls again. I had carelessly exposed my images there at high ISO the previous day so thought to try again. This image is from a viewpoint on the way.

Zillzie Falls.

In the late afternoon I was shooting into the light and I didn’t bracket enough, so there is no detail in the sky.

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I decided to head back via the bird hide at Hastie’s Swamp. That meant a long trip on the back roads, late in the afternoon. I can’t show you much of what we saw because often the light was fleeting and the narrow winding roads often meant nowhere to pull over.

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At Hastie’s Swamp I took some more photographs of the plumed whistling-ducks in challenging low light conditions of the late afternoon.

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This is the opposite shore, which about 200 metres away.

Back with the night life where we were staying, the sugar gliders were there initially but when one or two much larger striped possums turned up, they made themselves scarce.

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Here you can see the elongated fourth finger with a long hooked nail that it uses to extract insects and caterpillars from bark and cracks. In this it is similar to the very weird Aye-Aye from Madagascar. They are not related though. The Aye-Aye is a lemur and a very primitive primate whereas the striped possum is a marsupial found mainly in New Guinea and West Irian but also in coastal North Queensland.

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Rainforest and Sugar Gliders

Nov6

Atherton Tablelands, Queensland, 9 August 2022
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Click on any image to see it larger (If you are on a PC at least).

On our second full day in the Atherton Tablelands, we first headed to Malanda, which was not far. We discovered a wonderful coffee bar near the Visitors’ Centre with great coffee and perhaps the best muffins I have encountered. The owner told us he is a chef and made the muffins himself, whereas most places purchase premade cheap frozen muffins, with a corresponding cost in taste. Creeping Americanisation perhaps.

Krefft’s turtle.

We walked several trails in Malanda Falls Conservation Park on both sides of the road. We were hoping to encounter a tree kangaroo in one of a number of locations in the Atherton Tablelands but this was not to happen. However, there was lots more to see.

There were a number of these turtles swimming round near the bank at a particular location in the North Johnstone River.

I think there may have been a description of this symbiotic flowering plant in the Visitors’ Centre but I did not record it so I can’t tell you what it is.

Grey-headed Robin (Heteromyias cinereifrons).

North Johnstone River.

Funghi by the path.

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Red-legged pademelon (Thylogale stigmatica) moving quickly through the bush.

Funghi by the Path.

Millaa Millaa Falls.

Next we visited the waterfall circuit at Millaa Millaa.

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Zillie Falls.

With a bit of a scramble, I found a good location for the Zillie Falls and also took some studies of water and rocks.

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Ellinjaa Falls.

I also had in mind to visit Crawford’s Lookout, North Johnston Lookout Track, Mamu Tropical Skywalk, Innisfail and Babinda Boulders but we would have needed an extra day for that.

Returning to our accomodation at Chambers Wildlife Rainforest Lodges, we were able to experience nightime observations of sugar gliders (petaurus breviceps longicaudatus).

A Striped possum (Dactylopsila trivirgata) briefly appeared.

And then it was back to the sugar gliders again, feeding on the sap of a tree.

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Herberton and Tully Gorge

Oct30

Atherton Tablelands, Queensland, 7 to 8 August 2022
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Click on any image to see it larger (If you are on a PC at least).

Cairns/ Atherton Tablelands Road.

This is a view from the road from Cairns to Atherton Tablelands. I posted an infrared view from the same spot in the previous post.

Curtain Fig Tree.

In the previous infrared post we saw images of the Cathedral Fig Tree. This is a different one, close to Yungaburra where we stayed on the first night. the Curtain Fig Tree.

This tree started out as a seed dropped in the branches of a host tree, presumably excreted by a bird. Over time, the fig strangled the host, causing it to fall over against another tree and the fig roots reached to the ground, creating the curtain you see.

Over more time, the host rotted away, leaving just the fig tree. It is nearly fifty metres tall and you can get a sense of the height of the roots from the people on the platform near ground level at lower right. It is believed to be around five hundred years old.

On our way south, we dropped into the Hastie’s Swamp Bird Hide. These are plumed whistling-ducks, in the reeds near the shore.

Great Egret, in non-breeding plumage.

We next spent a few hours at Herberton. This is a grevillea in flower at the side of the path..

One of the main reasons I wanted to visit Herberton was the graveyard of old cars, which we will see more of in a future infrared post. The is a 1942 UK Austin, ex Forestry Department.

Time takes its toll.

This small bird is a Chowchilla, the southern subspecies orthonyx melasmenus with a longer beak.

Dodge emblem. The text says Dodge Brothers and is probably from the 1930s.

1936 Pontiac Flat head 6.

I don’t think this one would make a good getaway car, given that it has wooden stumps instead of rear wheels.

1934 Buick Straight 8.

The cornering ability of this one is probably suspect.

No identification for this one.

Since it has no wheels, maybe it was intended to fly.

Perhaps the front of an engine housing.

Gone full circle.

Different view of the same grevillea. I realised my shutter speed had only been 1/10 sec so retook it, but need not have worried due to image stabilisation on the lens.

Inside Elderslie House, home of J.Newell, Founder of Herberton.

Herberton was established by John Newell in 1880 for tin mining. In late 1880 it had a population of 300 males and 27 females. The Historic village opened in 1973, on the edge of the actual town of Herberton. It was created by Harry Skennar and includes buildings and artefacts from nearby and further afield. There are probably forty or fifty buildings including historic shops.

Coach House.

Day’s Garage.

The Dispensary or Chemist.

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Dispensary window ledge.

Driving on further south towards Tully Gorge, we visited Big Millstream Falls near Ravenshoe.

Tully Gorge Lookout.

That bare patch in the lower mid right is where Tully Falls was when it was the largest waterfall in Queensland. The free flow of the Tully River was stopped in 1960 by the construction of the Koombooloomba Dam, so now the falls only flow during a big wet season. The road to Tully Gorge Lookout has been sealed for only a couple of years.

A stream flowing by the path on the walk down to the lower viewpoint.

Cliffs and trees from the lower viewpoint.

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A closer view of the Tully River above where the falls used to be and might be again from time to time.

Looking down also at the Tully River, downstream of the falls, now only occasionally fed by the waterfall.

Canberra to Yungaburra (IR)

Oct23

Canberra ACT to Yungaburra Queensland via Cairns, 7 August 2022
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Click on any image to see it larger (If you are on a PC at least).

These images from a plane journey from Canberra to Cairns and then by road from Cairns to Yungaburra in the Athertion Tablelands.

These are all infrared images. Since my previous post was about processing IR images in Capture One and I also mentioned processing in Lightroom and Photoshop, I indicate how I processed each image. PS is Photoshop, with modifications before and after in Lightroom, LR is Lightroom and C1 is Capture One. Not that that really tells you much except that you can get a whole range of results from any method.

10 mins from Canberra. Not clear exactly where. (PS)

I have been producing colour infrared images on and off since the early 1980s, which of course was at that time on film (and printing Cibachrome). I like the wild range of possibilities from the radical to the subtle. There are many other approaches to infrared images and I do not expect mine to be to everyone’s taste.

However, I showed these images to a visiting friend on my large computer monitor and he exclaimed “These are paintings!” and compared this image and two later from the Cairns/ Atherton Road to images by Sydney Nolan from the Red Desert series. Not something I had considered or was even aware of.

Make of these what you will. I make no claims and have no expectations. They are for me a creative challenge and a different world.

Lake Dalrymple below (west of Mackay, Queensland). Lake Upstart National Park in far distance. (LR)

Everything looks so different from the air.

Magnetic Island and Cape Cleveland. (LR)

Antivaxxers and Libertarians tell us you can’t believe any media, government or institution. Isn’t it a terrible thing that no-one tells us about the nuclear accidents that boil the land and turn the seas red.

Cape Pallarenda and Magnetic Island. (PS)

Day and night happen at the same time, as the sun turns into a moon.

Palm Islands (Esk Island, Brisk Island, Eclipse Reef, Great Palm Island). (LR)

It looks real but is it really?

Hinchinbrook Island (foreground) and Brook Islands. (LR)

The pastel shades of the released imagination.

Gould Island. Garden reef in front. (PS)

If I’d taken video footage from the air I could have made a blue movie.

Tull River. South Mission Beach in the distance. (LR)

The classic reddish colours of a Queensland autumn (though it’s actually winter).

Innisfail and Johnstone River. (LR)

As autumn fades, so do the colours.

Looking past Mulgrave River, Malbon Thompson Forest Reserve and Grey Peaks National Park to a distant view of Cape Grafton, Fitzroy Island and beyond. (LR)

We are getting closer to the tropics. You know the camera never lies so this is realistic colour.

Probably East Feluga/ Friday Pocket area. (LR)

And so is this. It’s not that I am wearing rose tinted glasses, the whole world has suddenly changed.

I think Maria Creek in the foreground; Barnard Island off the coast; Barrier Reef in the background. (PS)

The landscape is trying to turn into the Gambian flag. Perhaps we’re about to be invaded.

Just before landing at Cairns Airport. (PS)

Back to normal reality.

View from Cairns/ Atherton Tableland Road. (C1)

A desert landscape, maybe?

Cathedral Fig Tree (C1)

Needing some respite, I stopped for a while at the ancient Forest of Fangorn, not far from the Misty Mountains.

Cathedral Fig Tree (C1)

The weather was changing minute by minute.

Cathedral Fig Tree (C1).

The trees had much to say.

Cathedral Fig Tree (C1).

And dreams escaped to the sky.

Our welcoming committee to the Atherton Tablelands (C1).

And then our dreams were gathered up and returned to us by the Guardians of The Ether.

Processing Infrared Images in Capture One

Oct19

Click on any image to see it larger (If you are on a PC at least).

Introduction

Capture One is generally thought to not be a very capable infrared editor though as I will show, this is not the case. I will also briefly touch on processing in Photoshop and Lightroom.

This is a technical post that is mainly of interest to those shooting infrared, or contemplating doing so, and also processing in Capture One, or contemplating doing so. Others might skim down to see the processes of image transformation without bothering to contemplate the details of how it is done.

I have more information on what infrared is all about in my previous post Introduction to Infrared Photography. Processing is particularly important to most forms of digital infrared photography, particularly where you are starting with a colour image.

Taking Infrared Images

The wavelength of visible light ranges from 400 nanomentres (nm) (violet) to 750 nm (red). At less than 400nm there is ultraviolet light and at more than 750nm there is infrared, neither of which we can see. Digital cameras however, record colours from around 350nm to 1,000nm, more than we can see, and usually have “hot mirror filters” to block UV and IR light in the interests of recording more accurate colours.

You can take infrared images using either a filter over the lens or a converted camera in which a filter allowing infrared light to pass replaces the hot pass filter. I have a camera with a 560nm conversion, which allows bright colours and includes both visible light and infrared. The most common filter (and maybe conversion) is 720nm which admits less visible light and more infrared and has reduced colours. An 800nm filter or conversion is infrared only and produces a black and white image only.

An image from an 800nm filter may require little processing. For lower-nm filters, it is possible to use a custom white balance and maybe be satisfied with that, though much more is possible. I aim to transfer the image in post-processing so I don’t bother with a custom white balance and to aid that process I also shoot RAW.

Processing in Photoshop and Lightroom

A few years ago, Photoshop was the primary method of post-processing (and probably still is for most people). A key part of this was channel swapping, for example, swapping red and blue channels to get blue skies. You might also make other adjustments using layers for hue/saturation, black and white (with luminosity blending) and selective colour, and even get really complex with luminosity masking or the Orton Effect.

Using Lightroom for infrared images required generating and using a camera profile to extend the range of colours Lightroom sees. If processing in Photoshop, I would first make adjustments in Lightroom including changing the colour balance to maximise separation of colours. and might also make other adjustments including in the calibration tab and curves adjustments by colour channel. Only then would I launch to Photoshop from Lightroom. What you got your starting image to look like would affect the range of possibilities in Photoshop.

A year or two ago, Lightroom introduced Profiles and it became possible to export LUTs from Photoshop to become channel swapping profiles in Lightroom. So it is now possible to do your processing in Lightroom, though there is more capability in Photoshop. Rob Shea provides information on how to make your own Lightroom channel-swapping profiles or buy some from him.

Processing in Capture One

Unlike Lightroom, Capture One already has a full range of available colours for infrared processing without the need for a custom camera profile. However, it been seen as a not-so capable processor for infrared. Not so, as I will show you….

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This is how you might start out, an uncorrected image out of the camera (appearance will vary according to infrared filter).

This is what it looks like after moving sliders for colour temperature and tint to maximise colour separation, and after clicking Auto Adjust for levels.

(Click on images if you need to see more detail).

I have created several Editor presets in the colour editor, using a method as shown in this article. To create a red/blue colour swap preset, you make a selection for the red sector of the colour wheel. Then you change the hue four times by -30° for a total change of -30° (out of 360). That’s for the red shift. For the blue shift, you select an appropriate blue segment and move it four times by 30° to shift it to red. Then you save it as a custom preset. Once you have the custom preset, you can select it for an instant effect.

The red/blue colour swap works OK for this image. The equivalent of a Photoshop channel swap requires combining the red/blue colour swap with a cyan/yellow colour swap. These Color Editor presets also work on layers so it is possible to have different colour swaps or channel swaps on different layers and combine them using layer opacity.

The easiest way to create such custom presets is off an image of a photographic colour wheel. You use the colour picker tool in the Colour Editor (tiny yellow tool on the black background to bottom right of the destination colour wheel), adjust hue, unclick, reclick and repeat. Then you can see the colours change as you go. Its’s best to have only one colour change selected at a time or the results can get confusing.

I had to adjust the orientation of my colour editor segments a bit due to colour inaccuracy in the image I was using. Red and cyan should align around the horizontal axis, and the other coloujrs around the vertical axis.

So this is what I get after next clicking on my red blue swap preset in the Advanced tab of my Colour Editor.

Now the next thing is I want to change the yellow-green colour in the landscape. I could use the incremental change method as above but there’s an easier way.

Now we go to the Skin Tone tab of the Colour Editor. Use the picker to select the colour you want, in this case the foliage of the landscape. Adjust this if required. In the menu for the Colour Editor, select Create Masked layer from Selection. That creates a new layer with the foliage part of the landscape selected.

Now in the new layer just created, we go to the Skin Tone pane in the Colour Editor again. (We are going to change the “skin tone” of the foliage). The critical thing here is to have the Hue Uniformity slider all the way to the right, as shown. Then use the picker to select the desired colour again (in this case, the landscape foliage). Next, drag the selected segment in the colour wheel around to expand it from say 20° or 30° to nearly 360°. There’s a small handle, opposite the unselected segment and in this case at the bottom-left of the colour wheel. You can grab this and rotate the colour wheel, changing the colour to whatever you want. Since we are on a layer where only the foliage is selected, only that colour changes.

Note: Sometimes the mask on the new layer will have more than you want selected. If so, you may be able to erase the unwanted parts of the mask. If that doesn’t work, instead create a new filled layer and use the iterative hue-shift approach on the Advanced tab of the Colour Editor.

Now we have the landscape foliage colour changed.

The last thing I wanted to do was to change the colour of the foreground foliage of the small trees against the sky. I created another layer, copied the mask from the initial layer, erased all of the mask except for the small trees and then changed the colour. There were a number of ways I could have done this and I just used colour balance.

So this was the final image, also cropped a little further. I may have also made some other minor adjustments not specific to infrared.

There are many styles of infrared photography and if you are using a different filter or conversion to me, your range of possibilities may be quite different. I could also have processed this image in Capture One for quite different results.

I have related a few techniques here that may be useful for people using Capture One to interpret in their own way. Most people opt for a limited range of colours and perhaps minimal processing. All approaches are valid; it’s only what you end up with that counts no matter how much or little effort you put into it.

The next post will include twenty infrared images with a wide range of very different interpretations. They include the image from this post and are variously processed in Photoshop, Lightroom and Capture One.

Murray Foote

Tag Archives: Landscape

Laura Bush Camp Day 1

Yungaburra to Laura

Atherton Tablelands Monochromes 2

Atherton Tablelands Monochromes 1

Atherton Tablelands in Infrared

Waterfalls and Striped Possums

Rainforest and Sugar Gliders

Herberton and Tully Gorge

Canberra to Yungaburra (IR)

Processing Infrared Images in Capture One

Introduction

Taking Infrared Images

Processing in Photoshop and Lightroom

Processing in Capture One