We have been quite lucky recently as every time we have had a Friday off together it has been the hottest day of the week. This week Chris and Carole from The Deck gave us use of their 4×4 for the day so we could explore some of the more remote areas East of Hopetoun. This is Fanny Cove in the Stokes National Park which can only be reached via a 4×4 track. I’m sure our van would not have got far and given the lack of traffic it could have been a long wait for rescue. The Toyota Landcruiser made light work of the terrain giving us the chance to snorkel this secluded cove.

We saw this stingray on our walk along Four mile beach on Sunday. I followed it for a while trying to get a good shot of it. They have the ability to disappear under the sand at a moments notice. This one did not seem to mind me snapping away as it glided along the shallows at a slow walking pace.  One problem with shooting through a zoom lens is you have no reference for how close you actually are to the subject. I had to keep peering over my camera to make sure I did not step on it. Although not generally aggressive towards humans they are related to sharks and if they feel threatened they can strike out with a venomous barb in their tail. Fatal attacks have been known, most famously on former Aussie crocodile wrangler Steve Irwin, but generally a stingray attack will only result in a severe disinclination to boogie.

Stingray Video

This is Sammy the sealion, Local resident of Esperance who comes ashore around midday to look at the tourists on the pier. Other residents include the remnants of Skylab which crashed to earth here in 1979 (The Australians fined the Americans $400 dollars for littering) and Doug and Ettie who were good enough to let us stay in their gorgeous home for a couple of days. Thanks to you both. Since the last post we have both been offered a job at The Deck in Hopetoun for six weeks. It was a hard decision as it meant giving up fireworks in Sydney which we had both been looking forward to. As we are not here for an extended holiday we could not justify turning down the work and it does include a nice little cabin near the beach and free internet. This change of plan also means we can spend more time in Western Australia as the job does not start for 3 weeks. From here we are going to do a big loop inland to Norseman, Kalgoorlie-Boulder, Southern Cross and Merredin before heading back to Hopetoun. We should start crossing the Nullarbor in February next year.

This image was accepted for Stock Photography at Shutterstock and is available for high resolution download here.

The unfamiliar bird life is a source of constant wonder when travelling. Everything looks exotic when compared the the legions of small brown sparrows you get in the U.K. And I quite like sparrows. This Splendid Blue Wren or Fairy Wren is one of the most enchanting and also one of the hardest to capture. These tiny timid creatures dart about with such speed I had many shots blurred feathers and a few of bare ground before I got this image. I am writing this entry from outside the Albany Rest Centre which is a curious mock Tudor Public convenience with the added bonus of warm showers. Albany is the oldest town in Western Australia with many buildings in the colonial style. We had a sunny Sunday wandering the streets and beaches here before we plan to head inland again to the Borden Recreation Ground to spend the night.

This is Stockton Lake near Collie which was our third camp site after stopping at Ironstone Gully Falls last night. Those of you who know Australia will realize the meandering route between sites. This is largely due to the need to pick up various provisions and water as well as the occasional desire to use toilet more substantial than an eco hole in the ground. We have found all our fellow campers to be very friendly, knowledgeable and helpful. So far they have also all been Australian. This is a big advantage of camping over the backpacker hostel route. This lake was created from an old coal mine and is now a Recreation Area for all manner of water sports. I only know this from our camp site neighbour who worked here when it was a mine. As I write this we are heading towards Pine Plantation Picnic Area Camp site. I am planning to fit a cigarette lighter socket to the second battery in our van so I will not be limited to posting images while Karen is driving. I suspect I will not be forgiven if I flatten the main battery with my laptop and we are unable to start the engine in the morning.

This jet surfer is a composite of four images. The desert dunes of western Egypt, A kite surfer from Dahab, The moon from an earlier post and a methane engine I found on this site. Unlike the last composite these images did not need as much adjustment as the lighting conditions were similar. The dunes did need their tonal range increasing. This was done by increasing the contrast to 100 and moving up the black point in Camera RAW. To compensate for the black point shift the Exposure also needed to be increased.

This was taken near Luxor in Egypt. The image was processed using Photoshops Camera RAW developer. The effect was created using the inbuilt split toning feature in Camera RAW. You access the panel by clicking on the icon which looks like an = sign after you open your RAW file. It’s useful to know when adjusting the saturation slider it acts just like an opacity slider. You can blend it between original image colour and the hues you have set for the highlights and shadows. The balance slider is really a midpoint. It defines the crossover between highlight and shadow. In this case a warm hue was added to the highlights to give the effect of sunset. A subtle blue was added to the shadows. Finally a vignetting was added.

This Purple Aubretia was shot at londonthorpe just over one month ago. I used Camera RAW to process the image.

The first Blue Bells have started. This shot was taken 3 days ago in Barnsdale Wood Rultand, England, UK.

This is Jerash in Jordan. The ancient Roman race track once used by chariots played host to BBC’s Top Gear in their 2010 Christmas special through the Middle East. The sky is blended in from this image in Egypt. To blend it in a solid colour layer with a mask to blank out the stonework was used. The blend mode is set to color.