How to take good photos in outback Australia

i love taking photos in outback Australia, but it can be tricky.

While I think the bright sunlight shows Australian landscapes at thehir best, if you’re not careful it can wash out too much colour, making your landscapes appear faded and dull. Or you can end up with lens flare where it’s not wanted, or blown out highlights.

This can be fixed with photoshop or similar, not everybody has or can use photo editing software. Besides – if you can get it right with the camera there’s less work to do in the editing room afterwards.

Here are my five top tips for taking landscape photos in the strong sunlight outback Australia :

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Is this an official drought?

We’re back on the farm. Last week when Doc rang the farm manager about coming down, he said they were feeding sheep – they were in drought.

I was gobsmacked (I love that word). I didn’t think there was any part of NSW that wasn’t now flooded, and in Wollongong I almost can’t remember the last hot, dry day. We might have had the hottest January on record, but I’ll bet we also had the wettest February.

So here are the photos, you judge for yourself whether you think there might be a drought.

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From the cottage – Lovedale, Hunter Valley

A picture is worth a thousand words – so here are the pictures. Wirral Grange Cottage – we’ve already booked it again for next year.

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Stuck in Cobar without parts

I’ve just discovered one of the drawbacks of living in a small country town.

While Doc was trying to fix a water leak in the car on Sunday morning, he broke something else. Of course, it’s a part that’s essential to the running of the car so we can’t go anywhere until we get a new one. Having broken it Easter Sunday morning (when we were leaving that afternoon), it was this morning (Tuesday) until we could check out the spare parts shop. Even though they don’t usually stock it, they did have some in – until about half an hour before we got there when somebody else got the last ones. So it needs to be ordered from Dubbo.  It’ll only take 1 day to get it here, but by the time it arrives, we pick it up and fix it in the car, it’ll be lunch time Wednesday until we leave. Three days later than planned.

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Swimming at the Newey – summertime in Cobar

We’ve been in Cobar for two days, and the weather is … SUMMER! And the summer you only get when you get away from the coast ­– hot, dry and still. I love it.

The first time I came to Cobar I was 8 years old. I flew out on Ansett airlines with my older brother (he was 10). We came out to visit my aunt and uncle (the same uncle who’s sick now) and my 5 cousins. It was a great adventure. They lived at the edge of town next to the dusty oval, which we snuck across into the bush to go swimming in the ‘tank’. And we got swooped by magpies on the oval when we ventured too near their nests.

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