Rally sprints

Local company McRae motorsports do some khana events on their rallysprints.com site down at the Motoplex dragway, using the outer roads and some of the bottom end of the drag strip they have a really good course using all the things a fast car could need, last week their normal meet was also used to sort out some of the competitors for this years Targa West rally, and to give sponsors some time in the hot seat for there efforts in sponsoring some of these cars. i went down for an hour to do some panning practice as it's been a while since i last did any motorsport... conclusion.... i need new lenses!!! relying on 10yr+ lenses is not good for sharp pans! maybe once i've fixed some of my cars i'll set some money aside....HA!
Anyway, heres some of the results ;)

Astrophotography

how do photogs start a campfire??
with aerosol cans of course!

 well that's one weekend i won't forget in a hurry! decided to buy a bigger car to run around town in and one that could go the distance when i leave the city and head out into the country and not feel like i just finished work for the day! the laser, while cheap around town was not liking the extended trips inland, so a change was needed, so i hunted around for some upmarket luxury cars about 1988 or so (only cause there cheap as!) looked at a few Jag Sovereigns and beemers but ended up getting an '88 300E Mercedes, fairly light on the electrical do-hickeys but still comfy and good for touring. which was good cause i bought it on the Saturday morning and basically put some fluids in it, filled it with bedding and camera gear and took off to a place about 200klms into the bush that I've never even heard of before! even left my phone at home because i was running late!
 Yornaning Dam is about 20klm north of Narrogin on the Great Southern hwy, the usual basic camp site you find all over the place, by the time i got there (which was about 7:30pm) the rest of the crew were sitting at the fire having a quiet drink, until i rocked up ;) then we were ready for the reason we came to this cold remote area....Astrophotography!! Stephen Humpleby runs "Ozlightjunkies" and runs night workshops doing all sorts of magic photo stuff including using LED lights and flashes and torches to make really cool photos that aren't your average puppy or kid shots. plus long exposures of the night sky, which is why myself, Karen, Darren and his bro-in law were there, to get away for the long weekend and do some sky shots. and i'll tell ya what... jeez the stars are bright and plentiful out in the dark cold country parks!!! Although rain was forecast we only got the odd light drizzle but the clouds did roll in on Sunday night to end proceedings by 11pm, bugger.

This is the first time i've actually got a decent shot of the milky way, and learn't that foreground is just as important as the stars themselves, i'm pretty impressed with what i got and will definitely go bush again to do it some more and try different scenes and structures to add to the photos.

and with a non eventful trip home i must thank steve and karen plus all the others who couldn't show up but organized this trip for a brilliant few days away from town and showing us another reason to keep a camera handy where-ever we go!


now for some of the photos!!

fire over dam

monday morning fog

man, i'm on fire tonight!

LED's over dam

daytime scouting

day scouting spots

another good spot

north end of the dam

wweeeee!

i'm hot tonight!

freaky man

 

 

stars at the campfire!

what was i doing again??

 

 

photos copyrighted by myself and Stephen Humpleby..