Category Archives: Ball of Light

My trip a week ago up to Coober Pedy has sparked a strong desire to follow a full moon back up there. The night we drove out to the Breakaways was on the spur of the moment and i didnt know this pace existed. I remember sitting in the back of the car with my jaw slack in awe of the place I was seeing.

Coober Pedy is literally in the middle of nowhere (google it) and is surrounded by hundreds of kilometeres of baron, massive vistas to the horizon. Then this place just smashes up out of the desert. The variety of colours is incredible and under moonlight would feel like another planet for sure.

There is also a series of huge salt lakes on the way up to Coober Pedy which I have been meaning to get onto forever.

It is a 1700km round trip, but I just feel drawn to this place for a few nights of shooting and Ball of Light action.

Soooon.

Peace, Denis

This Ball of Light image was taken in August 2012. It is, and will always remain a special image to me. Why?

This is taken in the middle of the night. It is pretty much straight from the camera, a single exposure with some minor tweaks.

Almond blossoms are only out for a small amount of time, and then they disappear. I had driven this road earlier in the day and decided to head back at night. The moon was bright for sure, all of the light here is from the moon. There was literally zero wind. Printed big, the leaves are perfectly frozen in time. The orange glow from the Ball of Light falls beautifully on the white leaves, and the there are just enough star trails to let you know it is at night.

I drove past again the following weekend and all of the leaves had gone. I had simply nailed the timing to get all of the things I love in one shoot. Bright moon, no wind, stunning location and a clear sky. Awesome.

I have returned to this and similar locations maybe 3-4 times, and have never achieved anything even close. I am not planning a return. I think this one will do.

I hope you get something from it too.

Peace, Denis

I have just completed an interview with DSLR Magazine Malaysia and need to select some images to go with the article. What I am finding fascinating is the dates on some of these images!

This photo is called “diesel and dust” after the cover of the Midnight Oil album of the same name which has this old ruin on it. I took this photo 28 months ago, and it feels like yesterday.

It is interesting how I feel when I look at it. I am realising that even though the image is relatively old, to me it is timeless. It represents so much to me in terms of my photographic journey. It was an image conjured up in my head that was well planned and came out better then expected. But it also makes me realise that there are very few that have actually seen it.

It reminds me to go back and re-look at older images. I have made very subtle adjustments to it (as always absolutely no pixels added or removed, just subtle saturation adjustments) and tweaked the crop. With the increase in social media, images flick past people very quickly, so getting them out there more often is a must.

I love looking through the archives, and often wonder what I will think looking back over these in 20 or 30 years. Should be a hoot.

Peace, Denis