Photographed on the Adventures in Oz workshop, 2012. 'The' gum at Ormiston Gorge.

Ormiston Gorge, not far from Glen Helen Gorge in the Western MacDonnells, is one of the highlights of a trip to the Red Centre. Two or three hours west of Alice Springs, it's relatively easy to visit, there's a car park, a path and once at the top, you're in the heart of it!

I first photographed this tree (I am assuming it is the same tree) some twenty years ago. Mind you, now that I think about it, perhaps it was another tree on the same spot because this tree isn't that big. Then again, maybe the trees don't grow very tall in this area. Hmmm. Last time I was there it was early morning and I have always remembered the way the white bark glowed in the pre-dawn light - and how disappointed I was because the tree was moving in the pre-dawn light and the resulting image was blurred.

The same happened on this trip, that annoying zephyr that seems to accompany dawn as it races around our globe. So while I photographed the tree in the pre-dawn light, I also remained for the sunrise so I could use a faster shutter speed and stop the movement. So, given I was using a different light source, when would the tree look its best?

Our group was up early so we had plenty of time to work out the best angles. There's a sign right next to the tree and a railing behind. In fact, the location is now a very well appointed look-out with all the trimmings required, so I had to position the camera down low so these manmade intrusions were not overly obvious. In the photo above I have removed the sign and some of the railing in Photoshop, but not in the other images which have been only quickly edited. Even so, you'll have to look hard to see them - they are pretty well hidden in the bottom right corner...

In this shot, the sunlight hasn't touched the tree as all and, to my mind, it looks less interesting than the image above.

We also had some other bushes near the camera that were intruding into the scene, so I had to gently hold them back out of the picture while each exposure was made. Please be assured that no flora was damaged in the making of this photograph.

I also took a series of images. The first had sun on the rock face, but not on the tree (shown above). The second had a splash of sun on the tops of the tree. The third had the sun extending down most of the trunk, but not lighting up the foreground. And the final one is the image at the top, where the foreground is just being kissed by the sun.

The question of when do you take the photograph was easy to answer: having travelled several days to reach my destination, I took as many frames as necessary so I could decide later on which was the 'best'.

Which would you chose? Although I have only worked the top file (the others are just out of the raw processor), you can get a feeling for how the light works on the tree. My initial thought was that the sun should only appear on the top half, not the bottom, but looking at it later, I think the sun all the way down the trunk produces great separation between the tree and the background.

If you'd like to read a blog about our Adventures in Oz workshop last year, you'll find it under the Blog menu above, or you can click here.

Black Church - Gold Award Afterall - 2013 NSW AIPP Epson Professional Photography Awards

It can be difficult working out what photos to enter in a competition. We all have a lot of emotional baggage attached to our best photos and that can cloud our vision. Mind you, to win awards, sometimes you simply have to go with your gut instinct and hope that the judges like what you do.

With my winning landscape portfolio from the 2013 NSW AIPP Epson Professional Photography Awards, I mentioned last week that one of the prints bombed. A friend thought he saw the print score 79 and, although I earned two Golds and a Silver for the other prints, I really felt a bit bummed with such a low score.

I mean, let's face it, when you enter your prints to a competition, you're pretty proud of them. You don't normally put in a photo expecting to get a bad score. However, I have been doing this for a few years and, in my arrogance, thought I knew what would score a Silver at least. So, the 79 was a problem - one point off Silver. But I couldn't complain about the judges because they had been so fair with the other scores! A bit hard to call the judges names when they obviously have such good taste with other images!

My four prints came back in their case late last week. Normally the print case gets put in the corner of the studio until it is needed, sometimes 12 months later, but I just wanted to have a look at my black church again, to try and resolve in my own mind what was wrong with it.

When I opened the case, my certificates were on top and included three golds. Oh, that's great, rub salt into the wound, I thought! Then I looked on the back of the print: the score was 90, a Gold Award!

Isn't it funny how good things like this can make you feel. I felt the whole system of judging was vindicated, even though I have written a book on photography competitions where I suggest to readers not to get too caught up in it all because, after all, it is just a matter of opinion.

So, three Golds in the State awards - what will they score at Nationals? Unfortunately, there is no guarantee they will do as well, if that's what I enter. Even so, I need to find at least another print to replace my silver!

Photography Competition Now Open - 31 July Closing Date

This year's annual Better Photography Magazine photo competition is open with an extended pool of category prizes, a great $5000 cash first prize, plus the promise of a short critique for every photograph entered.

Now, being mindful that entry is $20 a print or five entries for $80, the critiques are not exhaustive or in depth. However, as judges we often wish we could make a small suggestion to help the entrant improve. For instance, just to mention 'more contrast' to an entrant might indicate that their photo is a little flat, or 'Crop Image' may suggest that there is too much going on in the frame and a little judicious trimming could strengthen the composition.

So, with this in mind, each entry will get a score and a comment or suggestion. Of course, if the image has earned a high score, then the comment might simply be, "I wish I had taken this photo" - and that, I daresay, would be well-received too!

To visit the competition website, go to the Better Photography website and follow the Other Links menu, or you can go there directly by clicking here.

Salt Mine, Useless Loop, Shark Bay, Western Australia

Last week was spent in Shark Bay, the most westerly point in Australia and where Dirk Hartog landed nearly 400 years ago. I travelled with the Ninety Degrees Five (ND5) boys: Christian and Michael Fletcher, Tony Hewitt and Les Walkling. Michael was already up in Shark Bay working on another project, so the remaining four met in Perth and drove the ten hours north.

Tucked away in Shark Bay - which is absolutely huge and covers several hundred square kilometres - is a salt mine. Not quite sure if I should call it a salt mine - salt field is probably a better description. The giant pools simply sit under the sun and gradually the waters evaporate, leaving salt which is collected and shipped to Japan. As the pools change in salinity, their colour also changes and from the air you can see a great mosaic of colourful shapes. The straight edges of the mine contrast with all the other shapes and patterns in an otherwise wild and natural environment.

The image was intentionally kept flat during raw processing, so the different salt fields could be individually adjusted.

The salt fields inside their earthern walls can look relatively flat and uninteresting when captured, but if you add in some contrast, you'll find lots of interesting textures. This is what I have done to the image above. However, I have only applied the contrast to the salt fields, not the embankments between. I have also applied different amounts of contrast to different fields, creating a brushed metal look - except for the small blue field in the middle.

It was interesting to shoot these fields with the other photographers. We flew two at a time in a light plane, covering similar areas but at slightly different times of day, heights and angles. I've seen Tony and Christian's images from this area and they are amazing - and highly colourful. This may suggest why I have gone for an uncharacteristically soft colour palette!