A trip through the Murchison

Seeing as I'm mostly a very lazy photographer, I haven't been doing much shooting recently. But I have been playing with photos.

I'm a lot more interested in what I can make from a photograph than just trying to shoot something to look realistic. Adding drama or a dynamic quality to a two dimensional image can turn it from a snapshot into a work of art. Art, of course being entirely in the eyes of the beholder!

Mostly I edit photos in Lightroom, but I'm not always satisfied with the results. My monochromes lack impact and I struggle to get the right amount of saturation into my photos without them being over the top. I have no problem with photos no longer looking realistic, but the colours still have to work.

Photoshop has been the place to go to tweak photos and add those artistic touches. But it has always defeated me. However,  a while ago I purchased Perfect Photo Suite, which is kind of like a Photoshop for Dummies. Lots of filters and presets that you can twiddle with to your hearts content, a much nicer erase tool, and much easier blend options. With lots of black and white options too.

This new software I'm using is almost idiot proof. It's a plugin from Lightroom so all the files are stacked next to each other, and they are also all non destructive.

So I've been playing with a few old photos from my trips through the Murchison.

The Murchison is the region immediately north east of Geraldton, the main rivers running through it being the Gascoyne and Murchison Rivers, which reach the coast at Carnarvon and Kalbarri respectively. Aside from the North West Coastal Highway and the road to Mt Magnet, all the roads are dirt.

It's mostly sheep and goat country, being far too marginal for wheat cropping. There's some interesting old shearers quarters which make for a good subject. The old shearing shed that used to be here blew down in a mini tornado a few years ago..

The landscape is low scrub, saltbush and red earth. The Greenough River also flows through the region before it arrives at the sea just south of Geraldton. This is a small waterhole on the river just north of Mullewa.

There's the remains of past railway usage.

And lots of wildflowers most seasons.

It's worth a wander...