Landscape Photography - Outback Adventure Australia

Trees - Station Creek - Bosworth

It was late afternoon by the time I got away from the homestead at Bosworth Station in outback South Australia, heading for Andamooka Island in Lake Torrens, about 20km to the north east, and it was a strange morning's photo shoot.

Trees - Station Creek - BosworthMyall trees in a side creek of Station Creek on Bosworth Station in the Northern Pastoral district of South Australia. Captured in the early morning light, these twisted and stunted trees could be hundreds of years old, having lost the fight to survive in the harsh environment of the arid region.

Finding a suitable camping spot away from the rough, station track, about 5km along my route, I set up a basic camp with a tarp over the bike's handle bars.

Morning revealed a landscape of rocks, dry creek beds and dead myall trees.

It was a strange morning's photo shoot. Ya see, I'd arrived at my camping spot after dark, getting desperate for somewhere flat and not too rocky to lie for the night. The moon, near full, was illuminating the outback landscape.

I saw in the distance, maybe half a kilometre away, by the light of the moon, a waterhole, huge, maybe several hundred metres across. What photographic opportunities would this present?

So as daylight approached I fired up the bike and headed across the rough ground towards my destination. Funny thing, though: I'd gone only fifty metres and found myself already there. Yes, the moonlight had played tricks with my perception of distance and size. The waterhole was only four or five metres across.

So I took the bike back to camp, out of the way, walked back to the waterhole and as the light increased, started photographing.

As the sun rose, I wandered along the banks of the dry creek bed and came upon the scene pictured.

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