John had organised a trip to Claustral Canyon and invited me to join the group.
In the party were John, a second John, Stephen, Keith, Carl, Alex, Sierra and myself. A fairly large party for the canyon – but this gave me plenty of photographic opportunities.
The lighting was fairly subdued – which is not too bad for capturing the beauty of the canyon. Often it is too sunny – and a lot of the highlights in the photos are burnt out. In those conditions you can find areas of the canyon lit with reflected light and get nice photos.
But if the lighting is too subdued – it can get quite gloomy in the canyon, and photos can be dull. I think the nicest lighting is not long after rain – when you often get shafts of sunlight shimmering in the canyon. These can fill in dark areas and add a lot of interest and depth.
We had a good trip through the canyon. I took a tripod and spent a lot of time setting up photos. While I was doing this, the others went up into Thunder Canyon at the junction.
Broad Headed Snake (Hoplocephalus bungaroides)
With the new entry route, it is certainly a lot faster getting into the canyon, but the walk out is slightly longer. However it is really nice to visit the top part of the creek still – the section above the entrance track. This is a very beautiful section of creek.
More photos taken on the day can be viewed on my website here.
