Aerial Art Archives - Peter MacDonald Photo

Frozen Waves

Peter MacDonald — Mon, 16 Nov 2020 21:30:44 +0000

Lake Frome, Outback South Australia

Interesting backstory to this image. I was working over outback salt lakes that had recent rains.

We’d been shooting at high altitudes but were finished and descending as we headed for base.

Sitting in the back with the door open I was watching the waves in the water below.

I would pick a wave and watch if for some time when almost instantly it would stop moving. The pilot saw this too so we turned and it soon became obvious all the waves were doing the same thing.

Frozen Waves in a salt lake. It didn’t seem real

We took many photos. There were beautiful shapes and colours all over the lake.

How come?

The water in the lake was super saline, it was summer and the temperatures were 50C plus with a strong wind blowing.

The evaporation was so great that while the wind was blowing the waves it was also sucking it dry.

The purple/mauve colour in the frozen wave was algae that just accentuated what was happening.

Aerial Photography

Peter MacDonald — Sat, 02 Jun 2018 09:07:37 +0000

Drones have brought a new perspective to photographing the landscape but there are limitations and sometimes an aircraft is the only way to truly get a spectacular image.

Drones can fly limited distances and height and in remote areas getting them to an area easily accessible is not an option. The small resolution sensors in the cameras carried by the popular drones isn’t big enough if you are wanting to print high quality work.

Taking pictures from an aircraft allows you to bring good lenses and cameras into play but the setting for aerial work are a lot different from the usual techniques, particularly landscape photography.

The rather impressive mesa here is not far from the remote shores of Lake Eyre. Using shutter priority set to a minimum 1/500th of a second eliminates the vibration of the aircraft, manual focus on infinity.

“The Bloke” on Instagram

Peter MacDonald — Wed, 02 Sep 2015 07:05:30 +0000

Although the pictures posted on the Sentimental Bloke website have always been randomly selected there has always been an underlying theme.

For more than a decade I have been recording the ever changing cycles of nature. These cycles have included drought, flood, dust storms, good weather and bad, the four seasons, the flora, the wildlife and lots more.

Perhaps the biggest cycle of nature that I have followed is the flooding of the salt lakes in South Australia’s outback.

Watching this epic phenomenon unfold brought with it a realisation there is true natural art occurring almost everywhere, the trick being to see it.

The Sentimental Bloke is now on Instagram with the intention of focusing on the these natural events in a more orderly fashion and to showcase a truly amazing part of the world to an international audience.

Follow on Instagram – @thesentimentalbloke

Lake Frome Dune

Peter MacDonald — Thu, 23 Jul 2015 06:31:35 +0000

Here’s further evidence of the whiteness, the brilliance of the salt on Lake Frome in South Australia’s far north, particularly when it is dry.
Pilots of aircraft flying low near the surface of the lake are likely to experience a phenomenon usually associated with the Antarctic or Arctic where the horizon becomes indistinct because of the large surface area of white.
The spectacular dunes, like the one here, are found mostly at the southern end of the lake and they provide landmarks in the salt which covers about 2,500 square kilometres.

Whiter than White

Peter MacDonald — Sun, 19 Jul 2015 08:01:38 +0000

The whiteness of the salt on Lake Frome is startling. Whiter than white as the soap suds ad goes.

I’ve been told astronauts used the salt expanse to do their white balance checks for the cameras on their space stations.
The other remarkable things is the numerous sand dunes that are trapped on the salt surface.
The desert surrounding the lake have the usual large dunes that run north to south for hundreds of kilometres.
The dunes on the lake are part of that system which was formed in the last ice age more than 10 thousand years ago.
They are significant landmarks trapped in the salt.

I am up very high on these runs so that what you see in the images cover quite a large surface area of the lake

Land Art

Peter MacDonald — Tue, 30 Aug 2011 08:48:56 +0000

Somewhere over the Great Victoria Desert at about 2,500 feet (760 metres)

Canon 5D camera, Canon 24-70 f2.8L lens shot at f7.1, 1/1000th sec ISO 200

Aerial Art

Peter MacDonald — Mon, 13 Jun 2011 01:30:35 +0000

Another in the aerial series taken as the sun sank lower on the Great Victoria Desert.

Shot at 2,500 feet above sea level, f8 @ 500th sec, ISO 200

Land Art

Peter MacDonald — Thu, 09 Jun 2011 10:20:33 +0000

It has been suggested that this is an artists impression of a South Australian Leafy Sea Dragon.

Having never seen one I can’t vouch for that.

It’s the surface of the Great Victoria Desert somewhere south of William Creek on the Oodnadatta Track taken from 2,500 feet (760 metres) up.

I can only admire the very good aboriginal artists who are able visualise and paint their land from on high with such accuracy.

Taken with the usual Canon 5D Mk II, f10 at 400th of a second. ISO 200. Focal length 70mm. Shot vertically without glass or perspects in the way