Ragged Ranges, Western Australia, 2014 ND5 Shoot
Phase One 645, IQ180 back, 80mm Schneider Kreuznach lens, f4 @ 1/3000 second, ISO 200

This is a work in progress. In fact, it's been a work in progress for ten years as you can see from the date. Have I run out of good photos to share? Am I scraping the bottom of the barrel by going so far back in history? Have I quite got the tonality right in this rendition?

No, no and no. However, the Ragged Ranges is a location that I 'discovered' when I was photographing with the ND5 group - Tony Hewitt, Les Walkling, Christian Fletcher and filmmaker brother Michael Fletcher. I'm not sure (because it was 10 years ago), but a part of me remembers it was Michael's idea - he'd seen the Ranges while working on a television series a few years before. But then again, Tony, Christian and Michael had all spent a lot of time up in the Kimberley, so perhaps they all knew about it already and it was just the Eastern Seaboarders (Les and me) who were 'discovering' it!

It doesn't matter. I fell in love with the location and since our 2014 shoot, I've been back there three or four times and each flight is magic. Speaking with Christian recently, he said he'd also been back there, shooting from the land and with a drone - the advantages of being close to a location. He's only 3000 kilometres away, whereas I must be 4000!

But to the point of my little diatribe: it's a project. Photographers, I believe, need projects. One project is good. Lots of projects are better. A project gives your work purpose. 

So, how did my renewed enthusiasm for the Ragged Ranges come about? Why did I suddenly bring this project to the fore? Because I put another project on the back burner! Tony and I have been doing aerial photography workshops up at Shark Bay, Broome and Kununurra (Wyndham) over the last couple of years (you can join us next year in Shark Bay or Broome if you're interested). We both shoot on these workshops and there have been lots of photos I've been meaning to process, but haven't found the time. Tony has done a much better job of 'getting on with it' and finishing his 'projects' - he has an exhibition at the moment featuring many images from these same flights. Well, I found some time last month and as I was working through my files, I 'discovered' our 2022 shoot over the Ragged Ranges, which was in a folder next to the aerials over Wyndham. 

And so I changed direction. I'll get back to the other aerials eventually...

The Ragged Ranges is a location I have struggled with. As amazing as I think it is, I find it difficult to get the colour rendition exactly right. Oh, sure, it's easy enough to press auto white balance, but that's not what I'm talking about. I'm looking for a colour balance that makes me happy. The colour balance above is a diversion from what I was looking for - I 'discovered' it while looking for something else. But I like the other worldly nature of the rock escarpments and how the ragged red rocks peep out from under a mantle of windswept grass.

So I'm having fun. And, while working on the 2022 files, I remembered the earlier shoots and so I'm going back through my archive to see if I can create an album of my favourite Ragged Range photos.

What's your project for summer? What will you discover?