About the Image(s)

Road to Cape Leveque, West Australia 23 April 2023
I have included the date as I have been randomly searching my cards and drives for a couple of years to find this image. I finally disciplined myself to use Photo Mechanic and search methodically through my 15 Camera cards and 6 Lacie portable hard drives until I found it. Why bother? I shared this memory with a special friend who was with us. She was, and still is, battling stage 4 breast cancer. She wanted to see the photo.

We were returning to Broome from a day trip to Cape Leveque, a distance of 200klms + each way??”significant sections of the road travel in a straight line for what seems forever. Looking out the back window, I noted how the road disappeared into the distance along a slowly rising road to a steeper section in the far distance. The sun was setting, creating strong bands of shadows across the road. Fortunately, few cars were driving as night was approaching. This road runs through giant cattle stations, which are unfenced. The black cattle roam freely, so night driving is challenging, and you avoid the night drive by preference. We stopped the car, and I lay on the road center line. My fellow travellers were all keeping watch for oncoming traffic. They started shouting at me to get back in the car when they saw approaching headlights in the distance. Unfortunately, I let that distract me, and I didn’t use ideal settings.

I was disappointed at the poor image quality. F/2 for this shot? Oh well, lesson learned.

I am amazed at how modern processing allows you to recover botched images. The raw file was initially run through Topaz Photo Ai, then back into Lightroom using the new mask tools to balance the light, etc., and then into Photoshop for final tweaking.

Camera Canon EOS R5 24mm (24mm-70mm)

1/800sec, F 2, ISO100