Claire Stribbles Photography

Claire Stribbles Photography ~Just a girl with a camera

~Nightscape and landscape photography

~Instagram

~For fun Landscape, seascape, low light and night photography

~ shut the front door ~ I didn’t want to go. Honestly. Hungry and incredibly tired were my defining personality traits t...
11/05/2024

~ shut the front door ~

I didn’t want to go.

Honestly.

Hungry and incredibly tired were my defining personality traits this evening. Even though I haven’t seen an Aurora for so many years because I moved to Qld. And even though I knew that if ever there was a chance to see the Aurora from this far north in Australia it was now.

But I didn’t want to go. Mum wanted to go, she was keen to see if we would get lucky this far north. I watched my Facebook feed with increasing wonder and awe. I called my sister who lives in Melbourne and told her to go. This was the biggest Aurora I’ve ever heard of in my years of taking Aurora photos. Apparently the biggest in the last 20 years. And still, I was unconvinced that it was worth going for a 20 minute drive to have a look. I felt too tired, and dinner was soooo nearly ready.

But then a local Mackay photographer posted a picture from an hour away.

Instant adrenaline! Gear in the car, boots on, scoffed down three mouthfuls of dinner that was so hot it burnt my tongue and we were off!

If you’d have ever told me I’d be able to shoot the Aurora Australis with palm trees and sugar cane from North Queensland I’d never have believed you!

These are shots from just west of Mackay, at the Walkerston cemetery. The bright light you see in the middle is the town of Sarina, about 30 mins south.

I hope you enjoy!

📷 Canon R6ii

~ Based on a true story ~My sister came to visit from Victoria last week (lots of interstate visitors for me this month,...
30/01/2022

~ Based on a true story ~

My sister came to visit from Victoria last week (lots of interstate visitors for me this month, it’s like border restrictions lifted or something🤷‍♀️) and it’s been such a long time since we’ve hung out, we sort of forgot how to do it.

So there we were, drinking coffee on a sunny Sunday morning, contemplating how to spend our time together for the next few days, when it hit us. Why are we staying at home like crazyheads? We should go on an adventure! So we did.

Lucky for us, it’s pretty easy to have an epic adventure here. Mackay has beaches and mountains and rainforests and wildlife all within super easy reach, so we booked some last minute accommodation, threw some food and gear in the car, put on an epic playlist and headed off.

We drove under beautiful blue skies, through gorgeous green cane fields, went up a very steep mountain, wandered along the banks of Broken River, saw actual real life platypuses (squee!) and also actual real life fireflies (I thought they were made up!), trekked through rainforests and on beaches (ok, so we mostly drank when we got to the beach), successfully avoided crocs and mosquitos (there’a a spray for both), played Yahtzee (it was a nail biter!) took some photos, sat back under the stars, and watched a sunrise with some kangaroos and wallabies. All in a couple of days, an hour away from home, and that’s just the highlight reel. Absolute epicness.

I’d love to share photos of the platypuses but they were crap (the photos, not the platypi) so instead you’ll have to just deal with this very ordinary photo of kangaroos hanging out together and watching a very ordinary sunrise on the beach. Yawn. 😉

📸 Fujifilm XT-2
18-135mm lens f9.0 ISO 2000 1/200 sec

~ Hello, hello, is this thing on? ~I’m a bit rusty. I haven’t picked up the camera very much in the past couple of years...
08/01/2022

~ Hello, hello, is this thing on? ~

I’m a bit rusty. I haven’t picked up the camera very much in the past couple of years, but when there’s a storm, a storm at sunset no less, and its practically in your backyard you pick up the bloody camera and get your butt out there ⛈

Mum and I threw our gear in the car and drove a couple of minutes down the road to what we call Cow Hill (a paddock, cows live there, it’s got a small hill… we’re very clever) set up the cameras and watched as this monster front headed straight toward us.
Sure that our doom was imminent, we kept shooting in the face of nature’s fury, as the wind picked up so did our heart rates as the adrenaline started to race through our systems, preparing our bodies for survival, for fight or flight … and then… we just watched in mild amusement as it sort of just veered off to our right and headed out to sea. Huh. Ok then.

The air became nice and calm again, it was much cooler and less humid than before, and the sky started to spark gorgeous hues with the setting of the sun.
We saw some lightning bolts dropping either side of the camera lens (facepalm) but eventually we got lucky with an awesome crawler front and centre.

Hope you guys enjoy!!

📸 Fujifilm X-T2
XF18-135mm
f22 iso 100 2 secs

~ She had a lot of nothing to say ~😉 I’m paraphrasing from one of my favourite TOOL songs, but it’s kinda accurate curre...
29/05/2020

~ She had a lot of nothing to say ~

😉 I’m paraphrasing from one of my favourite TOOL songs, but it’s kinda accurate currently!

I don’t have any new adventures to share, so today I dug deep into my archives to find a shot to share with ya’ll.

This one is from December 2016, and I’m not going to lie, my original edit of this shot was yucky. I also couldn’t remember where it was taken for a minute, I had this feeling it was at Wilsons Prom but then I kicked myself when I realised where it actually was, as it was somewhere I used to frequent a lot when I lived in Gippsland.
It should be familiar to a lot of you aurora hunters and bass coast residents. I’m keen to see who can pick the spot!

Nothing much was happening this night aurora wise, so I assume I went out to shoot purely because I could. I do have a star trail from the same night and I remember there was definitely moonlight. Being December, the sun also sets super late and it takes forever for the sky to actually get dark.

I fixed up the tones in the shot and re-cropped it, and I now humbly present it to you for your enjoyment.

Hope you guys have a wicked weekend!!

📸 Canon 5diii : EF16-35mm f/2.8L
f2.8 ISO 2500 16mm 15 seconds
Single image

~ Tiny things ~I’m a genius. Seriously. A photographer stuck at home.. can’t leave the house... only my teeny tiny backy...
11/04/2020

~ Tiny things ~

I’m a genius. Seriously. A photographer stuck at home.. can’t leave the house... only my teeny tiny backyard to play in... what is a girl to do?
I know! Learn macro photography!
Fricking genius.
Surely no one else would have thought of that. So glad I have superior intellect. hashtag blessed 😏

“Hello, Camera House? I’d like to order a macro lens please. Yes, the canon 100mm, the one that’s on special.... oh. Sold out. Huh.... had a rush on these? Very popular recently you say?... I see. Thanks anyway.” 🤦🏻‍♀️

Looks like we are all geniuses! 😂

Lucky for me, I managed to track one down locally, and I took it out for a spin today. And by “out”, I mean me in my pj’s crawling through wet grass in my backyard this morning. I definitely have more weeds than flowers, but there’s always something to see if you look hard enough.

I found this little dude in a shrub, and honest to god I did not know he was covered in water droplets until I looked at this image on the computer. This new lens is insane!

I hope you guys like this shot. It’s certainly different to what you are used to seeing me post, but we’re living in different times now, and we must make the best of what we have.

I genuinely hope you’re all doing ok. We will get through this together. Tell me what you’ve been up to in lockdown!

Stay sane and stay safe my friends xx

📸 specs

Canon 5diii
Canon EF 100mm f2.8L

Single image - cropped
Focal length 100mm / f2.8 / iso 250 / 1/400 sec

~ a long way from home ~I hope you guys haven’t forgotten about me, it’s been a while since we last spoke. I’ve missed y...
22/10/2019

~ a long way from home ~

I hope you guys haven’t forgotten about me, it’s been a while since we last spoke. I’ve missed you! 😁

It’s been a busy year for my little family, including a trip to Japan (😍 omg it was amazing) and a job interview two days before we flew to Tokyo that resulted with us moving about 1400kms north, to beautiful south east Queensland! It’s been a great adventure so far, but I haven’t been out exploring or shooting for sooo long and I’ve missed it.

I went out on the weekend, knowing I was almost out of time to capture the Milky Way core before it disappears for a few months, and found this great little spot on the side of the road about half an hour out of town. I’d actually pulled over for the cool trees on the hill, and almost didn’t notice the mailbox in the twilight. In the end, I spent so much time crouching down to shoot it at different angles that I definitely think I met my daily exercise quota 😂 (ouch!)

This was the composition I liked best, and is one of my favourite shots from my little expedition.
The glow you see under the Milky Way core is zodiacal light, a phenomenon that usually occurs after sunset in spring (& before sunrise in autumn), and it is literally cosmic dust reflecting off sunlight. Like wow. How amazing cool is that!
It sure was shining brightly on the weekend, and its definitely something you can see with the naked eye if you know what you’re looking for.

I hope you guys enjoy this image, and maybe also missed me a little bit too ☺️

The specs:
Single image
Fujifilm X-T2
Samyang 12mm f2.0
ISO 4000, f2, 25 seconds
Edited in Lightroom

~ Galaxy ~NounA system of millions or billions of stars, together with gas and dust, held together by gravitational attr...
10/04/2019

~ Galaxy ~

Noun
A system of millions or billions of stars, together with gas and dust, held together by gravitational attraction

Marvel
Verb
To be filled with wonder or astonishment

Everyone has their own happy place, sitting outside in the cold, the dark and galaxy gazing is mine.

My mate Chris and I headed out on Saturday, decked out with our chairs, eskies with drinks & snacks, our jackets (thankfully, it was cold!) and we literally sat under the stars for hours. We talked, laughed, told each other ghost stories, looked up weird names of stars and we marveled at the sky. We saw at least 5 shooting stars and one very decent sized meteor!

We were out there for about 8 hours - and I can guarantee you that time passed happily and easily.

I hope when you look at this image, it fills you with a little bit of wonder or astonishment, or encourages you to find some dark skies and look up.

We truly do live in a beautiful world 💕✨

Single image

📸 Fujifilm X-T2
Samyang 23mm
ISO 2500 f2 25 seconds
Mefoto tripod
🥃 Jack Daniels 😉

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Mackay, QLD
4740

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