Ever walk into a place that feels like a movie set? Silverton is one. This legendary outback town helped bring Mad Max to life—dusty roads, rusted wrecks, and post-apocalyptic charm baked under the Aussie sun.
I arrived before dawn, chasing the ghost town's bones in that brief golden light. What followed? A quiet morning of flying bugs, rusted relics, and pure photographic instinct.
It was pitch-black. A red light glowed on my gear (mozzie pro tip), and I stood beside a rusted-out car and a crumbling shack, long abandoned to the desert. Dead silence, broken only by buzzing insects.
The sky? Almost clear—not ideal. Clouds add drama. But a sliver of wisp hung near the horizon. Maybe, just maybe, it’d catch a hint of pink.
I went ultra-wide. Not just to capture the scene, but to exaggerate the space, the isolation. That derelict car wasn’t just a subject—it was a character. The ruin beside it? Whispered stories when the wind hit just right.
Camera dialled in:
Aperture: f/13
Shutter: 10–15 sec
Focus stacked, just in case.
What I wanted was depth. Grit. Texture. That raw outback feel—hot dirt, peeling paint, and the deep, haunting quiet of nowhere.
ISO100 | f13 | 16mm | 1 second
Let’s be real: the outback is not a tidy studio. Flies swarm my face. Mosquitoes make friends with my ankles. The air smells like iron and dust. I’m juggling lenses while doing the mosquito slap dance.
But I wait.
Why? Because that tiny puff of cloud above might go pink. Might not. But in this game, you wait.
If you wish to follow the adventure and see how I overcome the challenges that hinders us all on location. If you do please visit the full video on my YouTube channel here.