Feb 7 2009, Black Saturday… 12 months on

A day that changed thousands of Victorian’s lives forever. Today Feb 6 2010 and the weather is much different as is typical of the somewhat erratic nature of Victoria’s climate. The state has already begun to pause and reflect on this day of horror. I still can not imagine nor comprehend what so many people have been and going through. 173 lives lost and over 2000 homes on this day making it Australia’s worst natural disaster on record.

I just watched a report on channel 9 news where in part of the story, they reflected on the loss of longtime news anchor man Bryan Naylor and his wife. Having once built a house for Bryan and his wife and shared many a travel adventure story with them seeing this is bringing back some of my own emotions from the day.

During the evening of Feb 7 2009  I watched the Strzelecki ranges ablaze and smoulder in the the choking evening light as lightning sparked across the apocolyptic sky. I watched in heartfelt disbelief whilst listening to the ABC Gippsland broadcast as emergency radio and fielding people’s calls of help and desperation, with pleas about loved ones. The horror that unfolded across numerous districts in Victoria that day and the tales of survival from so many people is just heart wrenching to me and I’m sure more so to thousands of others.

Below is one of many images that I took and is part of a series over the following months documenting the devastation and some regrowth from the Churchill-Jeeralang fire in Gippsland. I deliberately photographed the forest areas and not peoples properties and losses out of total respect and it has taken this long, and only now does it feel ok to me to share it. This particular image was shot on Feb 10 2009 deep within what was the heart of the inferno. You can still see the ranges smouldering all the way to the horizon in the wake of the deadly firestorm of Feb 7 (Black Saturday) – it’s still surreal to me.

‘ Forest devastation  –  Strzelecki ranges Feb 10, 2009. Fuji G617, Velvia 50 ’

*In memory, peace and hope to all those that lost so much on this day.

sharing the love…

Well it was time for a new header image and this one comes from the heart !

Also time for another post, yeppers… pumping them out this week ! With a return to hotter weather coming up (yay) I’m looking fwd to getting back in the water and spending more time outside so this may be the last post for a few days – but who knows ! This image could do with some water as well, it’s so damn dry across this vast predominantly dry yet beautiful continent we share. And I’m not talking just at the moment, but in general. I love our country from corner to corner.  

‘ Outback glow  –  NSW, Velvia 50 ’

Boolimba bluff vertical

Undecided what to post on the blog, I have ended up throwing up a vertical pan from a few months ago. I deliberately didn’t use grads here on the sky wanting a clean, pure and simple type look. Here it is in all it’s hygienic bliss    Some may like it…some may not – what’s new ?!

‘ Boolimba bluff  –  Qld. central highlands ’

anyone for 5 sets ?

Late last year I stumbled across this gem in outback Qld. Out in the middle of western Qld and well over 100km’s from anything even resembling a town was this recreation reserve. Complete with it’s own airstrip – the pros clearly fly in- fly out here !  It also had new floodlights, shower blocks and a clubroom surrounded by tables and chairs with 3 BBQ’s !  Plenty of 44gal drums as bins were full of empties which were representational of goodtimes for those that make it here.

‘ Outback tennis  –  Qld. (6 image stitch, 5DII ) ’

BACK IN 2010 ! ! !

I hope everyone had a prosperous and safe festive period.

So after a short break from the internet and blogs in which I took some time with family and also getting away. Here’s a quick post to get the 2010 ball rolling of some silos near the Vic/NSW border. These new galvinised silos were ablaze and beckoned to be shot.

‘ Metallic silos – Vic. ’

the season rolls on…

Firstly – SEASONS GREETINGS to all my blog readers !  thanks to all whom have commented and supported my blog this year, it is really much appreciated and I hope you enjoyed it.

Tonight with TC Laurence (cat.5) smashing down on the Pilbara coast providing some excellent internet weather watching data and statistics there is quite a contrast down here in the south of the country as it was a lovely day in southern Vicco. Later on the week we will see some of that moisture drawn down here and potentially some very interesting (and wet) weather ahead for a belt right across the centralish corridor of the continent through to NSW/Sth Qld. A stunning vis. sat pic of the eye about to cross the coast near Wallal/Mandora on the Eighty mile beach in the east Pilbara/Kimberley. Central pressure 925HPa, Estimated wind gusts near centre – 285km/h.    BEASTLY !

‘ MTSAT-1R   TC Laurence Cat.5 – Pilbara/Kimberley 21-12-2009 ’

In the recent blog themes of harvesting from WA and bloggers such as Merv. Here’s a shot of some hay across the road from my place on twilight tonight.

‘ Gippsland hay – Sth Gippsland, Vic. ’

Ken Duncan is frustrated too !

Some of you may have already seen or read these but for myself it was great to stumble across a couple of articles written by  Kenny D last night. He expresses his frustration about the over regulation of things and photography as well !

KD article 1

KD article 2

I dislike conformity and over regulation – Victoria and the eastern seaboard are so over regulated by ‘do gooders’ and with the mentality of ’someone else has to be responsible or held accountable for everything’  that it drives me absolutely nuts !  It’s part of the reason I love to escape to the far flung and less populated parts of the country every year… Over regulated and ridiculous bureaucracy is alive and kicking all over the place now it seems… I go to my local beach and there are so many things that you aren’t allowed to do that they need 2 signs to fit it all on.. there are more things you aren’t allowed to do than you are ! Perhaps it would be easier, cheaper and less obtrusive if they just put up a sign saying what we could do ?  There are now signs every 100m warning you that you could fall off a cliff – geebus,what an astonishing revelation !  And all this costs money and requires resources… I’m going to put up a sign “WARNING – GRAVITY KILLS ! ”  seriously…  Now there’s a T-shirt !  or another  ”Natural Selection is Dead”.

I understand population pressure = more idiots = more regulation etc etc… but sheesh !

I once got interrogated by an NT parks and wildlife employee for my right to photograph a storm cloud that was sitting over Kakadon’t NP and how I didn’t have and required a permit to take a photograph of it…  seriously…

I’m with ya on this one Ken !

HP Monster…

November 26 2009 : I knew that there was a good chance of some severe storms in the region this particular day, it was just a matter of trying to get my work done earlier enough to allow me time to get into position for anything developing. Storm o’clock came and this HP beast (High Precipitation) was up and running causing some mayhem through Melbourne and the SE suburbs… I managed to get to this spot on Westernport bay as it was still going pretty strong. Here it is engulfing Koo Wee Rup and Lang Lang… A guage at Lang Lang recorded 31mm – most of which would have fallen within a 15minute timeframe as this bad boy cut loose above. There were also uncomfirmed reports of golfball hail somewhere along this storms journey. The teal colour in this image is true and is generally representative of either large hail or a large quantity of hail within the storm.

‘HP severe storm – Westernport bay, Vic. ’

prime real estate…

These terns seem to love the posts on this little jetty. I had seen birds on these numerous times before and thought they looked pretty cool. I had ventured to the spot a few times hoping to get a shot similar to this but the birds never co-operated… Sometimes there would be seagulls hogging this prime real estate, but for some reason they just seemed to ‘flighty’ when I would be about to take the shot !  This particular foggy morning the terns were having their turn at the prime real estate and it all came together and I shot this on 6×17 and this is a 6×6 crop so I’m pretty stoked with it.

‘prime real estate  –  medium format 6×6 velvia. ’

Arthurs seat…

A quick image from the Mornington Peninsula about a month or so ago now.  It was a gorgeous sunny day and I took this from one of the observation points whilst on my way to meet some friends at the Portsea pub for lunch. The bay and Peninsula looked great… but not great enough for me to set up a tripod and shoot it properly if you know what I mean.

I was very impressed that this 11 shot stitch that I took handheld from standing on top of a steel guard railing worked so well, when the images were input into PTGui the greatest control point distance on the auto alignment was less than 10 pixels out !  So maybe that’s part of the reason I’m posting this.. who needs overpriced pan heads when you can shoot 11 image stitches like that !

‘ Arthurs seat  –  Canon 5D2. ’