floodplain sunset

 A shot of an electric sunset on the floodplains – I had been wanting to shoot these floodplains with water for a longtime, finally there was a calm evening with a brilliant twilight display !

‘ floodplain sunset ’

Craigs Hut

  A moody day up at Craigs Hut with a temps around zero degrees with persistant fog, intermittant snow and biting winds. Not overly pleasent to be out and about in my eyes…but life is far to frikken short so here I was caqpturing Craigs Hut in a moody ambient way that is rarely photographed.

‘Craigs Hut – Victorian Alps’ 

the crystal ball…

 A short post as I’m pretty tired due to watching the Wimbledon mens final to some un-earthly hour of the morning then and early start to work…

 

 Moss festooned boulders amidst cool temperate rainforest…awesome  !

‘the crystal ball – Gippsland’ 

mountain moods…

 Up in the mountains the forests take on their own moods and weather. I love the mood and feel of this shot…It’s a little bit similar to an earlier post but is taken about 25km’s away. I’m really pleased getting this ‘unpphotogenic’ weather and no sunlight for my 3 days in the mountains as it gave me the opportunity to add some very nice shots to my collection, shots of a mood that I have wanted for a long time. 

‘ montain moods ’ 

Wallaces Hut

 Another shot from up the high country a couple of weeks ago. The conditions were almost perfect for what I had hoped for. A nice fresh snow cover and some colour in the snowgums. It had snowed all morning and by 1pm the police were closing the roads. So I was forced down from the highplains but I was stoked that I got to spend the entire morning up there with not even a  handful of people about.

‘Wallaces Hut – Bogong highplains’ 

winter sunset

   After an unseasonal run or relatively mild days for mid winter (17-18C) and consistant swells of 4-5ft (ie 1.5 X head high) with offshore winds it has being a rather pleasent to be on the south coast. Of course the day when i get a little bit of time and there is some spectacular light about the swell disappears ! But the setting sun illuminated a passing rainband brilliantly, the days are so short that I didn’t get time to get to where I would have preferred to be to shoot this, but no real complaints ! This one’s a 6 image stitch with the 50mm f/1.8 II on the 5DmkII.

‘winter sunset – 5DmkII’ 

gorgeous light…

Time for a change of mood and a change of light from my recent posts. This is a previously unseen image that I took at an awesome waterhole in the outback at about this time last year. I just love the light in this shot and scene, it’s the kind of light that makes me just feel warm and wear just a pair of shorts around.

‘Gorgeous light – Fuji G617, Velvia 50’ 

river sunset…

 I headed down to the river last night for sunset – it was a dead calm evening so I thought it might have some good reflections going. The river is in flood due to the lack of rain – yes that is correct !  Lack of decent rain and the river floods !  This is because the persistant swells of  Bass Strait can push enough sand up to keep the mouth closed sometimes if there is not a large enough volume of water coming downstream.  So when this occurs the huge amount of sand at the mouth can force the river to flood upstream (which happens several times a year from either heavy rain or lack of rain – more so the latter in recent years unfortunately ! ).

  So with the river banked up for approximately 5km’s or so and flooding the low lying marshes, floodplains and farmland it becomes quite an expansive body of water and can look pretty impressive I think. Much of the flora in these areas most likely depend on some sort of annual innundation to survive anyway.  My bet is the shire will dig open the mouth with an excavator soon as the river is verging on flooding over the local road.  

 It is a mere 600m from this beautiful river mouth  (one of only 3 rivers in the region) that the unelected Victorian state government is planning to build the largest desalination plant in the southern hemisphere. Not only that, it will be the only desalination plant in the world that is not on an indutrialised/developed coast - Yes it is that ridiculous ! Considering that not even 60km away they pump out the equivalent amount of water that this will produce, as semi treated waste water into Westernport Bay (polluting another ecosystem and that is another story in itself !). Meanwhile 80km east the Yallourn coal fired powerstation uses the same amount of drinking water from the Thompson catchment (Melbournes largest and driest reservoir) for its cooling towers !   Difficult to work out a better solution isn’t it ?!?!?!

 So the plan is to build this ‘Pollution factory’  on a pristine coast that is full of marine life, between a marine National Park (Bunurong Marine park) and one of Victoria’s largest tourist attractions – Phillip Island penguin parade - Smart idea hey !

Yep – Steve Bracks, John Brumby and ’snotty nosed’  Tim Holding stop being so ignorant – get real and get off our beautiful coast !

check out WATERSHED VICTORIA

‘Powlett river sunset’ 

Fainters falls

  Decending down the north side of the ranges I kept my eyes peeled down the steep gullies trying to catch a glimpse of the creeks and rivers. Finally after a series of hairpin corners and in front of me in the distance was a beautiful waterfall. Fortunately (well to save me making my own way there) a kilometer or so down the road and from the other side of the river there was a track to the falls. Whilst they may not be the most spectacular falls in the world the colour and vibrancy was welcomed after a couple of days in the snow up on the highplains.

‘Fainters falls’ 

alpine ash forest…

 Another shot from up in the mountains, this time from within a majestic Alpine ash forest shrouded in mist and sleet at about 1400m ASL. If I were to begin to rant about how long it took me to get this one due to blowing rain and sleet – we’d all get bored…but I was determined as the scene just took my breath away and I’d be peeved off and wanting to return unless I came away with what I liked.

‘Alpine ash forest’