Moorabool Falls and Freddy Kruger

After my Granite Falls session on Friday I decided to work my way back upstream to grab a few images of Moorabool Falls whilst I was on this side of the river. As I got closer I was pleased to see the moon hanging above the falls to add that extra special element in this image. And whilst researching on the web, I came across this image from 1882 taken by Fred Kruger - must have been in a previous life before he made his way to Elm Street!

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An Old Favourite

Saturday afternoon I headed north keeping a close eye on the dark, threatening clouds that were dumping a lot of rain. After a couple of stops I ended up at one of my favourite locations - the old Berry No. 1 Cornish Pumphouse at Lawrence, near Smeaton. The dark skies really added a great atmosphere to this great old building, a place you can't fail to get something special at, and always a good candidate for black and white. 

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More Granite

....Granite Falls that is!. Got a lot of great images from this location, heres a few more......

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Success at Granite Falls

After my posts earlier in the week the challenge was on to get down to river level and try to duplicate the view from a 1900 postcard I had found. Probably the hardest bushwhacking I've ever done, (it took me 30 minutes of trying different things to get across the river!) and it was all worth it. Its a really nice set of falls, and very hard to give an idea of scale. So I've included the original postcard to show the ladies that made it down here over 100 years ago. Obviously there must have been a path down, but I only found evidence of one possible bluestone step, and it was very steep. I've got many, many more images to go through, including a visit upstream to Moorabool Falls before I made a reverse river crossing as it was getting dark! A great day that I thoroughly enjoyed.

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Scouting

Thursday afternoon saw me out scouting a new location that I hope to spend some time at soon, and whilst on the road I grabbed a few images out near Mt Beckworth looking across to the Waubra wind farm and then stopped off at Lake Learmonth for one last capture of the dying sunset. I must say I do really like the 2nd image here...maybe I teleported myself over to the Scottish Highlands for a brief moment in time?

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Let There Be More Light

....and there was, at Lake Wendouree on Wednesday evening, catching a few reflections off the boat sheds.

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Let There Be Light

Wednesday morning I went down to Mt Buninyong for the sunrise.......and just when I thought it was going to be a bust, the light arrived!

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Granite Falls

Not sure what happened here but I did post this earlier today.......Tuesday I ventured back to the Moorabool River gorge and found Granite Falls, though its a very difficult falls to get at and I was perched very precariously to get this set. The first one here shows the gorge in which the falls are located - its right at the end around the corner. I'll be going back soon to see if I can find a way down to river level, that should provide some great images - stay tuned!

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The Hunt is On......

There are 2 sets of waterfalls that I visit about 30 minutes south of Ballarat. The well-known Lal Lal Falls is my favourite, and the smaller, and harder to get to Moorabool Falls is also a great place. There is another set referred to as Granite Falls that are supposed to be down stream from Moorabool and after some web research I found reference to these falls being called Lower Moorabool Falls. So Monday afternoon I spent a couple of hours bushwhacking  along the Moorabool River downstream of the main falls. I didn't actually find the Lower Falls but I'm pretty sure I know where they are but still had a great time exploring this area. It was very wet and grey but almost in keeping with where I was and the whole place was damp and saturated really making the colours vibrant. The 3rd image here really conveys the feel of the day, the 4th shows a glimpse of Moorabool Falls through the trees. It has certainly enticed me to go back.

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Yarrowee at the Gong Gong

If you read that title you're probably totally confused...so to make a bit clearer "The Yarrowee River downstream from the Gong Gong Reservoir." Plenty of rain recently has waterways flowing strongly and a visit here seemed like a nice way to spend a Sunday morning.

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For Barry.....

...this should brighten up your day. From the first day of winter on Mt Buninyong as Mt Warrenheip in the distance emerges from the fog and the bright sunrise.

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Lake 1 Sunrise … Lake 2 Sunset

Went up to Lake Wendouree on Saturday morning for the sunrise, and this first image was my first shot of the day before the sun made its appearance. Its the pond on the west side of the Lake and that palm tree is always a nice subject. And the sky put on a brief show of colour looking across to the school boat sheds. Late in the day I went out again with a couple of Melbourne photographers to catch the sunset at Lake Burrumbeet, always a nice place to end the day. The first one here looks great up large if you click on it......

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Lake Learmonth Winter Solstice.....

...almost - the day after. Lake Learmonth is harder to photograph than its close neighbour Lake Burrumbeet but I spent Friday evening on the south bank with a nice shoreline and waited while the light played its part. Its a spot that only gets a direct sunset for a very short period of the year so I was pleased to get this series. But I've also discovered my left gumboot has a major hole in it...it was pretty cold, and the plastic bag wrapped around my foot didn't help all that much!

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The Challenge

I'm planning to run workshops in the near future and Thursdays challenge was a big one. It rained ALL day here in Ballarat, and Victoria.......but I wanted to see what was still worth shooting in such trying conditions in case a future visitor comes across a similar day, so I went back to St Georges Falls and with all the extra rain the flow was substantially higher than the day before. So if you are prepared to get wet, there really is no reason why you can't get out at any time to find new things to photograph.

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When its dark and grey.....

I head for water...you can still get some great images and usually the darker, subdued light works in your favour. Wednesday evening at St Georges Lake Falls at Creswick.

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...and the sunset.

Some burnoffs out west left a lot of smoke around which really fired up the sky...these are from St Patricks Point.

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Lake Wendouree Sunrise

Even though the skies were clear when I left home on Tuesday morning, by the time I was on the far side of Lake Wendouree some nice clouds were moving in and after waiting for the sun to come up I was rewarded with a really nice sunrise. It was pretty cold but well worth it, and this cormorant was enjoying the early rise as well. I went back to the Lake for sunset later on, I'll post those later but it was another great colourful display.

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