Its All About The Light

Sundays excursion out around Windermere and Burrumbeet is a great example of how important great light is to photography. Three stops in three different locations each gave me something special and once again shows why I keep going out to the same areas week after week.

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Swan Lake Ballarat

Two very different sets of conditions on Saturday at Lake Wendouree. A foggy morning to start things off, then some of the best late evening colour I've seen for a long time with some perfectly placed clouds to catch the light. And always the ever present swans to add that great extra element. 

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Paria Rimrocks Utah

From the last trip...we had a great day in northern Arizona and southern Utah when the conditions were fantastic...stormy, threatening skies, huge downpours, the promise of snow (that came that night) and probably the best was a band of mammatus clouds passing through when we were on the Paria Rimrocks Trail in southern Utah.......colour looks great, though I'm leaning towards the black and white.......

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Fantastic Friday Finale at Lake Learmonth

I don't visit Lake Learmonth as often as Lake Burrumbeet and its really no that much farther away. So on Friday I decided it was time to head out that way, and as you can see from this series I had another spectacular end to the the day. In the first you can see the multitude of spider webs clinging to everything in sight 0 I was literally waving them out of the way. Fortunately I only saw a couple of spiders and they were quiet small, not like the ones you have to avoid at Lake Burrumbeet when you go bush bashing! Then some nice colour as the clouds floated over from the south east (usually they are heading the opposite direction). Once the sun has set is often when things get really interesting as was the case here. The mirror-smooth surface made for some great reflections, and the last one on the way back to the car is my favourite, and was almost the last image I took. You can see some white smears in the bottom of this one...this is small feathers floating past in the long shutter speed!
Well worth clicking on these for a larger look, too.

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Ducks at Dusk

On Thursday I visited St Georges Lake in Creswick. Not a huge lake, but a lot of interesting nooks and crannies to explore and always plenty of birdlife, and some nice dusk light worked rather well. You don't get much chance with the cormorants before they take off, but the ducks are quite content to potter around, almost at your feet.

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An early start to the day on Wednesday as I was heading down to Melbourne later in the day to give a presentation at the Diamond Valley Camera Club in Watsonia. Another very cold, minus 2 degree start, but still and clear and crisp. The remnants of Sundays super moon are still evident and I caught this setting moon about 8am above the cluster of boat sheds in the south east corner of Lake Wendouree.

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More Awesome Colour!

A month into Winter and I'm getting more colour than I get in summer! Tuesday evening out at Boundary Church Road on the side of Wombat Hill, near Clarkes Hill,  in Boundary Church Road another spectacular display to end the day. My favourite in this set is the cows!

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Awesome!

On the way out to Lake Burrumbeet on Monday evening I was watching the clouds and had a feeling they were building up for something special. So I went out to a spot that had a good foreground that would work well with some reflected colour in the sky. Before all the real excitement there was some great, intense late afternoon light behind the spot I was waiting at (yes, thats my shadow you can see!). And then when the colour came - wow! One of the best from an often visited location. And even on the way back to the car the afterglow lingered and the last image here was almost an afterthought as I was packing up. You gotta click on the panoramas for a bigger look!

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Back to Acadia National Park, Maine

Working on my Acadia Gallery and this one caught my eye and I thought it was worth posting here. This waterfall is literally on the side of the road as you drive up to the top of Cadillac Mountain. I stopped twice in the 3 days we had in Acadia, and it was the first time when there was some low lying mist that created the best atmosphere and best image.

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The Super Moon

On Sunday, knowing the super moon was rising at 5.12pm, one minute before sunset, I decided a great place to catch it was across Lake Burrumbeet. With the help of the Photographers Ephemeris (look that up on google!) I knew from what direction it would be rising and sure enough it was right on time. Though a bit hazy to start with, it certainly did look a bit larger than normal, and once it cleared the low lying haze it was a great sight. And a paddock of cows caught my eye just as I was heading home. That small white dot is Venus. And these are certainly worth clicking on for a larger look!

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And the Moon......

On Golden Pond

Some really lovely light out at St Georges Lake in Creswick on Saturday evening. And the almost full moon was easy to see thanks to the crystal clear, crisp winter air. Sunday is the full moon, and its being called a Supermoon as its the closest it gets to the earth this year....should be a great sight!

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9 Hours 34 Minutes

Friday was the Winter Solstice, only 9hrs 34mins of light to work with, so I thought I'd better make the most of it! Up early and out to Mt Warrenheip, in minus 2 degrees!, to catch the sunrise, then some great frosty potato fields afterwards. Then later in the day I went up to Lake Wendouree to catch the end of the day. This almost-full moon was helped with some faint anti-crepuscular rays beaming in from the bottom right corner, and then the finale to another great day. 

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Minus 3! Frost and Ice

Thursday was very cold here in Ballarat... minus 3 in fact, the coldest day of the year. And I didn't have to travel too far to get some very interesting images....just out into the backyard!

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Lake Wendouree Sunset Timelapse

The buzz word at the moment (photographically, that is) is time-lapse. I've had this special shutter release cable for over 12 months that enables me to take multiple exposures that I can then combine into the timelapse movie. This is my first go at it on Wednesday evening at Lake Wendouree. Also a still frame from the sequence.

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A Full Palette of Colours

It was cold, again, here in Ballarat on Tuesday, however plenty of sun helped, and the air was crisp and crystal clear. Out at Mt Warrenheip there was some great clouds around for the northerly view over to Clarkes Hill, and with the sun starting to go down the light really turned very yellow and warm. The aftermath of the February 14 fire is still very evident and continues to give me great opportunities when the light is right. The second image here really caught my eye, you can almost see the fire in this light on the trees, and then the moon had moved along into a nice spot. Finally, coming down off the mountain a last burst of colour. You gotta admit this is a pretty nice selection only about 10km from town!

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The West Side of Lake Burrumbeet

I haven't been able to get to the western side of Lake Burrumbeet for quite a while due to roadworks, so I was pleased to find on Monday afternoon that the road is open again. It was grey and cold again but with some interesting skies...here's a couple from the trip.

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The USA National Park Project

As most of you know Debbie and I are on a quest to visit the 59 USA National Parks. We started in December 2007 and after 12 trips we have made it to 50 parks. Its taken a long time but I've finally put together a whole new website section specifically set up give some information about each park we have visited and a couple of images from each. I have literally thousands of images on file to work through and I will eventually have a gallery for each park. So please go along to this link and have a look...any feedback would be great!
http://www.andrewthomasphotographer.com/Site/USA_National_Park_Quest_59.html
http://www.andrewthomasphotographer.com/Site/USA_National_Park_Quest_59.html

And here's some of the images....they look great if you click on them for a larger look!

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