Winter's Dawn

On Thursday the early morning light looked a lot more promising from home before I made it up to Lake Wendouree. There is always something that catches my eye like the weed eater here tied up for the night, ready for another big day out on the lake. The weather turned very nasty later in the day and with some good rain the forecast for Friday is for very cold day and a strong chance of snow - lets hope so!

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Borumbeeta Falls

On Wednesday afternoon a chance meeting with an old friend around Lake Wendouree led to a very exciting new find - Borumbeeta Falls on the Moorabool River East, east of Ballarat between Gordon and Ballan. All my previous Moorabool River images have always been on the west branch so it was great to get to a totally new destination, and with such stunning results. I was expecting something considerably smaller than this, these falls would be in the 15-20 feet range. I managed to get quite a range of views in the one visit that shows clearly the environment they are located in. Whilst the railway bridge in the background is obviously quite dominant, it was still possible to get views that placed the falls back in a more natural environment. I noticed when driving there the distance was 32kms from home, so well within my 42km limit, and great to find something so special in a totally different direction from my usual travels around the district. I know there will be many more visits in the future.

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The Lawrence Weir

On Tuesday I made a visit out to Lawrence, which is just west of Smeaton, about 30kms north of Ballarat. The main reason was to check out the flow on the Lawrence Weir that sits on Birch's Creek. I haven't been here for quite a while and it was nice to have a play around the rocks on the weir wall, though the rain was a bit heavy at times. And thanks to Ev and Bob for the warming cuppa tea afterwards!

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South Shore Setting Sun

A surprisingly sunny day on Monday, though the wind had quite a chill to it. I popped out to the south shore of Lake Burrumbeet to check on water levels, which are well up on a few months ago. Not much to work with in the sky and just at the last moment I found this nice view with the reflected sky through the marshes on the edge of the lake. 

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Sunday Sunrise at Lake Wendouree

I woke to some nice foggy conditions on Sunday morning, so I jumped in the car and headed up to Lake Wendouree. It took a while for the sun to burn its way through the fog and I had quite a long time to move around near the palm pond to grab quite a range of images. The nesting birds on the small islands were constantly moving around and patience paid off when I caught a couple of nice fly-bys. I was pretty content with this session.....so the amazing sunset later in the day was a real bonus...that's to come!

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Lower Moorabool Falls Cascades

On another grey Saturday afternoon I made the trip down to the Moorabool River West branch to have a play in the cascades of what I like to call the Lower Moorabool Falls Cascades. These are about 200 metres or so downstream from Moorabool Falls, and its another similar distance further down the river to Granite Falls. Plenty of great flow still at the moment and the granite along this section is actually quite easy to work in, literally. The roughness of the stone surface enables you to stand right in the flow (with gumboots on, of course!) without too much risk. I took many, many images here on this visit....this is a few of my favourites.

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Even More Magic.....

....from Thursday morning at Mt Buninyong. Once the sun had made it over the horizon, the light created some great opportunities across the land, and even right in front of me on the gum trees where I was positioned. 

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Blue Skies

Friday was mostly grey and overcast here in Ballarat. I headed out to Lake Burrumbeet to see what might happen, and though there were no great fireworks there was still some nice skies with distinct blue tones to them.

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More Magic

Here's another couple of images from Wednesdays frosty morning. I showed a number of close-ups of the amazing sunrise through the low lying fog in the previous post - this one shows you an overall vantage point of what was in font of me. And then on the way home I found some nice frosty conditions out the back of Dunnstown.

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Briefly at Bo Peep

After all the early morning excitement of the past 2 days it was back to more typical winter weather on Thursday, though I did manage to catch a fleeting patch of nice light at Bo Peep, which is about 20 minutes from Ballarat near Lake Burrumbeet. And the Bo Peep Creek always offers up something nice with its rocky cascades just below the small weir.

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Magical Morn at Mt Buninyong

With the forecast of another frosty, freezing morning for Wednesday, I decided the night before I'd head down to Mt Buninyong.....and what a show! Though it was officially minus 3.3 degrees, it actually felt  milder up on the side of the mount. This set is just the start of an incredible morning starting at 7.22am before the sunrise looking across to Mt Warrenheip, and then the following 3 shows the dramatic light, and the way it changes so quickly, ending at 7.53am. I have so many images from this part of the morning I don't know where to look....and then afterwards the drive back home via Yendon and Dunnstown was equally exciting with the fantastic frosts everywhere......wow!
It's well worth clicking on these for larger look, especially that first one.

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Minus 3

A very cold start to Tuesday here in Ballarat. A local walk produced a number of interesting images on a very frosty morning that turned into a lovely winter's day. I don't  often photograph flowers, though I couldn't resist this camellia and its jewell-like drops.
Another big frost forecast again for Wednesday.....I've got a feeling its going to be awesome!

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The Millpond

On Monday evening I was headed out to Lake Burrumbeet, however the clouds tempted me to change plans and head a bit further north to Lake Learmonth. It was one of the calmest visits I've ever had out there....and the clouds really helped out. I was actually heading back to the car on 2 separate occasions when I realised the colours were building even more and so went back out to the shoreline to catch the finale colours. 

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Exploring

On Sunday afternoon I took a friend down to the Lal Lal Creek/Moorabool River area for a bit of exploration work. First stop at Lal Lal Falls and this view of the falls through the trees was best suited for a mono tonal look...and certainly a view a bit different from the usual. After that a spot well down stream of the falls has a umber of nice cascades before the creek runs into the Lal Lal Reservoir. Finally a quick trip around to the largely unknown Moorabool Gorge, an area that always makes a big impression.
That first one here is really worth clicking on for a larger view.

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Withdrawls

After 2 days of no waterfalls I hit the road on Saturday to re-visit the Corinella Falls at Eganstown. Water flow was down a bit from the first visit I made back on June 26 but I had more time to explore and managed to get myself further around in front of the falls for this view. The trees at the top really add to the overall composition here and some nice filtered light makes a change from the usual overcast conditions I look for when photographing waterfalls. After scrambling around at the base (its the messiest falls I've been to in terms of logs, broken branches, blackberries etc) I went back up top and precariously perched right on the edge of the left side flow for the second image here.
One thing that will have me returning is the smaller falls that were flowing to the left of the main falls. I tried hard but couldn't get to it for a shot and on investigating from up top it comes from a totally separate water course that flows off the big hill behind here. As soon as we get some more decent rain I'll be back to get the shot, and name this new falls!

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Friday Morning at Mt Buninyong

There was talk of overnight snow on Thursday evening, with Mt Buninyong being one of the likely candidates. So I got up nice and early and headed down there well before sunrise. I knew well before getting there the snow was a no-show as it was too warm.  I still got some nice images of the sun breaking free of the clouds on the horizon, and a couple as the sun's warm light bathed the side of the mountain.

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The ABC OPEN Interview

I was interviewed earlier this week for the ABC OPEN Project...here is a link that you might like to visit....and please pass this on.
https://open.abc.net.au/posts/long-distance-practice-57vr3za

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