Just in Time

After a very warm end to October on Friday, a trip out to Lake Burrumbeet late in the day was just in time to catch the suns rays before the sun sunk behind a huge bank of clouds and snuffed out any chance of a big sunset. I hung around for a bit and did catch what seems to be the nightly fly by of pelicans as they skim across the lake's surface, always a great sight.

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On the Moorabool River

Here's a few more from last nights visit to Moorabool Falls and the Moorabool River West. The clear blue skies are what gives the first image here its bluish cast and some nice reflected light helped in the second one here, both about 20 metres upstream from the edge of the falls. You can probably see why I'm so keen to make the most of this location before the water runs out!

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Over the Edge

On Thursday evening I made another visit down to the Moorabool River West. I'm going to make the most of the surprisingly good flow at the moment and this time I put myself right on top of the Moorabool Falls just as the sun was setting through the trees. No clouds around this evening so I thought this was an effective way of using the sun without having to rely on spectacular clouds to make the image. I'll post some more a bit later as I captured some nice images upstream from this spot and not so daringly close to the edge! It's really worth clicking on this for a bigger look......

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Reflecting On The Boatsheds

On Wednesday evening at Lake Wendouree the reflections of the boat sheds really caught my eye. The gentle swell of the water surface was creating some terrific patterns, and the late setting sun really added some strong saturation into the colours. This is a nice example of finding something when at first it doesn't look like a great night for photography, and all of this in a very short section along the lakes edge.

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A Saturday Extra

From my time with the Knox crew on the weekend, this is the end of the day at Lake Burrumbeet.

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Lower Moorabool or Upper Granite Cascades

After last Thursdays visit down to the Moorabool River West area, on Tuesday I thought a return visit was a good idea, especially as we had some good rain on Monday night. With plenty of warm weather on the way, it won't take too long for the water levels to drop so I want to make the most of this location. On last weeks visit I spotted this area from way up high and it was certainly worth the effort to get to. Located between Moorabool Falls and Granite Falls the 5 feet height makes it almost worth naming as a waterfall, though I'll stick with Lower Moorabool Cascades for the time being. Plenty to work with here, and the last one shows what happens when the sun breaks through and lights up the fast moving water.

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Moving All Around Me

On Monday I headed north out to Smeaton with a particular target in mind....that I couldn't find! Luckily I still managed to find some other great subjects - birds, cows and mills. The bird in the first one here was very flighty as I could only manage  a few shots out the car window before he (she?) flew off. The cows were the opposite...they were keen to find out what I was up to and kept moving closer and closer. When I got to the mill I knew I was pretty safe...it hasn't moved for over 150 years!

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Sunday at Lake Wendouree

I made a number of visit to Lake Wendouree through the day on Sunday, and put together quite a range of different images. An unusual sight was this duck that was content to perch in this tree outside one of the cafes on the lake's edge for quite some time early morning. And then later in the day we took our new kayak out onto the lake for its maiden voyage, and with my underwater camera I grabbed a few images from below the lakes surface. To finish off the day there was a very nice sunset that capped a very busy day, and weekend, for me. If you click on the third one you can just make out the new crescent moon in the top right corner.

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Full-On Saturday Touring

This weekend I had a big group come up from Melbourne from the Knox Photography Society. After meeting up for dinner at a local pub on Friday night we had a 6am beginning on Saturday, starting with a cold and very foggy start to the day on the top of Mt Buninyong, where we had to call for some help in lighting the scene. Then a stop off at Mt Warrenheip where the forget-me-nots amongst the fog created a very nice atmosphere, surreally disrupted when a couple of trotters came bounding up the road, only to disappear into the mist on there way back down the mountain - certainly the first time I had witnessed this on my many visits here. 
After lunch we headed south-west out of Ballarat to Nimmon's Bridge at Newtown, always a good subject for black and white images, and then onto the Devil's Kitchen at Piggoreet. The final stop for the day was at Lake Burrumbeet to bring to a close and long day. Everyone had a great time, especially me!

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Friday Sunrise at Lake Wendouree

Grabbed a few images at sunrise on Friday morning up at Lake Wendouree. Some pretty nice colours made for a good show, and the criss cross patterns in the clouds were quite unusual. There were a few other photographers around for a change making the most of the mild morning, including one of them who was content to sit in just the right spot for me!

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Yes It's Back! 2015 Calendar

I'm pleased to announce the Andrew Thomas Photographer 2015 Calendar will soon be ready...so get in now with your orders. Once again there is a stunning range of images all captured within the last 12 months from all around the Ballarat and Central Highlands district. I've managed to keep the costs the same as last year. This full colour calendar is A3 in size and is still only $20 each. And I have  some special deals his year.......2 for $35, 3 for $50. The EXTRA Special this year is if you order 3 calendars I'll include postage, and even include your own (or a friends) birthday noted inside. Make sure you let me know ASAP so I can get these well under way. They make great, unique Xmas gifts!
Here's some sample pages to whet your appetite...........

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Granite Falls Going Well

On Thursday afternoon I made a trip down to the Moorabool Gorge, just so see if there was any flow in the Moorabool River West branch, which is the river that feeds Moorabool and Granite Falls. I was quite surprised to see some reasonably good flow, as these couple from Granite Falls shows. You actually get a glimpse of Moorabool Falls upstream from near here and there looked to be some reasonable flow there as well. I was expecting there to be minimal flow as the rainfall for the last couple of months has been well below average.....one good downpour would really get this going strongly again.

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Katmai Cub

Today's Alaskan image comes from the day we spent with the bears in Katmai National Park and Preserve. This is one of 2 cubs that was having a great time whenever mum caught a salmon. They'd come bounding over and grab whatever they could, usually after mum had made that big crunch into the salmon. 

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Wow ! Way Out West

On Wednesday evening I had full intentions of heading north to Smeaton to check on Birch's Creek, however the sky looked very promising out west. I had actually passed the turn-off onto the freeway when I had another look and realised this was something special. I had to travel a lot further than I thought and ended up way out west, and north, of Trawalla. Luckily its still within my 42km radius, too! I found a nice shearing shed to give some foreground focus to the amazing skies that developed over the next 39 minutes in this series. And as if the skies weren't enough, the added bonus was a very nice double rainbow. It was great to get such fantastic conditions, and especially as it was in an area I have never been to before. The current weather pattern of warm days with a bit of humidity often leads to epic conditions...I'm really looking forward to the upcoming warmer months if this is any indication of whats likely to happen.

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Amazing Scale

Todays Alaska post is from our all-day boat tour at Glacier Bay National Park, our last new USA National Park on this trip. (That makes it 56 out of the 59 parks!). This day was one of the highlights of an amazing trip, and though the day started off very wet, it had cleared nicely a few hours into the trip, giving me many amazing scenes to capture ....I spent most of the day running around with 2 cameras around my neck...one with the big zoom lens, and the other for the overall scenes. We stopped at the John Hopkins Glacier for quite a while and just listened to the silence, interspersed with the huge cracks of the ice calving off the front of the glacier. The last one of the visit was the most epic....luckily the 2 seals in the lower left corner of this gives you an idea of the scale. You really gotta click on this for a bigger look!
After this it was off to Crater Lake National Park in Oregon for an epic sunrise..........!!

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An Eerie Evening

Tuesday in Ballarat was fine, warm and very windy, until later in the day when the wind dropped. I headed off around an hour before sunset and realised that I wouldn't be going too far in my travels....a huge amount of smoke had moved in from (I think) some burn-offs and Lake Wendouree was looking quite eerie. So I spent my time on the north shore watching as the light turned more intense the lower the sun got.

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A Nice Place For Lunch

I'm working my way through Alaskan images at the moment......this one is from a day we had flying around in the seaplane between Lake Clark and Katmai National Parks. We spent some time this morning flying around the peaks of Katmai and as lunchtime approached, the pilot Glenn thought it would be nice to spend some time inside one of the dormant volcanoes .... certainly the first time we had ever experienced something like this...this view is as were leaving the lake we had just spent lunch on the banks of! This is definitely worth clicking on for a bigger look!

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The Side of the Mountain

Monday was, once again, fine and sunny with clear blue skies, so I thought I'd take the chance to check out the status of the forget-me-not fields on the side of Mt Warrenheip. They are still looking good with plenty to work with. There are also some great gum trees that are covered in new growth, recovering well from the fire in February last year. 

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