Sunday Selection

With the forecast for wet, windy conditions by lunchtime on Sunday, and the rest of the day, I made a mid-morning visit out to Mt Warrenheip, where some low lying mist gave me some nice atmospherics to play around with. And can you see what's hiding in the 3rd image here? I waited for quite a while for some movement to get a clear image, and when he did move it was way to fast! 
First day of winter on Monday morning, I'm hoping for a nice sunrise! (and some snow in a couple of days!)

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Saturday Skies

I was heading out to the north side of Lake Burrumbeet on Saturday evening chasing the clouds, when I realised the best action was down south, so I changed direction and ended up on the south shore of the Lake. On the way through I caught some nice clouds at Bo Peep and then at the Lake the drizzle finally cleared just in time to give me a nice end to the day....some nice colour breaking through as a dramatic storm was fast approaching.

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Autumns End

Friday's early morning visit to Lake Wendouree makes it 3 days in row to the Lake. This morning provided some nice light on the west side around an area known as Fairyland, and as you can see, with only a couple of days of autumn to go, we still have some nice colours to work with.

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Morning Magic at the Lake

On Thursday morning I made a trip up to Lake Wendouree to catch what turned out to be a very nice sunrise. I was at the end of the rowing course where there is a nice pond to the north of the finish area, and the sky was looking great reflected in the still surface. Then a nice view up the rowing lanes with the judges box. A few minutes after all this I was just cruising through St Patrick's Point when a loud and raucous group of corellas tempted me to get the big zoom lens out for a few images, and to finish it all off just when I was ready to leave this white duck came waddling over to have a drink out of a puddle just near me.

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A Lake Wendouree Evening

A mostly cloudless sky on Wednesday evening at Lake Wendouree here in Ballarat. I was lucky to find some great reflections of the setting sun off the side of one of the small boat sheds, and with a number of ducks splashing around I took quite a few images until I got one that I liked.
The tops of the masts at the Ballarat Yacht Club also made a strong image set against what little clouds there were just as the sun sank to the horizon.

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A Great Time to Be Up!

A fantastic morning on Tuesday out around Mt Buninyong, Yendon and Dunnstown with many different views to capture. A forecast of fog had me out early and I found myself on the side of Mt Buninyong for the predawn sunrise, and seeing all the fog down below I decided to head down in amongst it. A back road through Yendon had some great light and then as I was heading home a traffic jam was an unexpected encounter. Whilst waiting for the chaos to clear I grabbed a few images looking back across the paddock they were all heading into after their daily milking was over with - hows that sky! I was here for a while and it was a great experience to witness and though I was pretty excited about it all, a quick chat with the farmer made it all sound so mundane for him....maybe we should swap lives for a while!
It's really worth clicking on these for a larger look, especially the 2nd one here, it's something quite special, reminds of the Stephen King book "The Mist"!

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New Explorations

On Monday afternoon I did some exploring out around Lake Burrumbeet. Though I have been there many times there are still parts of the shoreline that are quite hard to get to, especially without a 4WD (which I nearly discovered to my peril!).
I still managed to come home with a nice selection of images....there are still some nice autumn remnants around, and the cocky tree was a nice catch. We are still a long way off the next full moon, so I was lucky to find the tree underneath a batch of cockies that enabled me to get right underneath looking up at them.

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Colourful and Calm

When I looked out the window around 6.30am on Sunday morning, though it was still almost 50 minutes until sunrise, there was already some nice colour building up. So I grabbed the gear and headed out east to see what would develop. I made a quick stop at Black Hill where you get a great easterly view from the top of Chisholm Street looking across to Mt Warrenheip as the colour continued to develop. I ended out at Leigh Creek, down the road from Kryl Castle where there is a really nice tree-topped ridge that made a nice silhouette against the spectacular skies. 
Very soon after sunrise the colour quickly dropped as the clouds took over, though it looked like the sun would soon get a chance to break free above the narrow band. So I headed north up to Dean Reservoir where the calm conditions across the reservoir gave me a terrific reflection. All up, a great mornings photography! And these look great if you click on them for a bigger look!

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A Colourful Day

I had a couple of excursions on Saturday, starting with a very vibrant sunrise at Mt Warrenheip. The sky was glowing all the way out from Ballarat, and though there were no masses of clouds the haze that was in the air created some of the most vibrant conditions I've seen. (I've got a feeling there may be masses of colourful clouds on Sunday morning!). 
Late in the day a visit out to Kirks Reservoir produced a couple of nice images...firstly this nice reflection on the Yarrowee Creek, and then just as I was leaving Kirks I noticed this view looking back into the gardens from ouside the entrance driveway.

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They're Back!

Some great news from Fridays visit down to the Moorabool River - Moorabool Falls and Granite Falls are back in action! With the steady daily rain we've been getting the last couple of weeks, I thought a visit was worthwhile to see how things were going in what is my favourite location in the whole district. Though not massive yet, the flow was strong enough to give me a good chance to play around on the top of Granite Falls before moving upstream for the classic view of Moorabool Falls. Things will only get better the further we get into winter, and hopefully in the not too distant future, nearby Lal Lal Falls will also get going again.

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A Couple of Mountains

On Thursday afternoon I had a meeting out at Creswick so I planned it so I could head out north afterwards to see what I could find. It was very cold and windy, though there were some great breaks of sunlight across the hills around the Smeaton district, particularly over the 2 most iconic locations Mt Moorookyle and Mt Kooroocheang. 
As I was coming back home there was brief break of sunlight way out west through the wind farm towers that looked very nice, adding a bit of late colour to the afternoon.
We are starting to get some nice green to the landscapes which should get better and better as we progress officially into winter in a week or so.

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Pelicans, Pelicans, Pelicans

On Wednesday morning the sunrise didn't happen up at Lake Wendouree, though I did find this guy cruising around on the north side of the lake. He had 2 other mates with him for company. As I mentioned in yesterdays post, I was out at Lake Burrumbeet where there are huge masses of pelicans, and the last 2 pics here are from that visit. Maybe the 3 lone pelicans at Lake Wendouree wanted a break from the crowds at Lake Burrumbeet and flew into calmer waters - I know how they feel!

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Silver and Gold

On Tuesday afternoon I went out to the south shore of Lake Burrumbeet, scouting a few locations and looking for pelicans. I found plenty of pelicans (I'll post them later) though it was the calm gentle swell of the water as the sun set that really caught my eye. The lower the sun got, the more the colour came into it, from a very metallic silver sheen right through to the golden finale. And amongst all this I grabbed a few images a long, long way away as some interesting clouds passed through the wind farm up north....the big zoom lens really works well for this sort of image.

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What Are The Chances?!

On Monday morning I was out around the wind farm west of Ballarat and caught some lovely early morning light on the wind towers just as the sun was cresting the horizon behind me. Still some lovely subtle colour out to the west before the sun germs too strong. 
I often am not quite sure the exact name of the locations I'm at and was pleased to find an online map last night that gives me all the district boundaries around Ballarat. I used to call this location Mt Misery, now its officially within the boundaries of Ercildoune.
If you look at these 2 images closely you may notice that the blades are in the same position, suggesting that the 2nd image is just a crop of the first. However they are 2 totally different images (I took another one between them). I overlaid them and they are an almost perfect match...what are the chances of getting that again?!

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Far and Wide

Sunday morning forecast was for chance of fog so I was up early and out to Mt Warrenheip. No fog in sight, though I caught a nice new moon crescent above the battlements of Kryal Castle.
29 minutes later I was way out the other side of Lake Burrumbeet where I caught the sun rising just in time across a field of low lying fog....a very pretty sight - in case you're not sure, thats fog, not water! I covered a lot of miles this morning and really pleased to come home with something very special.

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