It's Peaking Right Now!

The canola around the Ballarat district is looking stunning at the moment and a late Saturday afternoon visit out north of Creswick was a great place to find some massive fields of it. Some really interesting patterns through the first one here, dictated by the old creek bed that runs through it. And then some great shadows in the second image add a nice 3 dimensional element to what can be quite flat and static landscapes.

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Another Week Ending

A colourful end to the week at Lake Wendouree. Around 4.45 some heavy rain started to fall and realising the sun was also out I knew there was a high chance of a rainbow. A quick dash up the lake to catch the first one here on the north side of the lake, then after waiting around for a while for the next downpour to move through I was able to get the last 2 here when the skies put on a fantastic show. It was worth the drenching I got!

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Don't Forget........

You know Spring has really sprung when the Forget-Me-Nots out at Warrenheip have appeared, which I had the pleasure of visiting mid morning on Thursday. Whilst some may consider them a pest, they certainly create a lovely sight when you have such masses of them. I'll be making a few visits here to capture them in a variety of conditions over the coming weeks as they tend to stick around for quite a while.

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Birch Creek Light

A very different set of images for Wednesday after the previous days excitement at Lake Burrumbeet.
I headed north out of Ballarat to Birch's Creek at Smeaton, intent on getting some reflections across the creeks surface. I've been to this spot many, many times and with the level of the creek so high at the moment I was confident I would get what I was looking forward. With the sun lighting up the surrounds of the creek, the reflected light was ideal, even better than what I was hoping for.
The first one here shows you the general layout...the golden images are taken shooting across the small cascades where the light was reflected off the underside of the bridge I was under.
And is it just me or does that last one look like a face?! (It night be me, I've been looking at these images for some time now!)

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Up High at Lake Burrumbeet

Whilst the bird pics from Wednesday morning were pretty good, the aerials weren't too bad either! With plenty of low lying fog around the west side of Lake Burrumbeet the conditions were terrific and kept me busy for around 30 minutes. And then on the way around to the east side of the lake where I captured most of the bird images, this view of the cliffs of Lake Burrumbeet had me stopping for another surprising scene. It's a bit hard to tell here, however those cliffs have to be 20 - 30 feet high.

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Bird Bonanza at Burrumbeet

I had a fantastic morning on Tuesday at Lake Burrumbeet. With calm and foggy conditions I was in my element both up high and at ground level. Whilst my main focus is always on the landscape, this morning I was presented with an amazing range of birds to photograph. The first 2 images are on the west side of the lake before I travelled to the other side of the lake for the remainder  Whilst no expert in this field, I must admit to being very happy with this set, especially that last one of the egret flying off!
I'll get to the amazing landscape images a bit later........

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Two Views of Lake Burrumbeet

On Monday evening I made a visit out to Lake Burrumbeet's east shore. I haven't been to this side of the lake for a while, usually going to the other side for sunrises. There's always plenty to work with all the rocks and though there were no great clouds I still found some nice images - and boy oh boy, was it windy!
This same spot looked quite different this morning after a spectacular start to the day. This is looking across to the spot I was at the night before....much calmer and serene for sure!

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Canola-ing Along

On Sunday afternoon I took a friend on a tour of some of the canola fields north of Creswick, out around Ullina and Lawrence. I've been waiting for the canola to reach its peak and I reckon its just about right. Whilst the sunlight really lifts the intensity of colour, when you add in some dark stormy skies for contrast I reckon you have just about perfect conditions. The last one here shows Mt Moorookyle.
I highly recommend you go for a drive, there seems to be a huge amount of canola this season and on a day like this its a fantastic sight.

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Two Ends of the Day

Saturday was all about the skies at Lake Wendouree. No fancy colour for sunrise, however the cloud formations were quite spectacular. The jetty on the east side of the lake is probably the most photographed view at the Lake and when you get mammatus clouds like this it creates something amazing.
Then for sunset the clouds really fired up with some great colour, helped along by another new swan family and a crescent moon.

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Glendonald Delight

No waterfalls on Friday, I had to settle for a great sunrise out at Glendonald, north west of Ballarat near Ascot. One of those fantastic low lying fog mornings that I've been chasing all year, always coming home with some great images.
The first four are aerials - the 4th shows what happens when the moisture from the fog builds up on the lens!

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