Some Last Colour For a While?

With the big rain eventcoming today, I thought I would share what may be the last colour we see for a few days. It was a very nice sunrise at Lake Wendouree on Thursday morning, this set taken from the north west corner of the lake.

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The Next Phase

As we move in to the end of Spring and the start of Summer, I've been keeping an eye on the local canola crops, waiting for the next phase in their development. Around 20 - 30 days after the golden flowering that we all know so well and all the colour has gone, the crop is ready to be windrowed and when seen from the air it creates some fantastic patterns. This series from Wednesday morning were out west of Ballarat at Windermere and I figured that early morning would be the best time to capture them, when the early morning sun adds an even richer colour to the rows. They now sit like this waiting to be harvested. This can be in around 7 - 10 days, though some crops can sit like this for considerably longer. (Yes, I've been doing a bit of canola research...might be ready to plant my first crop next year in the backyard!).

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Three for the Books

The weather lately has not been conducive to early morning fog, however on Tuesday morning I managed to track some down. In fact I made three different stops.....Mt Buninyong for the first image here, then 3 images from the top of Mt Warrenheip where the sun was quickly burning through the mist. And my last stop was from the Kryal Castle carpark looking across to the tower on the top of Mt Warrenheip, the same tower I had been walking under just minutes before.
An interesting feature of these 3 stops is that at each one I used a different camera!

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Sunsetting

I made a late visit out to Lake Burrumbeet on Monday evening for the sunset. This spot, on the east side of the lake, has changed a lot since I was last here. Previously the 2 trees here were what you had to work with, now the reeds have grown in around them, adding a nice dimension to the scene. It was very windy away from the lake, however in this spot I was well sheltered to allow me to play around with the smooth water.

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The End of the Day

Sunday produced a range of great skies due to the thunderstorm activity around in the morning and then later at night. Whilst I captured some nice skies a couple of times during the day, it was the big storm just after 10pm that was the winner for the day. Though there was a huge amount of lightning around, it was mostly hidden behind the low lying clouds. However this did produce some interesting views at View Point at Lake Wendouree. When I arrived there around 10.15pm I was surprised to see the fog had moved in creating this eery feel that you can see in the first couple of images here. After a while the heavens opened  up which proceeded to clear the air with some low lying clouds moving through. The last one here, though it looks to be foggy, is actually the rain...by this time I was hunkered down in the small pavilion on south east corner of the lake as the rain absolutely poured down, giving us almost an inch of rain in an hour.
Make sure you click on these for a larger look, I've left them a bit bigger than normal.

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The Red Yacht

Not quite as exciting on Saturday morning at Lake Wendouree where the red yacht that is moored just off the Yacht Clubs dock and continues to feature in some of my images. No colour to speak of (especially in the first one here!) though there was just a bit of sky action that added some nice colour to the water. And later in the day a big storm passed through the district with this massive cloud bank over Mt Hollowback. 

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Friday Fireworks

We had the best colour I've seen for a while on Friday morning. I knew as soon as I was outside well before dawn that the clouds were well set up for something special and up on the west side of Lake Wendouree it all unfolded. Whilst the initial colour was very nice, it was once the sun had risen that the best conditions developed, with the squalls of rain really lighting up in the sky. And I couldn't resist another selfie!

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Mt Buninyong Magic

Remember that great morning at Mt Buninyong last Friday? I posted just the one image and I still have some great shots to share. However for an end of the week treat, here's a bit of video as the fog drifts up and over the mountain.....
https://vimeo.com/244289009

https://vimeo.com/244289009

Pre-Dawn at Newlyn

On Thursday morning I was set to head out to "The Farm", my year long photography project that is not too far off completion. I thought I would take the opportunity beforehand to visit the Newlyn Reservoir for some pre-dawn images....and this old fence disappearing into the lake made for a couple of nice images.
And a bit later on one of the big paddock irrigators was doing its job........

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Dean Delight

I'm running a bit late today, and I think I have used that same heading for this post before! This is a series from Wednesday mornings visit to the Dean Reservoir. Whilst the clouds have been largely absent for a few days now in this warm spell, I'm still finding plenty to work with. This lone swan family certainly helped...I was surprised by the low numbers of birds out there. Still very green in this part of the Ballarat district as I've noticed elsewhere things are really starting to dry out as we head into Summer.

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A Sunrise, a Pod of Pelicans, Some Sheep and a Misty Tree

Today's title sums up Tuesday mornings collection of images. You can probably guess where the first 2 are from. It might surprise you to know that the last misty image was taken in Creswick Road, right in front of the Selkirk Factory, opposite the Northern Oval.......

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The Weekly Times

As a follow up to the Bureau of Meteorology Weather calendar, I came across this article on the Weekly Times website......and they also printed my image in the actual paper, so that was pretty nice to see.

http://www.weeklytimesnow.com.au/…/d08cb10c29e56ed37c02f340

And a couple of recent images from up high, but not with the drone. The first one here is from about 10 days ago from the side of Mt Buninyong at the same spot the calendar image was taken. The second image from about a week ago off the side of Mt Warrenheip. What’s interesting about these 2 is that the first shows how intense the colour can be when the sun has just risen, whilst the second was taken about an hour after sunrise when the colour has left the view, though the fog was hanging around for a long time this day. Can you see the bird in the tree in the top half of the image?!

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The Berry No. 1

This building may be familiar to some of you, especially if you have ever been on one of my workshops. The Berry No. 1 Mine was part of the goldfields north of Creswick, this spot north at Lawrence and is the best remaining example of one of the buildings, this being the old pump house. I've taken many images of this over the years and on Monday morning some early morning sunlight added some nice intense colours to the red bricks. A stop just around the corner a bit later on the way home shows some of the great wheat fields in the district at the moment.

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Sunday Set

No clouds at all on Sunday morning so I had to work from up high looking down. These 3 image were taken out along Harris Road on the way to Mt Egerton and not too far from the Lal Lal Reservoir, which you can see in the second image. The pine plantation always looks good from above and the once the sun had risen the light changed dramatically.

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Buninyong and Burrumbeet

I've got millions of images here to work through so here's a couple from the last few days.
Another lovely sunrise from Mt Buninyong on Friday, and then a scene from out on the west side of Lake Burrumbeet...as you can see the harvest is in full swing around the district at the moment.

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A Tale of Two Lakes

Saturday morning started with a pretty nice sunrise at Lake Burrumbeet. I used to be able to drive to this part of the lake shore, however access has been blocked for some time now so it's a bit of hike, though well worth as this small island and it's trees always seems to offer something worthwhile.
Later in the day around 5pm a big downpour hit (remember to keep your windows closed at home when the rain is coming in from the east with a big wind behind it!). We had 15mm in a very short burst whilst the "official" Ballarat recording station at the Airport didn't receive a drop. I had a feeling it might pass through before sunset and so I was up at Lake Wendouree's south east corner for some beautiful, calm conditions, first looking across to the Yacht Club and then moving around to the right this view of the small pavilion on View Point.

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