The Second Stage

On Tuesday I headed out north of Creswick to see how the canola fields are going, and many have lost their colour, to be replaced by this lovely carpet of green. This is probably my favourite spot as the patterns from up high in this field, on the Creswick-Lawrence Road, are fantastic - still worth taking a drive if you haven't been out lately, and there is still some nice yellow around as well.

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Moods of Monday

A surprisingly nice selection of images from Mondays travels around Bo Peep and Burrumbeet south. I knew the clouds were good, and I was able to find some nice foregrounds from 3 different locations as the sunset approached, and that last few minutes of intense light as the sun found a gap through the clouds really gave me something to be happy with. Just another of those days when you are out there and initially you feel the trip might be a bit of a bust, and then it all turns around for you.

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Canola Catch Up

We've had such a great canola season here I have many, many images that still have not seen the light of day. Here's a couple from 2 weeks ago out west of Allendale......

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Sundays Send Off

Sunday here in Ballarat looked likely to produce some more stormy conditions, however by late afternoon it all moved away without too much excitement. I took the chance to pop out to Lake Burrumbeet where I was fortunate to grab a couple of nice images from what looked like to be a pretty tame end to the weekend. I was just shooting the sun and horizon when this pod of pelicans appeared out of nowhere....its unusual to see them up this high as they usually stay close to the water as they glide by around sunset. I was actually on my way home, about a kilometre from the lake when I realised the sun was just about to break through again, so I quickly headed back to the shore's edge and literally rested the camera on a rock to get a few images down low with the last of some golden light.

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Saturdays Stormy Series

Another great humid and stormy day on Saturday lead to some terrific conditions. I was planning on heading out to Lake Burrumbeet, however I was distracted by the first 2 images here close to home as some fantastic clouds were moving across Lake Wendouree. Once I was out on the road west a shower came through just out of town and I realised this could give me a rainbow. So I waited next to a canola crop I've been keeping my eye for a while, and sure enough the rainbow appeared as if on cue. Realising all the action was back around Lake Wendouree I changed plans and ended up spending the rest of my time overlooking the constantly changing clouds. In amongst all this I did manage to get a few aerials, first out west of town, and then around on the west side of the lake above the Botanical Gardens, which are certainly turning green very quickly! Content with my evening and heading home, once again some fantastic late clouds caught my for another quick stop and a very nice finale.

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Stormy Times

On Friday afternoon there was a threat of thunderstorms around Ballarat, and about 5.30 I headed out to Mt Warrenheip as there was a huge black mass of clouds passing through and heading that way. There was a couple of huge bolts of lightning as I approached, though nothing more after that. The first one here is from up high just when there was a nice break of sunlight across the landscape, and there was a hint of a rainbow forming as well. I stayed in this spot for 20 minutes or so as the clouds moved through and caught the unusual light rays just before it all calmed down. As I was heading back to Ballarat I realised we might be on for a nice sunset, which certainly turned out to be the case as you can see from this series just near Viewpoint.

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Aerials at Anderson's Mill

With some great calm and sunny weather on Thursday afternoon, I made a trip out to Smeaton to get some aerials of Anderon's Mill, the amazing old bluestone building. Once again, these rarely seen views offer something quite unique. I also had a wander along the Birch's Creek and found some nice patches of water reflecting in a very impressionistic fashion...this effect is quite easily rendered in photoshop, so it was nice to find the exact same look in the real world!

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