Just a Touch of Colour

We've had some big falls of rain in the last day or so, over 40mm, and so my first thoughts on Tuesday were to head somewhere to see what affect its made. So I headed north up to Birchs' Creek at Smeaton where the flow has risen considerably since last weeks visit. It was very dull and gloomy, conditions that can often work in your favour for this sort of photography. Here's a couple I was happy with where there was just enough colour to make some nice contrasts with the generally monotonal feel of these 2 images.

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Color and Black and White

On Monday evening I headed out to Lake Burrumbeet...the skies were looking quite promising though it looked like the sun would disappear behind the clouds well before sunset. Fortunately there were some great wispy clouds developing and they fitted in perfectly with this view of the the now landlocked Pelican Island. I really like the colour version here..and then I thought I'd see how it looked in black and white....and now I'm not sure what's my favourite? What's your choice?

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Silhouettes

On Sunday the sun tried all day to try and break free from the heavy cloud cover with just the occasional success. Late in the evening I was out around Clarkes Hill watching as the sun made its descent to the horizon, and came back home with a series of silhouettes. Don't you think the last one here looks surprisingly like the aboriginal flag?

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Fire Below, Fire Above

On a grey Saturday evening I thought a trip out to Birchs' Creek at Smeaton would be a nice place to spend some time. With the good rain we've had through the week I was pleased to see the flow in the creek was up quite a lot, giving me a number of opportunities. One that really caught my eye was this red water plant that sits below the surface right on the edge of this small cascade, so I spent some time on different compositions. 
Returning home to Ballarat the sky had cleared quite a bit and though I made a couple of stops coming home, it was by the time I was coming home out of Creswick where you go over a big hill, that the colour really started to fire up, so I made a stop at the top of the hill and caught another fantastic sunset, a huge surprise considering how grey it looked just an hour or so earlier. Just goes to show how important it is to be out there all the time to catch these fleeting moments.

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Is This Winter?

After all the hot weather of late, and exciting stormy conditions and brilliant light, on Friday that all changed. It almost felt like we were back in winter. Apparently a huge rain front is on the way, though it seems to be getting delayed each time I check the forecast....now its due on Monday and Tuesday. Anyway, Friday was pretty wet in parts, overcast and quite cold......conditions that I know will usually give me something to play around with at Mt Warrenheip as these conditions bring in the low lying mist that sits atop the mountain. So around 2pm I jumped in the car and spent some time looking for images. The recent rain and damp conditions has given everything a nice vibrant saturation and some interesting yellow flowers added a nice element.

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A Startling Summer Sunset

My internal guidance system was working especially well on Thursday evening when I left home. It was quite grey and flat and I was planning on heading north up to Birchs' Creek at Smeaton to see if the recent rain had made much difference. As I was heading out of town I could just see a glimpse of light on the horizon way out to the south west, so I quickly changed direction and took myself to one of my lesser visited parts of Lake Burrumbeet. Initially it was looking pretty bland, however things started to change slowly as sunset approached and I was treated to the best sunset of 2015 (so far!) The sky really fired up into one of the most explosive displays of colour I've seen for a while, and this series shows just how quickly the colours change. 

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Stormy Wednesday

Things really started to get interesting here in Ballarat around mid-afternoon with another very hot and humid day promising thunderstorms and rain. I waited til around 7.45pm and headed west out to the south of Lake Burrumbeet where the best clouds were building. Underneath the massive skies I found a curious herd of cows eager to come closer to say hello (or ask for protection?!). I waited in this area until sunset and though there was an occasional bolt of lightning in a number of different directions, there wasn't enough to really tempt me to go chasing. As I got back into Ballarat I drove around the north side of the lake and a couple of bolts across the lake tempted me to stop and set up the tripod, and I was happy to catch a couple of nice bolts across the still surface of the lake. This is the first time I've shot lightning with the Sony I've had a for a few months now and I gotta say the quality is superb.....the low level of noise is quite amazing. Today is looking promising again with hot and humid weather forecast, and they keep forecasting some heavy rain, lets hope that gets into the act as well.
It's really worth clicking on these for a larger look.....

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