Wednesday, September 30, 2009

The Fotress

Spent three days walking in the Grampians National Park from the 21 September to 23 September 2009. We arrived on Monday to some strong winds and possible showers and thunderstorms. The first day we spent walking from Deep creek to Western cave not a hard walk with a uphill section to the top and down into a gully to the camp spot. We had the campsite to ourselves until a school group from Adelaide arrived and a group of boys who had lost two friends on the way. They were not eager to find them which was quite a concern. During the evening it rained, we awoke to heavy mist and light rain. We spent an hour walking in the mist until we reached the Eastern cave where we stopped to take some images in the heavy mist. From the top we descended on four wheel drive track until we reached Mt Thackeray campsite. After collecting water and having some lunch we headed up Mt Thackeray for a great afternoon with good weather and amazing views of the Southern Grampians. We even spotted a pair of Wedged tail eagles flying over Mt Thackeray. That evening it rained for most of the night, the morning was filled with heavy winds and light showers. The walk was a 15km hike back to the car with some steep descending and a few river crossing. An enjoyable trip thanks Brett.







Sunday, July 19, 2009

Winter on the Bogong High plains

Ian and I spent five days walking from Bogong Village up onto the Bogong High Plains. We spent the first nigh at Bogong Jacks hut then over The Fainters to Tawonga hut. The first two days were quite challenging with deep snow and Heavy pack but the weather was perfect with crystal clear sky's. From Tawonga hut we moved on to Cope hut for the night meeting a group of students from the Rover Scouts. In the morning we made our way to Kellys Hut of an hour visit and then on to Edmundsen Hut. Our last day was spent walking back to Bogong Village with a few incidents, first we tried a short cut which added an extra hour to
the day. Second both Ian's snowshoes broke which we had to repair with some string and ties. Finally the descent was incredibly steep and once we got below the snow line we were hindered by fallen trees and a river crossing. The Journey was an amazing venture into a winter wonderland.

Here are some of the images from the trip.









Monday, May 04, 2009

Black Saturday the Victorian Bushfires

Over the past month I been photographing some of the worst effected areas of the Bushfires. These include Kinglake, Kinglake West, Marrysville and Lake Mountain. I was amazed to see how the landscape was effected by the fires and how quickly the environment was regenerating.










Monday, January 19, 2009

Bogong High Plains

2009 has come around rather fast which means a walk in the Victorian Alps. From 4th Jan to 9th Jan Ian and I spent 4 days walking in the heat of the Bogong High Plains. Spent most of my time photographing with Black and White film as the days were bright with a lot of contrast.

It was nice to be walking and looking for images again and experiencing the huts of Victorian high country. In a way it was a frustrating trip as all four days were hot and sunny. This meant trying not to get burnt and waiting for the sun to fall far enough to decrease to the contrast of the Australian sun. While the images were limited i was able to capture some images which were successful in illustrating how it felt to be in such a special part of Victoria.