Summer Alpine Photography
Over the weekend a group of photographers headed for the mountains to try and capture some of the stunning scenes the alpine region of Victoria can present. Most of us headed up Friday during the day. It poured with rain in Bright and the mountain ascent was doused in fog, leaving very little of the stunning scenery visible. Many of the drivers could barely see each snow pole marking the edge of the road. Nalini and Jamie drove up after work, arriving at the lodge near midnight, so managed that drive in the dark. A brief miscalculation of the location of the lodge resulted in these two brave people knocking on the wrong lodge door. Tired brains eventually solved the problem and they found their way into the warmth of Tallawarra to freshly made beds waiting for them.
Saturday morning saw 10 photographers rise at 3am to chase the milkyway core. Fog seemed to prevent anything decent on the Harrietville side of the mountain, but some slight clearing of the fog toward Dinner Plain allowed the group to try their hand at a short walk to the lookout. Walking for 10 minutes in the pre-dawn darkness was slow going and thankfully most remembered to bring their torches. We set up by the shelter and tried out hand at some astrophotography, battling the constantly moving cloud and then the dawn light as the sun began to rise.
Tired and cold, we headed back to the lodge for some well-earned breakfast. A select few headed back to bed (myself included) for a few more hours of sleep. At around 9 or 10am a group of 8 headed off to scope out he Silver Brumby Hut, in the valley below a ski run. about a 5 or 6km walk return from the main road (1km from the lodge) straight down the side of the mountain. The walk down was relatively uneventful, with plenty of opportunities for photography, and to soak up the gorgeous mountain scenery. The hut itself was a prop used in the early 90s film starring Russel Crowe. Just after the last of the crew descended the walk, the sky opened up as a storm approached. With a maximum temp of 6.6 degrees on the Saturday and nearly 10mm of rain falling in the space of 3 hours, the crew had a hard walk back up the mountain to the dry warmth of the lodge. All 8 made it out ok, and used the lodge’s drying room to dry out the camera equipment and clothing. Warm showers and sitting by the fire was a welcome relief.
The afternoon saw intermittent rain and blue sky, with very few of us daring to attempt photography in those conditions. Dinner was at 5:30pm at the local pub, The General Store. A leisurely dinner and catchup with some planning was well earned. The skies started to clear during dinner and we were all watching the stunning vistas reveal themselves through the window of the pub.
Eager and refuelled, we headed out to shoot the hopefully glorious sunset. A few stops along the way, we eventually settled on a little lookout on the side of the road, perfect for capturing the God Rays reaching down across the mountain ranges. Whilst colour was shy, the angled sun rays and graded mountain ranges were inspiring and magestic. There should be some wonderful images resulting.
As we were all fairly tired, we headed back to the lodge for a brief team meeting around the fireplace and bed.
2:30am saw 8 people rise and head out into the zero degree night (with wind chill, felt like -4) to hunt the milkyway core again. We settled on the planned location of a hut and set up to shoot. Some of the attendees had gone to a Richard Tatti workshop and we proceeded to light paint the hut after a few hours of astro. Lastly, a dragon appeared and posed for us to shoot it beside the hut, with red light coming out of it’s mouth. Special thanks to Julie for her wonderful lightpainting on this frozen morning.
As the sky started to get light, but before the first light, we relocated to another lookout for sunrise. A small group of brave individuals chose to walk to the Summit and try their luck up there. The crew at the lookout had a wonderful sight greeting them as the sun rose. Strong oranges with the sunrise and glorious pinks and blues in the reverse sunrise. During the walk in the dark and with my sleep deprived brain Madeline forgot to do up my backpack properly when relocating and subsequently lost my filter mount ring in the dark. The cold had also sapped two batteries of their power, though they were fully charged when we had left the lodge. Just as the dawn light started to come through with all it’s colour, I was without the ability to shoot, until Julie lent Madeline her spare fully charged battery. The warmth of the sun started to defrost our frozen limbs and faces. Smiling again, we headed back to the lodge for breakfast. A nap for some, bird shooting for others and general exploring for some more, wound up with us having our group photo on the balcony at 9:30am (thanks to Kit).
The lodge cleaned, we started to head home to edit and sleep. All in all, it was a wonderful weekend. I look forward to seeing all the images. Until next time!