Starting anything can be hard – so what should be the topic of my first newsletter?
Best start with something simple and short, and just press Publish.
Photography for me is a great excuse to get out in nature, to observe the details that most people miss and to sit and sense the essence of a landscape. And, on a good day, I capture this feeling in an image that in the future brings me back to that place and time and reminds me of what is important.
So here’s a simple story of a trip I made last year to explore a bit of bush I hadn’t been to before, with camera in hand.
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A story
In early 2022 I planned an overnight trip to the top of Mount Torbreck in the state of Victoria, Australia, with the aim of capturing a nice sunset and sunrise.
With a decent climb from the carpark, I decided I would bivouac on the mountain top, rather than try and walk down and then back up in the dark. With the weather expected to be good, I travelled light – just a bivvy bag, sleeping bag and mat and my gas stove.
At 1516 metres elevation, Mount Torbreck is the most westerly peak on the Great Dividing Range over 1500 metres. Like many Australian peaks, it is old and relatively rounded and covered in trees but, as an ancient volcanic peak, there are jumbles of rocky outcrops providing views in all directions.
With family duties and a two and a half hour drive (including a pretty rough last few kilometres), I didn’t get started up the hill until after 5pm. The climb was a bit of a slog and the weather warm.
From the Barnwell Plains camp ground you walk steeply up through Alpine Ash forest until the track reaches the upper ridge that more gently makes its way through beautiful Snow Gums and rocky outcrops. A spectacular walk well worth while even without a camera.
I scoped out possible compositions at the first and largest section of rocky outcrops but I struggled to find any good compositions for sunset. I headed to the peak and had an explore around there – again no sunset compositions came to me, although I thought a couple of views might light up at sunrise.
It was at this point I realised I had to make some decisions – I could look for a sunset shot or I could find a place to settle in and have something to eat while it was still light. There was not time to do both. I choose the latter – I had not bivouacked for a while and wanted to be nicely set up.
I think this was the right call – but it meant I really didn’t make the most of the sunset. Instead, I made my first (bad) attempt at an astro shot and then settled in for the night looking forward to a (hopefully) spectacular sunrise.
Expectations re-aligned
I woke a couple of times during the night and could see by moonlight that clouds were rolling in, and by morning the mountain was covered in thick cloud. There goes my plans for an epic sunrise shot with exploding colours.
I will admit that it took me 10-15 minutes to readjust my expectations and start to think about how I could take advantage of the conditions I had, rather than the conditions I had hoped for.
Here I was, in a beautiful sub-alpine environment dripping in fog. Trees in fog!
Once my expectations were re-aligned with reality, I could see opportunities everywhere. I had a great couple of hours exploring only a small section of the mountain side, photographing amazing old and gnarled snow gums. Brilliant.
The whole trip had started with expectations for some sunset and sunrise shots. But the landscape and weather simply did not add up. Once I had accepted this reality, I was able to open my mind to what was in fact there – and once I made this switch I was able to find lots to capture.