Hi, I am a landscape and nature photographer based in Melbourne, Australia and enjoy telling stories about my time with a camera exploring our remaining wild places and inspiring others to connect with nature through photography.
Over the past few weeks, two unexpected opportunities emerged, albeit on very different time scales. One was some unexpected conditions out in the field that resulted in amazing light. And an opportunity to contribute to the process of government decision making that could result in improved protection of large areas of forest in Victoria’s central highlands.
The photography
Most Saturday afternoons I have this internal debate about where to go to photograph the next day. Regular readers of this newsletter will know that I am a strong proponent of just getting out there to practice, and going out in less than great light will prepare you well for when conditions really kick off.
A couple of weekends ago, after consulting multiple weather apps (they were in agreement – bright sunshine, low wind) and trying to decide what I felt like photographing (wasn’t sure), I decided to head up through Healesville and over the Black Spur to see what I could see.
The Black Spur is a world class drive up through tall forest with an extensive cover of tree ferns, some several metres in height. And although I didn’t know it when I left, the light was to become so good that even the traffic out for a Sunday drive looked good.
The challenge with the Black Spur is that there are very few places to pull off and explore, and much of the bush either side of the road is inside closed water catchments and so off limits to the public. Despite these limitations, I know this area intimately having spent many days over the past few years exploring the area and can always find something new amongst the complexity of the forest.
I got over the Black Spur and down into the valley before dawn. I took a couple of photos of groups of paddock trees against the red pre-dawn sky, but nothing really worked out. What I was surprised by however was that there seemed to be some fog.
As the sun rose and day began to warm up, it became clear that the fog was smoke. Not thick choking smoke with a strong smell, it was more a gentle layer of haze. I consulted the Vic Emergency App to make sure there was not an out-of-control fire nearby. There wasn’t, instead there was a controlled burn a little further to the north.
So with the hope of some nice atmosphere, I headed back up into the forest. I found a place to pull off the main Black Spur Road where a 4-wheel drive track winds down off the ridge to meet the road that would provide a good starting point.
I walked up the track into the fairly dry open forest on the higher ridgelines (Melbourne had just experienced the driest March in 170 years of records) but it became apparent the blue haze was creating all kinds of interesting light. At this point, I was experiencing the mixed feelings of excitement for some potential images and the stress that the atmosphere might all disappear at any moment and I would miss the opportunity.
I walked a kilometre or so up the hill experimenting with a range of scenes, mostly shooting into the light to create a sense of depth. By the time I got back to the car, the sun was fairly high in the sky – usually too high for good forest images. But with the haze unmoved, I crossed the road, jumped the barrier and headed off track down the steep hill to see what I could find.
This area was considerably wetter, with larger eucalypts, increasing numbers of Sassafras and Myrtle Beech, and a lot more ferns. The haze and dappled light was adding dashes of colourful soft light through the trees and across the ferns. The pano below gives you a sense of the country.
With some photos in the bag, I was able to slow down and appreciate the beauty of the surrounding forest. At places the ground cover of ferns and bushes was waist deep, which made for slow contemplative exploration. For the next hour or so I explored a relatively small area below the road. The forest always provides an almost infinite number of scenes. As usual I was looking for a pattern of trees and foreground, along with a gradient of light to create the illusion of drama and depth. This is my favourite.
Over a couple of hours I got some great photos. The blue smoke haze and direct sunlight created some interesting light. With most controlled burns occurring over Autumn and Spring when there is fine weather with low wind, I will definitely be searching out some more prescribed burns to build on this work.
Great Forest National Park
The photos above were all taken in the Yarra Ranges National Park, which offers the highest level of protection for the landscape.
However, most of the broader area known as the Central Highlands is state forest, used for a range of activities from recreational to, until recently, clearfell logging. The current state government had committed to end logging of native forests by 2030, but last year, very unexpectedly, brought forward the date to 1 January 2024.
This has been a difficult process for the timber industry and the communities that rely on this industry as adjustment packages have been negotiated and, even more importantly, people come to terms with their world being turned upside down.
This decision has also initiated a process to decide how to manage large areas of these amazing forests. For some time there has been a push to establish a Great Forest National Park encompassing the Yarra Ranges National Park and much of the state forest across the Central Highlands – this would add 355,000 hectares of forests to the existing 170,000 hectares of parks and protected areas in the Central Highlands of Victoria.
The size of this increase can be seen in the map below (from the Great Forest National Park website).
There is currently an Eminent Panel for Community Engagement set up specifically to talk with people and organisations to understand their values and priorities for forests in the Central Highlands. This work builds on the Victorian Environmental Assessment Council assessment of values of state forests in the Central Highlands, released in December 2023. A public consultation process is currently underway with the survey open until 29 April 2024 (link).
As a “working” forest, there are continued demands on the landscape including four wheel driving, trail bike riding, hunting, firewood collecting, and nature-based tourism. Given the previous timber harvesting and all these other uses, there are a lot of roads throughout the state forest. In fact, there are few places across this landscape, despite its size, that are away from motorised transport (you will understand the impact of roads on wilderness values from my last two newsletters).
There is an opportunity to close and reforest some of these roads, develop opportunities for more wild hiking experiences and create areas of Intact Forest Landscape with all the benefits for carbon storage and ecosystem resilience that this brings.
I would encourage everyone to contribute to the public consultation - even if they may never visit the region. The protection of every bit of intact forest helps mitigate climate change and maintain biodiversity.
That light through the smoke looks incredible!!
Really beautiful images James. I love the atmosphere that the smoke has created and the soft tones that you have managed to bring out in the images.