Returning Again to a Familiar Place

The benefits of getting to know a place

This newsletter is a redraft of one of my earliest posts, with some new images at the end. I think it is worth resharing as getting to know a place intimately is at the core of my approach to landscape photography, as it is for many. The location I talk about below is just a short walk from home – I can go at a moment’s notice when the conditions are good.

The landscape I am most passionate about however – the Mountain Ash and temperate rainforests of Victoria – take much more work to visit regularly. The drive is longer and access is much more difficult. I visit at least once a fortnight and in several locations I know the terrain, trees and rivers extremely well. But it’s hard work and everything takes longer – I am limited to the weekends and whatever conditions I get.

As the days get longer and hotter (authorities are expecting a hot summer, again), I know some of the places I had planned to visit and projects I wanted to progress over the cooler months will need to wait until next year. “Such is life” said Australia’s most famous bushranger on the gallows.

There is no denying the allure of new locations. But, as I outline below, there are pressures with visiting exotic locations. I have a trip planned for the South Island of New Zealand later in the year. Resisting the temptation to try and see too much in two weeks, it will be interesting to see how I deal with the pressure to come away with some good images, and how I approach their temperate rainforests. Stay tuned.

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Returning to a Familiar Place

This morning, with clear skies forecast and not inspired to go far, I went for a walk down along the Yarra River at Yarra Bend Park.

This park is quite large (260 hectares), close to the centre of Melbourne, and full of native bush, steep embankments and rocky outcrops. Being less than 5 kilometres away of my home, it is where I kept my sanity during Melbourne’s COVID lockdowns.

Needless to say, I know pretty much every trail, view, nook and cranny.

And while there is not a tree I haven’t seen, I can’t say I’ve really seen each one. There are hundreds, probably thousands, of fully grown trees in the park – how can I know each one fully, explored every angle in every light, sat in silent companionship?

Getting to know one of the residents of the local park

Building this relationship with a place, and with the inhabitants of that place takes time. It requires being present through wet and dry, hot and cold. To move beyond an understanding of me, located in a place, to a sense of the place beyond me.

Ultimately this deep connection with a place will come through in the images made.

The other benefit of returning to a place is the lack of pressure.

Last week I went on an epic mission – three hours by car and mountain bike before dawn, then over an hour bush bashing through steep and tangled terrain.

It was an amazing trip – not just a photography session but an adventure. I certainly came back dirty, bleeding and sore. And I am planning to go back later in the year when the sun is better aligned with the river valley.

But even knowing that there will be a next time, I felt the pressure to deliver. The location was amazing – could I do justice to the location? Would all that work pay off? (Update – yes, it was worth it. I have now visited sections of this river over a dozen times since this trip in late 2023 and it continues to be my favourite place.)

Whatever the outcome, it was a very different experience to this morning. Here I was not rushed, and it was easy to slow down and be deliberate.

Knowing you can easily return reduces the pressure to deliver

It was an absolute joy to go to a familiar place to slowly explore, unrushed with time to spend with each tree (probably only 10-15 in total) – walking around to view from different angles, trying different compositions, storing ideas in the memory bank.

Of course, it is far beyond my capabilities to be able to capture the essence of a tree or place at any time. To be honest, the light was not great and while I quite like a couple of images such as the portrait of a tree above, this trip was not about the number of good images I came home with.

The joy of photography is in the seeing – and having the time to spend in a familiar place is the key to really seeing.

Postscript

Just a week after this visit, I looked out the window to see fog, a lot of fog. Quickly grabbing my camera bag I was parked and exploring within 15 minutes.

This was not a trip to enjoy the companionship of nature – this was a mission. By the time I had parked I had mapped out my route, which scenes were likely to be worth spending time on and how the sun was likely to interact with the fog as it lifted.

Over two hours I shot just over 100 images, about 16 scenes. There was just no way I could have done that without knowing the area intimately. This is the other side of landscape photography (or any photography), when conditions are good you need to be quick and instinctive.

This photo shoot, and others like it, have resulted in some of my favourite images that go beyond the obvious. These are two.

Bonus images

Just two weekends ago, I headed back to the park for a bit of experimentation – another advantage of having a familiar, nearby location. On this morning, I decided to use only my 100-400mm lens, in black and white, preferably wide open. Sometimes I enjoy limiting my options and see what I come up with.