The Oaks

What started as a stroll on the beach

For many years the family heads down the coast for ten days or so at the end of January, which for us in Australia is the end of the long summer holidays.

We stay in the town of Inverloch, which sits roughly in the middle of the South Gippsland coast between Westernport Bay and Wilsons Promontory.

There are many beautiful spots to photograph along this coastline – like the Eagles Nest shown below – although this year I decided to prioritise taking a break from photography. It had been a big year and I was looking forward to waking without an alarm!

Part 1

Of course, the urge to get out and explore with my camera began to grow after a few days. I decided to drive along the spectacular coastal stretch towards Cape Paterson to a beautiful little beach called The Oaks.

It was a lovely afternoon and everyone was off doing their own thing. I simply felt like going for a wander with my camera – without pressure, no plans nor expectations. I didn’t even take a tripod (gasp)!

From the carpark the walk down to the beach traverses along the cliff top through mature She-Oaks that branch out over the path. These native trees belong to their own family - Casuarinaceae - and although they have leaves that look like pine needles they are in fact flowering plants. There are about 60 species in Australia and they are quite drought tolerant and can grow in very sandy soils. Being surrounded by these trees immediately put me in the mood to slow down, appreciate the form of the trees and the interplay of light and shadow.

Simply enjoying the moment, I eventually pulled out the camera to try a photograph of the eastern headland through a gap in the trees, but my heart wasn’t in it.

The path then drops down through a small dune section before coming out onto the beach which is about 250m in length. Like much of this coast, it is exposed to the treacherous water of Bass Strait, and with any kind of swell there is a lot of water moving around making for dangerous conditions. Not a place for swimming.

Immediately obvious was the masses of bright red and white seaweed left stranded by the retreating tide. Of course I was attracted to this bright, colourful thing so I played around with some patterns – quickly getting lost in the magic of looking for a pleasing interplay of sand, rock and the seaweed.

I made it as far as the western headland, where I watched the big swells hitting the rocks and spotted a couple of potential compositions. But they would have to wait for another time – with some morning light and a tripod.

Part 2

Although I had wanted to avoid setting any alarms, the call of potential compositions was irresistible. Two mornings later, I was back at The Oaks before the sun rose above the horizon. It was overcast, which I thought could be perfect if the clouds opened up in just the right way. All the red seaweed was gone, and instead there were large strands of kelp strewn everywhere. I walked down past the area roped off to protect the Hooded Plover nests and onto the rocky headland.

This morning the tide was still coming in. I enjoyed playing around with the waves hitting the boulders as the light brightened. I was beginning to get in the groove of photographing the water.

I realised that the interest would be in the dynamic elements –  the movement of the water combined with the overcast, moody sky. I turned my camera towards the east and played around until the light worked in my favour. I like the way, in the image below, the water is exploding towards the viewer. I was in two minds about the water going from edge to edge – normally I would like to give a little more room “to breathe”, but it adds to the sense of water rushing towards you. In any case, this was as wide as I could go at 16mm.

I played around with quite a few other compositions to varying degrees of success as the light refused to show itself. Eventual there were a few sun rays in the distance which provided the backdrop to the image below and I was able to head home for breakfast.

That was it for the week - two short trips in 8 days. Not very productive in terms of images, but I did a lot of reading and journaling and have far more ideas and things I would like to do than I can possibly achieve in 2024. Now I just need to plan out the year ahead.