I was going through my image library having a sort of semi yearly clean out of shots that I no longer wanted and re-discovered this photograph, which was taken back in May 2008 near Marysville in Victoria – Near the Beech Forest on Lady Talbot Drive. It immediately jumped out at me as this area was completely devastated in the 2009 Black Saturday Bush Fires that ravaged Victoria. As a result of those fires (in which more than 150 people lost their lives) this area no longer exists in this pristine, natural state. After the fires this area was nothing more than a blackened and charred moon scape, devoid of vegetation and animals. Now just over a year on there are signs of vegetation regrowth across the landscape, but it will be many many years before the area fully recovers. The boulders that bear the blackened scars of the fires will serve as a reminder of how badly this area was damaged in the fires for decades to come.

Sometimes a photograph presents itself even when you think the day might be a lost cause. Which, is exactly what happened to me this morning. I had set the alarm the evening before to get up just before five AM to drive up to the top of Mount Buffalo to photograph first light on Lake Catani. Unfortunately it turned out to be ‘just one of those mornings’ when there was too much low cloud in combination with the wrong atmospheric conditions for any colour or decent light. As the sun came up it was buried behind layers of clouds and instead of the transparent soft light of a rosy dawn it just got lighter – bugger.

Somewhat despondent I packed up all my gear for the forty five minute drive back down the mountain with a view to salvaging the morning with a nice cooked breakfast (it seemed the decent thing to do!). I rounded a bend on the trip back down a good twenty five minutes or so after sunrise, just as the sun broke through the thick layers of cloud and threw a warrm glow into the morning fog in the valley. I slammed on the brakes, grabbed my camera and had time to squeeze off just two frames before it disappeared into cold grey monotones; which it stayed for the rest of the day. Sometimes in landscape it just lasts for a few seconds.  And much like air travel, landscape photography can be hours of sheer boredom… followed by ten seconds of sheer panic (during landing) when the light is right. The joys of landscape photography.

This photograph was taken back in Summer 2008 just outside the You Yangs National Park in Victoria Australia. This relatively small park is often overlooked by landscape photographers given its close proximity to Melbourne; but scattered amongst the granite boulders and gum trees lie many potential photographs. What I really like about this photograph is the juxtaposition of the quintessential (somewhat cliche’) dead gum tree to the line of blue sky through the brewing clouds. The blue sky leads the eye deep into the photograph and adds a dimensionality and balance to the photograph that would have otherwise have been missing – and most likely otherwise resulted in a flat and boring photograph. Taken in the height of summer this is text book Australian drought conditions. This photograph has also been featured on the Channel Two News Weather segment in Melbourne.