Mount Buffalo National Park | VIC | Australia

I had been up at "The Horn" at Mount Buffalo National Park the night before, hoping to shoot the aurora (Aurora Australis aka Southern Lights). Unfortunately it was not to be, although I did enjoy my time exploring Buffalo by night, and I really enjoyed a beautiful sunrise from The Gorge. Driving down the mountain a bit bleary-eyed, I gazed across to the mountains to the distance East and was immediately transfixed. Even though a hot coffee and an egg and bacon roll beckoned at a bakery somewhere down below, I just had to pull over just up from Mackeys Lookout, get out the 70-30mm, and get some shots off. It was also good to get off the road so I didn't cause an accident from gazing into the distance! Out of the dozen or so shots I took, this one spoke to me the most. It's uncropped, and has almost no processing - just a global contrast plus white balance adjustment, and very little else. Knowing I had captured some frames I really liked, I continued on my way down the mountain to that coffee and breakfast, and thankfully cured somewhat of my proclivity for dangerous mountain gazing.

Tags:   2048 Australia Gav Owen Mount Buffalo National Park Sony A7RIII Sony FE 70-300mm F4.5-5.6 G OSS Victoria blue haze hazy landscape lines mesmerising morning mountains pattern patterns scenic uncropped Bright camera:make=sony exif:focal_length=300 mm geo:country=australia exif:make=sony exif:iso_speed=100 exif:model=ilce-7rm3 exif:aperture=ƒ / 6.3 exif:lens=fe 70-300mm f4.5-5.6 g oss geo:location=mount buffalo camera:model=ilce-7rm3 geo:lon=146.82196 geo:lat=-36.705044 geo:state=victoria geo:city=bright

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Wilsons Promontory | VIC | Australia

I spied this particular drift from afar and could see its leading line heading up in a roughly South-East direction. That's just what I wanted. A big part of sunset shooting in these sorts of locations is not getting one's shadow in the image. I knew with where the sun was due to set (thanks PhotoPills app), that this drift should be perfect, and it was. I set off on the one kilometre trek (a bit over half a mile) across the sand, and was glad to see that not a single footprint marred the area - it was completely virgin territory. This is the reward for "going the extra mile" (literally half a mile). The direction of the setting sun caused the foreground ribbing to really pop, and the sun also cast a wonderful golden light against the Westerly side of the drift, complementing the crystal-clear azure cloudless sky. The wind had died off by this point, ensuring sharpness along the top of the dune. Needless to say, conditions were perfect.

For this "golden hour" shot, I had to wait until the sun was very low in the sky. Shortly afterwards, the peaks of other dunes quickly encroached on the scene, which did not look good. Thus, I only had a brief window of opportunity to capture the golden light without shadowing, and thankfully it all came together and I am pleased with the result.

Technically, this image is comprised of 3 exposures shot vertically with 1/3 overlap and stitched together using Lightroom's native stitching tool (Photo Merge > Panorama). I have not done much pano work of late and I was concerned about not getting it all in, so I shot this one at 24mm. I did pivot around the nodal point with a Really Right Stuff pano head and rail. It stitched perfectly, but I had LOADS of leftover image to crop - so much so that the end result is basically no different to taking a single image and then cropping 16:9. That's perfectly fine, but in future I'll probably use my new 20-70mm lens for panos; shooting at around 40mm, and maybe f/13 for depth of field without too much diffraction blurring.

My mum said she likes this one but said, "it could do with some camels" - good one mum!

Tags:   16:9 2048 3xp Australia Big Drift Gav Owen Sony A7RIII Sony FE PZ 16-35mm F4 G The Big Drift Victoria Wilsons Promontory blue drift dune golden golden hour landscape last light lines minimalism minimalist no CPL no grads pano panorama ribbed ribbed for pleasure sand sandy stitch sunset exif:aperture=ƒ / 11 camera:make=sony geo:location=big drift exif:make=sony geo:lat=-38.869273 exif:model=ilce-7rm3 geo:country=australia exif:focal_length=24 mm geo:city=wilsons promontory camera:model=ilce-7rm3 geo:lon=146.227087 exif:iso_speed=100 geo:state=victoria exif:lens=fe pz 16-35mm f4 g

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Wilsons Promontory | VIC | Australia

Life finds a way to survive, even in the harshest of environments. I really enjoyed exploring the lunar-like landscape and wide open spaces of The Big Drift, on the outskirts of Wilsons Promontory National Park.

Tags:   16:10 2048 Australia Gav Owen Sony A7RIII Sony FE PZ 16-35mm F4 G Victoria Wilsons Prom Wilsons Promontory afternoon barren blue desolate growth landscape lunar-like pale pastel plant sand sky survival yellow exif:aperture=ƒ / 13 camera:make=sony geo:location=big drift exif:make=sony geo:country=australia exif:model=ilce-7rm3 geo:state=victoria geo:city=wilsons promontory exif:focal_length=27.5 mm camera:model=ilce-7rm3 geo:lon=146.228545 exif:iso_speed=100 geo:lat=-38.869291 exif:lens=fe pz 16-35mm f4 g

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Wilsons Promontory | VIC | Australia

A lone tree miraculously survives and even thrives on top of a mountain of sand at The Big Drift, Wilsons Promontory. I read recently that trees can communicate with each other via their roots. I wonder if trees can sense when they are all alone?

Tags:   16:10 2048 Gav Owen National Park Sony A7RIII Sony FE PZ 16-35mm F4 G The Big Drift Wilsons Promontory afternoon alone azure blue cloudless landscape lonely natural nature patterns sand sandy sky tree Victoria Australia exif:aperture=ƒ / 11 camera:make=sony geo:location=big drift exif:make=sony geo:lon=146.231034 exif:model=ilce-7rm3 geo:country=australia exif:focal_length=16 mm exif:iso_speed=100 camera:model=ilce-7rm3 geo:city=wilsons promontory geo:lat=-38.866451 geo:state=victoria exif:lens=fe pz 16-35mm f4 g

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Murray Sunset NP | NSW | Australia

This was shot mid-morning at Lake Kenyon - one of the pink Lakes in the Murray Sunset National Park. This area has a rich history of harvesting pink salt throughout the 1900's - especially during war times in order to acquire salt to preserve meat for the troops. It's incredible how much that salt used to be valued during those times. Commercial operations have long since stopped though.

Much of the shore line is littered with footprints from curious travellers, but I was fortunate to find this patch of crusty salt patterns that was completely undisturbed. Getting out and exploring from behind the lens was cathartic for me, helping me come to terms with the passing of a close family member at the time (This was taken last year in May 2019).

During COVID lockdowns it really sinks in that the whole act of landscape photography is just as much about getting out and about and exploring as anything else. Whether I've got some nice frames on the SD card or not at times is really just a bonus.

Hope you are all doing really well.

Tags:   16:9 2048 Australia Gav Owen Sony A7RIII Sony FE 16-35mm F4 ZA OSS beach cracks desert gum trees inland lake outback pattern pink purple rural salt salty Murray-Sunset New South Wales geo:lat=-35.03925198582 camera:make=sony geo:country=australia exif:make=sony geo:state=new south wales exif:model=ilce-7rm3 geo:city=murray-sunset geo:location=lake kenyon geo:lon=141.7592076265 exif:focal_length=21 mm exif:iso_speed=100 exif:aperture=ƒ / 8.0 camera:model=ilce-7rm3 exif:lens=fe 16-35mm f4 za oss

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