Day 1-Winter in Bright

Our adventure started early Friday morning, after packing the car with an assortment of warm clothes and our extensive amount of camera gear, we set off in search of snow, waterfalls and interesting clouds.

On our arrival in Bright, we quickly dashed up Mt Buffalo to the 1st waterfall, where we ran into a few other photographers who were getting out of the house for their daughter’s party. Both were very eager to capture the fog, mist and gushing water. As we were unpacking our gear they climbed down the ravine ‘to get the shot’, as they climbed back up regretting their decision, they scurried into their car wet and muddy to drove off and continue their adventure.

Ladies Bath Falls, after big rains in July, Bright Victoria

After a few photographs it was time to head back down to the township and meet Jean-Pierre, who is a good friend of ours, he has a store in Bright where he sells his photographs.

Jean-Pierre composing a photograph of Cathedral rock on Mt Buffalo, Victoria

Thick fog hides Cathedral rock in winter on Mt Buffalo, Victoria

After a quick chat, we hot-tailed it back up the mountain to photography a famous rock formation on the top of Mt Buffalo called Cathedral rock.

Unfortunately, we battled the wind and rain until we reached the top, but once we reached the top we were treated with a blanket of white fog with little visibility.

Ominous silhouette of Cathedral rock in winter fog in black and white

Cathedral rock protruding skyward in fog on Mt Buffalo, Victoria

With light fading fast and the fog thickening, we headed down the mountain for a final waterfall photo. For this shot, we lined our composition up with an interesting ‘s’ curve in the water and used the combination of light painting to boost dark areas and a long exposure photograph to add more light to a very dark scene. By shooting in RAW (file format) we were able to create a more creative feel to the image.

Late evening waterfalls, using light painting to create more interesting images

This image above shows an original image, the more highlighted area’s were created using lights to highlight the point of interest being the ‘s’ curve in the water as it flows down stream.

Below is our final image after we balanced the light. If you look carefully you can see how the light painting has helps to emphasise the ‘s’, but it’s only slight. We like our images looking balanced, which is why the image is directed to this one focal point of the s-curve.

Ladies Bath Falls, flowing strong with a snaking water flow from its origin

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