One of the beauties of travelling in winter is the mercurial weather. There be sun, rain, and everything in between. Of course, I speak of the weather in Southern Australia as I am familiar with little else, but in my experience the lighting can be wonderous.
The sun, when it is available, is at a very shallow angle coming in from the north. It lights up the landscape almost in a perpetual silver sunset giving more dimension to everything. The only time this becomes a problem is when you are trying to photograph to the north – mountains can be difficult to move to get that well lit shot.
But today proved to be a different kind of challenge.
We drove up into the Grampians. This was our second attempt as an earlier trip had literally been rained out (one of the downsides of travelling in winter is the rain that won’t let up – a little is great for photography, a lot pretty much grounds you). The rain had stopped, but the cloud had not and we found ourselves driving into the most gorgeous fog. The mountains were hidden from us and the forest was draped in shades of green and grey.
I really wish I had my acrylics with me, I don’t have the skill with watercolour to bring out those lushious greys. Or my pastels! They would do a fabulous job. As it is, the only opaque media I have with me is one tube of white gouache, so there may be an attempt at tinting it with my watercolours to play with greys.
Eventually we found our way out of the fog and into some recently burnt bushland under heavy regrowth. From one strange world to another. Amongst those heavily sprouting eucalypts we visited MacKenzie Falls.
I will be feeling the stairs I had to climb to get these shots for the next several days.
The black rock of the second photo has me wanting to reach for art materials. The stark contrast between the rock and the water and that touch of red brown has my fingers itching to do something with them.
Unfortunately there are only so many hours in a day and after navigating home on that same winding road, in the dark, with the fog, I slacked off and visited the couch for a while, and now it is heading towards midnight, so once again a day closes with little or no art accomplished.
But there is always tomorrow.
Best wishes,
Liz