My friends often ask me if I ever actually get any time to stop enjoy the places and things I seemingly spend all of my time photographing. They see me running about like a sort of madman snapping away wildly, hunting for the best angle and trying to perfect the camera’s settings as go.
When the photography bug first bit me, I hadn’t even considered this but when this question first came up in conversation it really bothered me. What if all this time I had been trying so hard to get the photos I wanted, I had actually stop connecting with the places I was visiting?
I’ll come back to those thoughts later.
This set came about from a recent road-trip to the Blue Mountains with Lina in search of Autumn themed photos.
After a relatively relax start to our trip wandering around the streets and malls of Leura and a stop in at the local markets we decided to head away from the hustle and bustle of this picturesque tourist town on a long weekend; and head for the country side to chase the afternoon light.
And a chase is what these drives inevitably turn into- as the light drops and turns ever more golden, the adrenaline kicks in as we chase that perfect location for the moment when the sun finally dips behind the hills.
On this particular evening, after a solid two hours of this and the sun had finally disappeared, or so we thought, we drove back out of the secluded Hartley Valley and headed back up the Victoria Pass towards town. Halfway up the pass, we found ourselves bathed in a freakish red light. A plume of bush-smoke was diffusing the last few rays of light and throwing out a the most intense glow I’ve ever seen. Desperate to capture this spectacle we swerved off the road at the first opportunity we saw and found ourselves here at the Mitchell Ridge Lookout. Unfortunately we a few precious minutes too late to capture the light, but we did manage a few shots of the colourful after-glow.
As photographers, we rarely enjoy a sleep in on a holiday, so the following morning after our alarm woke us at 5am we rugged up and headed to the Govett’s Leap Lookout, a location which is a well-known sunrise location in the mountains. Despite the freezing pre-dawn winds which were cutting straight through all thick coats and layers, we were treated a stunning golden sunrise.
With thoughts of a warm buffet breakfast on our mind, we were caught off-guard when we happened across this little gem of a location, a few blocks from our hotel. Lone Pine Avenue for all intents and purposes is the driveway to a local sports-field but clearly at certain times of the day, it turns into something a little more!
Ever since I was a child, the Zig-Zag Railway was the one destination in the Blue Mountains that I would always want to visit. Maybe it was my love of all things that move or maybe it was the fact that it was a sort of fantasy land where I was taken back in time to a place I would see in black and white movies. Either way, it was with a heavy heart that we headed there, after seeing it photographed in the same style as some of the derelict factories that dot Sydney. The railway was closed recently for refurbishment however the station, tunnel and some carriages remain in place and are accessible by passers-by. While it did make for an very atmospheric location for photography, I truly hope that this once grand railway is brought back to life before it is destroyed at the hands of vandals and rust!
Our final stop over for the weekend, Mount Wilson, finally brought us the Autumn wonderland that we had been searching for. Other than I recommend that if this sort thing excites you, that you get here and do it soon, all I can say about Mount Wilson is that I honestly felt like I had left the Blue Mountains, in the Australian bush, and stepped into some other country. As a sweetener for my petrol-headed self, this mint Jaguar E-Type rolled into town and completed my fantasy that I was somewhere in the UK.
A brief excursion to investigate what could be found at Mount Irvine, which was sign-posted all over town, I can conclude that whilst this tiny community is nothing more than a small dot on the tourist map of the Blue Mountains, it is home to some beautiful country side and perhaps one of the best driving roads in the region.
My final shot was a spur of the moment idea to investigate the somewhat comically named Mount Piddington, which we had driven past dozens of times in our travels in the area but never actually visited. This is the highest point of the Blue Mountains and home to one of the most amazing views I’ve ever experienced. The sheer expanse of this view cannot be fathomed in a photo, not even this 170 degree panorama!
So do I get to enjoy the places I photograph, or am I nothing more than a tourist with a Nikon? The answer is yes. I was so busy enjoying this epic location, I almost forgot to photograph it! The answer is deeper than that, my photography is just my excuse if you will, to go out and explore the world I live in. The adventures are often best found in the journeys this takes idea me on, not the destinations they bring me. And no amount of I take photos will ever come close to showing you how much fun this is!
