After so many long months of lockdown in Melbourne in 2021, my first photo trip of course had to be Lake Tyrrell.
I've been transfixed by this huge salt lake in Victoria's north west. This was my third trip, and the first time I had seen the lake full of water. It's such a different experience to the dry, seemingly arid lake on my previous visits.
I've long admired the photography of Richard Misrach and his Desert Cantos, and this is the closest landscape I've experienced to those featured in his seminal works.
This visit was quite different.
Late spring is the best time to visit as there is a high chance of water, and the warmer climate intensifies the beautiful pink colour in the salt.
The conditions for this visit turned out to be absolutely perfect. After a 5 hour drive up from Melbourne, I checked into a motel at Sea Lake, and head out to the lake.
There was minimal breeze, meaning the surface of the lake became an incredible mirror for the vast sky. I was also so lucky to have a beautiful sunset on the same evening.
I have an idea in mind for a series of images featuring a mirrored box, so this trip was also a chance to experiment shooting with a mirrored object. Unfortunately with Melbourne being locked down I couldn't source a mirrored box, so I got my craft on and made some with Ikea storage boxes and mirrored film form Bunnings! It wasn't exactly 'mirrored' as unfortunately the mirror surface of the film is the side that attaches, so the box was more 'reflective' rather than 'mirrored'.
My second night was again PERFECT - no clouds at all, and hardly any moon made it perfect for a spot of astrography. This isn't my specialty, but I'm really happy with how these turned out.
To get to these old abandoned graders, I had to walk our into the centre of the lake. I made sure I made the trip out as the sun was going down, so I could confidently find my way back by starlight.
On my trip out I was listening to 'Patina' by Peter Gregson, which always puts me perfectly in the mood for landscape photography. As the sun went down I put on an audiobook 'Leviathan Wakes' by James S. A. Corey, which has also been made into a TV show 'The Expanse' on Amazon Prime. Shooting these old rusty objects under the stars listening to science fiction was just perfect :)
