::ROAD TRIPPIN ::

Wilson Prom

"Sinking into The Blue"

Hi there, thought I would document a road trip for you. Road trips are always fun and there is normally always a story behind the images. I hope you enjoy it.

The Prom, or Wilsons Promontory National Park is the southern most tip of mainland Australia. It is extremely photogenic with its very distinctive boulders that adorn a red lichen. And being the most southern tip of the mainland it is very open to the southern weather patterns. If you are looking for raw emotion in seascape images then the Prom can turn on some very interesting weather. I was pretty excited heading down there as the forecast looked Interesting.

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My trip started Saturday afternoon, my plan was to get to Tidal River and set up camp, then head out for a sunset shoot. I boarded the Queenscliff car ferry and headed across to Sorento. I was up on the top deck as the ferry left and was looking at the clouds, they were amazing, there was a big V shaped cloud that pointed down to The Rip. I think your Photo Brain never really turns off as I was looking at it making a mental composition in my head. It was just too good not to shoot so I raced down to the car deck to grab my camera. Dam some idiot has parked 2" from my bumper and I can't open the back barn doors on my wagon, let alone slide out the draws that hold my camera gear. I guess the lesson is always have your camera with you. Those of you that know me know that I am the only person on the planet that does not have a smart phone, well that is about to change and I look forward to taking a lot of record/candid shots and some video too when I get this new toy.

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Whisky Bay - 25mm f16 4 sec - click to enlarge

I arrived at Tidal River just after 6pm, sunset was 7.30pm so all going well until I saw how packed out the camp ground was. I normally only come here off season so it was a bit of a shock. The camp ground has 480 sites so it holds a lot of people, after 2 laps I chose a spot and put up the tent, the other annoying thing was as the day had progressed all the intense clouds were dissipating. As I am sure all of you have had, I have had a lot of fruitless trips, its the nature of the beast, sometimes the weather is good for photos, sometimes not.
I saw on the way in that Whisky Bay was open, it has been closed for ages due to extensive flooding... so off I raced.
The cloud had all but nearly disappeared, that is so cruel, all day I watched these clouds with my excitement growing and then an hour before sunset the skies clear.
Anyway I did get some good shots, after shooting the above shot, I noticed that the cloud above was quite dramatic, so I put on a 20mm lens and shot a vertical.

Whisky Bay - 20mm f16 20 sec - click to enlarge

• 7.45pm     Finished shooting
• 8.30pm    Dinner
• 9.00pm     A night cap while enjoying the calm night, star gazing and chilling out
• 9.30pm     Bed
• 10.00       ZZZzzzz
• 3.00am     Woken by a wind storm, is my new tent going to survive ??
• 6.15am     Alarm goes off

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Sunday morning was amazing to say the least, the intense clouds had come back and the first pre dawn light looked pretty good. I headed to Squeaky beach and had the whole place to myself.
I was in what I call "Excited Puppy Mode" when things seem to be too good to be true. The sun was rising directly behind me and the sky was going pink.

"Red Light" - 25mm f14 2 sec - click to enlarge

The red light softens - 25mm f16 5 sec- click to enlarge

The amazing pink light didn't last long, Oh well I thought , that was pretty good. In my next shot I noticed that the light was now hitting the end of Norman Island, thats pretty cool, but surely it won't light the whole island ?? ...... wrong, it DID and I was wagging my tail again.

The sun hits the island and lights it like a slow burning wick - 25mm f16 6 sec - click to enlarge

"The fuse is lit" - f11 2 sec - click to enlarge

It was an amazing moment to see the island illuminated under such an intense sky. I guess it is moments like this that keep me going and give me motivation.

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Back to camp for breakfast and then off to explore some new locations.....

40mm f11 90 sec - click to enlarge

25mm f16 60 sec - click to enlarge

The above image is an interesting one, it was a solid 2 hour walk to this spot, the wind was howling and I mean it was dangerously strong and there were very few safe spots to set up for an image. When you look at this image, none of this is evident, I nearly didn't take any shots as it was all too hard ... glad I did though.

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I headed to Picnic Bay for a sunset shoot, it was a very high tide so I opted to get up on the rocks for a vantage point and thankfully the wind had subsided.

25mm f 16 1.3 sec - click to enlarge

25mm f 16 3.2 sec - click to enlarge

I arrived back to a deserted campsite, being Sunday night most of them had gone home. Dinner, a quick review of my images and an early night. I had decided that in the morning I would photograph the top end of Squeaky Beach. I had taken my students here on a workshop last year and it is a great spot.

" Big Mouth" 40mm f11 0.6 sec - click to enlarge

" The Ledge " 25mm f11 5 sec - click to enlarge

Back to camp, packed up and headed for home, got to the car ferry with one minute to spare [gotta love precision timing] , home, unpacked, downloaded photos bla bla bla ...

Thanks for reading and if you like the look of Wilsons Prom then head there yourself or you can join me on a workshop in August, 4 students only and the Theme is "Learning to See"

Workshop details are here

Cheers and Thanks, Dean Cooper