Waiting for light — David Taylor - Master Jeweller

4th August 2021

Sugar cane fields, Atherton 04/08/2021. Bushfire smoke and a sunset.

My wife for some time has been putting up with me waiting for the right light for photos. Often just a few minutes can make all the difference especially when there are clouds about. My wife and I just came back from two days up the Tablelands and we did a fair bit of light chasing. The photo above was taken on the way home after my wife asked me to pull over and wait for the light :)

On this trip our first stop was Lake Tinaroo. When we arrived there it was late afternoon but the sun was still very bright. We spent some time exploring the waters edge of a new location we have recently started stopping at.

The water level in the lake is still very high so you often see vegetation under water where it would normally not be.

The sun was starting to set and Yumi was quite happy to snap away at things she found of interest. She loves her iPhone.

We seem to discover things that we never get to find out what they are. We both have no idea what this is growing on a branch. Looks like a marsh-mellow ready to toast.

When Yumi thinks that the light is not going to be very good I get the “lets go!” stare and I know I need to hurry up.

It would soon be time to go anyway because the sun was starting to drop rapidly as a lone paddler made his way past us. I had a photo in mind to take before we left and was hoping for some colour in the sky.

I got a little bit of colour in the sky but Yumi insisted it would get no better, she was hungry and it was time to go. We were going. The weird grey line sections in the clouds is bushfire smoke.

Not far away and we were driving past Tinaroo Dam. They were releasing water and Yumi wanted to have a look.

As I took a photo of Yumi in front of the water gushing out the sky lit up red. We had not waited long enough back at the lakeside!

We were both hungry so we headed into Atherton and picked up some food. We then headed over to Ravenshoe to stay the night at Kool Moon where we had a lovely barbecue dinner.

McKenzie Falls, Ravenshoe, September 2020.

The plan the next day was to make our way into McKenzie Falls, A spot I have been trying to get a great photo at for a long time now. Even if the weather let me down I had some places in the area that I wanted to explore anyway.

Morning of the 04/08/2021 at Koolmoon Motel.

Sometimes on these trips I get up well before dawn to go on an adventure but this trip I was really tired so slept in until the sound of the local Rainbow Lorikeets feeding outside the room woke me. It was time to have a coffee and sit with the birds outside.

Morning of the 04/08/2021 at Koolmoon Motel. Red browed Finch

There is always a variety of birds in the Ravenshoe area and that morning outside our room were Red browed Finch in large numbers.

Beside McKenzie Falls, Ravenshoe, August 2021.

The trip to McKenzie Falls produced no outstanding photos but we did spend some lovely time sitting in the shade beside the large overflow pool there.

The track in/out of McKenzie Falls, 04/08/2021.

The river crossing on the way into McKenzie Falls gets much higher and faster than shown above. In fact my wife has crossed this same spot during much stronger water flow. That said on this day the rocks were very slippery and it was quite an event as we took our shoes off for the crossing. Yumi had a laugh when she saw this photo.

Having left McKenzie Falls we headed to Lake Eacham to have lunch during which we were joined by a Brush Turkey who at one stage jumped up onto the picnic table to try to steal food.

Lake Eacham, 04/08/2021. Turtles expecting to be fed.

After eating we went for a walk around the lake and the turtles started coming to the edge. You are not supposed to feed the turtles but it appears that many do ….so they come swimming in as soon as they see a human.

Lake Eacham, 04/08/2021. Turtles not being fed.

Once the turtles realised that we were not going to feed them they quickly dispersed. Like the turtle it was now time for us to leave and head down Gillies Range to home.

Sugar cane fields, Atherton 05/08/2021. Bushfire smoke and a sunset.

And now we are back to where I started at the beginning of this post. As we headed home we noticed that there was a lot of smoke blowing out of Wooroonooran National Park and over the tablelands.

Sugar cane fields, Atherton, August 2019

Back in August 2019 I got some lovely light on the top of the flowering sugar cane as the sun set. My wife was hoping for the same so she got me to stop.

My Wife’s photo with her iPhone. Sugar cane fields, Atherton 05/08/2021.

My wife uses an iPhone to take photos and the phone internally tweaks the colours to give all her photos a HDR look and saturate them. I am not the biggest fan of the look as I prefer the colours, light and shadows, to reflect as close to what I saw as possible. I should spend some time in her phone to turn some of that off.

That said she did capture the most colourful point of our stay there and the light hitting the top of the sugar cane perfectly. I wish I had taken this composition with my camera as I love this photo. With the smoke getting heavier and the sun lower we decided to keep on heading home.

The beautiful thing about knowing an area really well is that when great light comes you have some idea of where to go nearby to get a good composition. The sun got really red and with the smoke adding an interesting effect we were soon stopping again near the entrance to Gillies Range.

Another magic end to the day with my wife and it has happened at this spot quite a few times now. i took one of my favourite photos of all time at the same spot.

The last photo for the day is below.