Lake Tyrrell Twilight Mallee for Skywatch Friday

 

The twilight hour here is a faithful promise of beauty when the weather is clear and the sky carries not a single wandering cloud, the horizon blushes in bands of pink and blue, while the still water below gathers every colour into its mirrored skin, as though the evening itself has folded gently upon the earth.

Sony A7RV

FE 16-35mm f2.8 GM

Linking Skywatch Friday

A tiny lagoon near Sea Lake in Victoria for Skywatch Friday

 

In the far reaches of Victoria’s Mallee country, the pink lagoons lie waiting through most of the year — shallow basins of salt and silence baked pale beneath an endless sky. For months they are little more than cracked earth and memory, until a rare torrential rain arrives and briefly awakens them. Then the landscape transforms. Water gathers in thin luminous sheets, and the salt begins to blush again with that improbable tint of rose, as though the land itself has remembered colour after a long drought.

In this photograph, the foreground carries only the faintest trace of pink, delicate as diluted watercolour, while beyond it the lagoons surrender to cool bands of blue beneath the open sky. The transition feels almost dreamlike — a meeting of two temperaments in the same water: one warm and mineral, the other vast and atmospheric. The stillness of the scene makes the colours appear even more fragile, as though the next gust of wind might dissolve them entirely.

And now another anticipation gathers on the horizon. After six long years, Sony is finally preparing the successor to the Sony Alpha 7R V. The familiar cycle begins again: rumours, leaked specifications, late-night reading, the restless calculation of lenses and trade-ins. Somewhere soon, an old camera body will quietly find its way onto eBay, making room for whatever new machine emerges from Tokyo’s engineers.

There is always a peculiar excitement before a new camera arrives — not merely the promise of sharper files or faster autofocus, but the feeling that one’s eyes themselves may become renewed. Two months from now, perhaps, the next journey back to the Mallee lagoons will begin with fresh equipment in hand, chasing once again that fleeting marriage of pink water, blue distance, and silence after rain.

Sony A7RV

FE 20-70mm f4 G

Linking Skywatch Friday

Piangil Night Sky with light painting for Skywatch Friday

 

Piangil lies approximately half an hour’s drive beyond Swan Hill in Victoria, situated near the threshold of the Australian outback. A modest rural locality surrounded by flat open farmland and distant horizon lines, it offers a profound stillness, especially under the vast dome of the night sky. This particular photograph was taken several years ago, during a period when I was deeply passionate about the art of light painting. At that time, I did not hesitate to rise in the small hours of the night, load the car with equipment, and make the journey into such remote reaches for the sake of a single frame of long-exposure magic.

How times have changed. These days, I find myself lacking the same energy or will to embark on such nocturnal expeditions. Age, it seems, makes its presence known not with fanfare but with small surrenders.

The lens I used then—a Laowa 12mm f/2.8, prized for its rectilinear precision and remarkable field of view—was sold a year later at a price that exceeded its original retail value. I remain mystified by the ways of eBay buyers; why one would pay more for a secondhand item than simply purchase it new from a reputable dealer escapes my understanding. Yet such are the strange economies of online marketplaces.

Sony A7RV

Laowa 12mm f2.8 

Linking Skywatch Friday

Sunday Best - Lake Tyrrell Topdown Panorama

 

I should have visited here more often. It has been over 8 months since I last visited. My boots are all filthy from the red dirt.

DJ Mini Pro4

Linking Sunday Best

Gonna take mum to another house inspection. Then head to Mount Martha for a photography site investigation with Joel. 

Nyah West Sunrise for Sunday Best

 

Nyah West is a tiny town in the outback. This is a sunrise shot that I rarely take in my hobby. 

Sony A7RV

FE 20-70mm f4

Linking Sunday Best

Orb Light Painting at Lake Tyrrell for Treasure Tuesday

 

It was a twilight moment. I decided to do an orb spin with my equipment. There is reflection too.

Sony A7RV

FE 14mm f1.8 GM

Linking Treasure Tuesday

Saltworks at Lake Tyrrell for Sunday Best

 

Third time in this location along the unsealed road of Salt works Rd. Many hares manically running away from me as I approached the lake side. I was meaning to go to a site with abandoned tractor coated by thick pink salt. I decided not to do that because of risk of being sand bombed. 

Sony A7RV

FE 14mm f1.8 GM

Summer is definitely here. Time to get physical and lose some weight. Gonna start intermittent fasting again. 

Linking Sunday Best

Lake Tyrrell for Skywatch Friday

 

Sunset bokeh is even prettier. 

Sony A7RV

FE 50mm f1.2 

Linking Skywatch Friday

Nyah West for Sunday Best

 

I was in Nyah Westing visiting a regular nursing home. It was literally frosty everywhere I walked. The typical morning glory

Sony A7RV

FE 135mm f1.8 GM

Linking Sunday Best

Lake Tyrrell reflection for Treasure Tuesday

 

Funny that I took a different style of landscape shot at this location over the years. 

Sony A7RV

FE 20-70mm f4

Linking Treasure Tuesday

Quambatook Abandoned Woolshed

 

The rustic and abandoned signs left inside a woolshed in Quambatook Vic

Sony A7RIV

Laowa 9mm f5.6

Linking Signs2

My corner of the world

The Sunrise in Nyah West, Victoria

 

I am a rural geriatrician. So, I provide consults to the remote nursing homes in Vic-NSW border towns. This sunrise view is the bonus view I often get. This only last 5 minutes or so before the sky became a wonton. 

The only concern is that big trucks and cargo carriers often speed without a worry in the world. Taking a shot by the roadside is quite risky. 

Sony A7RIV

FE 50mm f1.2 GM

Sunrise

Light Tunnel on Broadwalk in Lake Tyrrell

 

My buddy from US is visiting. He is taking 2 kids to visit his parents in Australia. We were very good friends in medical school. All these ups and downs in study and career in the younger years resurfaced from the memory lane. 

I am not sure he will be into urban cheap eats or something more into the wilderness like the crazy adventures that I do. 

The recent obsession is Urbex in which I do not think a lot of people are into it. I often smell crap and human wastes in these abandoned urban sites. 

This image was taken in Lake Tyrrell again - a place I often frequent when I work in these remote outback towns. The light painting is done by an optic tube. 

Sony A7RIV

FE 14mm f1.8 GM

Night images

Lake Tyrrell Night

Mallee sky every night, Australia

 

Mallee region is said to be the part of outbreak if spies and murderers want to disappear from the world. However, I dont see any of them at all.

After work in regional towns, I always love to stop by the sides of road enjoying the sky.

Sony A7RIV

FE 16-35mm f2.8 GM

Night posts