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It has been a while but I am finally working my way back with a new photo. In May, we travelled to the state of Victoria on the eastern side of Australia in search of autumn, woodlands, rainforest, waterfalls and mountains. We found most of them and enjoyed the trip very much. We even found a touch of early winter here and there. Photographically, it was a bit mixed, but hopefully I have a few new images to share with you. This trip took the best part of four weeks and once we returned I just took a little while to get back up to speed with photo processing.
Today's image comes from that recent trip and it was taken in the mountain region of Baw Baw National Park, east of Melbourne. We departed for the day not long after sunrise and we were driving on a narrow winding road through some woodlands. As we turned one of the corners, I noticed this amazing light coming through the remnants of the morning fog. We saw patches of it earlier, sitting low down in the valley, and I was hoping that we would encounter it somewhere along the way. We immediately stopped the car and I got out to take a couple of shots. It was very quiet and there were no other cars passing through the area, so I was able to take my time to make the most of the light.
I especially liked the way the light seemed to be spreading out from behind the group of thin trees on the side of the road. I positioned the tress just slightly off centre to the right because I also liked the way the light was reaching the bush on the hill on the side of the road. The gravel road led in nicely through the foreground to further direct the vision towards the sunlight. I did not need to use a tripod as I was able to use fast enough shutter speed. I moved around to try different angles but here it was definitely a case of the first impression being the strongest one in my mind. Sometimes I find that it is the first instinct which produces the best results and over thinking the scene does not always lead to better images.
I took few different exposures but did not need to blend them in processing. I used them to be able to pick the best one to work with later. I did not mind to keep most of the woodland dark, as long as I did not blow any of the highlights. I wanted subtle detail to be present to give context and dimension to the scene but it was the light where my attention was drawn to the most. Post processing work was fairly minimal. I pushed the contrast a little to emphasise the rays of light, as well as applying dodging and burning to build dimension and depth. I finished off with colour adjustments to add a bit of warmth to the light and to cool the shadows just a touch. We did not encounter quite as much foggy conditions during the entire trip as I was hoping so this was a welcome sight to my eyes.
Hopefully, now that I got myself all sorted again, I will be able to resume regular weekly (or more frequent) posting. I tend to keep away from social media when we are travelling and this time it just took a little longer to shake that off after coming back. We have no long travel plans until later in the year and this should allow be to get back into my processing and posting groove. I look forward to sharing interesting new places and photos with you in the coming weeks, and also to seeing your wonderful work.
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