A couple of weeks ago, I was itching to go somewhere spectacular that I had never been before so after a couple of hours googling on Friday night I found out about a place called Lake Moogerah. In the wee hours of Saturday morning I got out of bed and made the 75 min journey from Brisbane to the lake in time for sunrise.
Immediately upon arriving I realised a couple of things: a) it was still really dark and b) this was going to be an amazing morning. I hopped out of my car and stared towards the faint glow coming from the horizon. I could just make out the shape of the mountains but I could see the lake. Well, I say I could see it but in reality I only knew it was there because of it's reflection. There was already too much light in the sky to get great astro shots but standing there in person meant I could see the stars reflected in it's stillness.
Reflection Shooting Time
I quickly set up my tripod and started shooting straight away. I pretty much knew exactly what I wanted and there was no time to waste. I put a wide lens on, manually focussed and took a couple of test shots to find the composition that I really liked. It was still so dark that I couldn't see the what I was taking a photo of! One 25 second long-exposure later and I managed to capture this stunning reflection shot.
I was absolutely blown away by the quality of the reflection. I knew from standing there that the water was still but I really had no idea how still until I saw the result of my long exposure photograph. I was even excited to see that there was still a star bright enough to appear in the image.
Exploration
Thrilled, I decided to go in search of another composition so I began walking around the edge of the lake. After about 10 minutes of walking I hadn't found anything as good as what I had. All I had managed to do was bury myself in super squelchy mud so I hurried back to my original location as the sunrise started to illuminate the sky with colour.
I had hoped to see the sky flash with spectacular oranges and pinks but what I got instead was probably even better. As the sun rose above the horizon it hit the side of what I now know to be Mount Greville really made it glow with this spectacular colour. The reflection on the lake had just been broken as the first water skiers made their way onto the lake and created the perfect ripples on the surface of the water.
Trying something new
Still shooting (slightly) long exposure, I waited for a passing skier and pressed the shutter. The photo itself is shot at 1/8 of a second but because the water skier is going so fast it produces this spectacular blur right through the main focal point of my image. Needless to say, I was pretty stoked!
Drone time
With the sun up, I decided it was time to put the drone up in the air. I turned on my DJI Mavic only to discover that it required a firmware update. So I had to sit there for 10 minutes and wait for it to download and install. I'm still pretty new to the world of drones and I hadn't quite learned that's its important to check that stuff beforehand. It's fair to say I've probably learned that lesson
A surprise visit
It was around this time that I heard some noises behind me and turned around to see a couple of wallabies hopping over towards me. They were later joined by a few others and at one point there were 6 wallabies grazing just over five metres away from me. It was a great way to end a spectacular morning at a place I had never even heard of, and yet is already one of my favourites.
