I started out the morning in search of a Rufous Bristlebird. Ihave been told they are fairly common in several of the parking lots along Great Ocean Road as long as you arrive early, before the sightseers. Knowing that, I arrived just after sunrise at the Loch Ard Gorge parking lot and without too much trouble, Isaw the bird. Nice to finally see one as I have heard them a couple of different times but hadn't actually laid eyes on the bird yet. The only problem was the birds didn't want to be seen on anything but pavement. Either they were deep in the heath and invisible or in the middle of the carpark. Not exactly ideal for photographing. Add to that the intermittent cloud cover, I gave up after a while and moved on.
As Iwas leaving, I remembered that Carrie and I had seen Striated Fieldwrens along the trail down to the Grotto when we were here earlier in the month. I decided I would give them a shot since I was all set up for photographing birds. Sure enough, after about 10 minutes I located the birds and managed to get some photos. This particular image was taken just as the sun poked through the cloud cover illuminating the bird in wonderful warm light. I am quite pleased with this image. After the birds moved on, so did I. The rest of the morning was spent relaxing and trying to get some things organized as well as changing out film for my 4"x5".
This evening, Ireturned to London Bridge to photograph it earlier than yesterday when the light was right. Still not what I envisioned, but at least it was better. After that I didn't have much of a plan. The cloud cover was still there so there wasn't a lot of hope for a great sunset. However, clouds are strange like that. They can be a blessing or a curse. Either they light up and give an other wise empty sky some wonderful color, or they block out the sun and leave everything gray. It is often hard to tell but I had a feeling that tonight would be the latter. Despite that Ifound a spot just to the west of the 12 Apostles, where I could look back to the east along the coast line and photograph the apostles if the light turned out to be good.
I got set up a couple hours before sunset and waited. There were a few chances when the sun broke through for a few seconds but sunset itself was looking pretty hopeless. Still, I waited. Finally, just minutes before the sun wouold have dropped below the horizon, it broke through the clouds. The light illuminated the apostles with a soft orange glow for about 30 seconds before it dropped into another cloud bank and eventually the horizon. It was so fast that I only got to use the 4"x5" so I will have to wait a long while before I get to see the image but I think it will be well worth the wait. We will just have to see.
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