Travel Snowy River National Park

[DaveC Oz]

Wasn't quite sure where to put this. I've already shared some of these in more specific forums, but also wanted an overall post.
Last week I drove to McKillops Bridge on the Snowy River. One of only two road bridges across the Snowy River it was initially completed in 1931. A few days before it was to be officially opened the river flooded, and the bridge was swept off it pylons. When they rebuilt it, the height was raised by another 14m (43ft). Once the Snowy Hydro dams were built the experts declared that the river would never again flood that badly. I have actually seen photo's of the 1971 floods, which while not destroying the bridge did fill the valley so that all that was visible of the bridge was the top of the side rails. 31m(nearly100ft) above the normal river level. Just off the road into the bridge are the Little River Falls, and the Little River Gorge, the deepest gorge in Victoria.

My camping spot, and the nearby river.

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McKillops Bridge

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The lighter concrete marks the original bridge height, in the foreground is the 8-9m flood marker.

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Not exactly a super highway over the bridge, but it works.

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[Richard A]

I love the Snowy Mountains. I have a photo, actually a stitched panorama, of the very upper reaches of the Snowy River, taken from the lookout at Charlottes Pass.

The area looks very peaceful & uninhabited while you were there.

 

[DaveC Oz]

The last 12 km into the bridge are very narrow and winding, if you meet a vehicle travelling in the opposite direction, one of you needs to reverse to a wider section of the road.

• E 28-200mm F2.8-5.6 A071
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but what a view...

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Clouds in Little River Gorge

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Little River Gorge

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Sunrise catching the clouds over the gorge.

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4 shot panorama of the gorge from the lookout

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[DaveC Oz]

I love the Snowy Mountains. I have a photo, actually a stitched panorama, of the very upper reaches of the Snowy River, taken from the lookout at Charlottes Pass.

The area looks very peaceful & uninhabited while you were there.

That's also a magnificent area. It was fairly quiet, I encountered about 7 or 8 other people in the area. Only two others camping. it helps that as well as being remote, and a challenging drive for many, caravans and trailers are not allowed. So anyone staying in the area needs a camper van or tent, and at this time of year most don't like the thought of tents.

 

[Richard A]

So where does that road go to - from? What was the temperature? Was it cold?

 

[DaveC Oz]

The road follows an old mountain cattleman's track. It heads east from the Barry Way (Buchan to Jindabyne) around 40km south of NSW, crosses the Snowy, and joins up with the Bonang Rd. which joins Orbost to Bombala then Cooma.

 

[Richard A]

I'll have to have a look at that. I'll be going over to that area later in the year.

 

[DaveC Oz]

Little River Falls, at the entrance to the gorge

• E 28-200mm F2.8-5.6 A071
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• E 28-200mm F2.8-5.6 A071
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• E 28-200mm F2.8-5.6 A071
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• ƒ/5
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• E 28-200mm F2.8-5.6 A071
• 28.0 mm
• ƒ/5
• 1/60 sec
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Some neighbourhood drop ins

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[Richard A]

Very nice. You can't beat the Australian bush! Any idea what the yellow breasted bird is?

I didn't want to hijack your thread so I have uploaded my Snowy River panorama to my gallery if you want to have a look. It is 12 vertical photos taken with my Sony RX100miii stitched together.

 

[DaveC Oz]

The yellow breasted bird I am informed is an Eastern Yellow Robin. There were several of them that got fairly close to me as I sat quietly at my campsite.

 

[DaveC Oz]

The main objective of my visit was a plan to take advantage of the Bortle1 dark sky to capture the Milky Way core over the bridge. When I arrived on the Monday afternoon it looked promising. Clear skies as the sun set, but an hour later, just as the core was due to rise over the horizon, clouds rolled in. Tuesday was almost cloudless from midday until dusk, when thick clouds formed. So I returned to camp, figuring that it was a wasted trip for astrophotography. At just after 3 on Wednesday morning I was woken up by a territorial dispute between some kangaroos, poked my head out of the tent, and discovered clear sky. I hadn't scouted locations for this time of the night, but got myself to the bridge. Scrambled through undergrowth, and over rocks, set myself up, and started shooting.

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• ILCE-7CR
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• Viltrox 16mm F1.8 FE
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[alexpler]

The main objective of my visit was a plan to take advantage of the Bortle1 dark sky to capture the Milky Way core over the bridge. When I arrived on the Monday afternoon it looked promising. Clear skies as the sun set, but an hour later, just as the core was due to rise over the horizon, clouds rolled in. Tuesday was almost cloudless from midday until dusk, when thick clouds formed. So I returned to camp, figuring that it was a wasted trip for astrophotography. At just after 3 on Wednesday morning I was woken up by a territorial dispute between some kangaroos, poked my head out of the tent, and discovered clear sky. I hadn't scouted locations for this time of the night, but got myself to the bridge. Scrambled through undergrowth, and over rocks, set myself up, and started shooting.View attachment 61091View attachment 61092View attachment 61093View attachment 61094View attachment 61095View attachment 61096View attachment 61097

The last picture is stunning, very cinematic. I like the bright bridge in the middle of the sky.

 

[TerryL]

The main objective of my visit was a plan to take advantage of the Bortle1 dark sky to capture the Milky Way core over the bridge. When I arrived on the Monday afternoon it looked promising. Clear skies as the sun set, but an hour later, just as the core was due to rise over the horizon, clouds rolled in. Tuesday was almost cloudless from midday until dusk, when thick clouds formed. So I returned to camp, figuring that it was a wasted trip for astrophotography. At just after 3 on Wednesday morning I was woken up by a territorial dispute between some kangaroos, poked my head out of the tent, and discovered clear sky. I hadn't scouted locations for this time of the night, but got myself to the bridge. Scrambled through undergrowth, and over rocks, set myself up, and started shooting.View attachment 61091View attachment 61092View attachment 61093View attachment 61094View attachment 61095View attachment 61096View attachment 61097

You did a fine job on this project.

 

[Richard A]

At just after 3 on Wednesday morning I was woken up by a territorial dispute between some kangaroos, poked my head out of the tent, and discovered clear sky. I hadn't scouted locations for this time of the night, but got myself to the bridge. Scrambled through undergrowth, and over rocks, set myself up, and started shooting.View attachment 61091View attachment 61092View attachment 61093View attachment 61094View attachment 61095View attachment 61096View attachment 61097

You're a brave man! Well done. Do you have a starting point for your exposure & then just try different settings? I guess some of these are stacked - how do you decide on colour balance etc. in PP?

 

[DaveC Oz]

The last picture is stunning, very cinematic. I like the bright bridge in the middle of the sky.

Thankyou, in my rush to get the shots I left nearly all my lighting in the tent, this shot was lit via torchlight reflected off the sand bank I was on.

You did a fine job on this project.

Thankyou.

You're a brave man! Well done. Do you have a starting point for your exposure & then just try different settings? I guess some of these are stacked - how do you decide on colour balance etc. in PP?

Not really that brave. I have had many years of early morning starts for work/callouts, so I'm in the habit of just getting up and going when I need to, and I know this area quite well.
Except for the first shot, which is a jpg from a SOOC single raw file taken to check my camera aim the Astro photo's are all 25 image stacks. I use Sequator to do the stacking. For exposure, I usually shoot at a wide open aperture, and limit my maximum shutter speed to the pin point star time calculated in the PhotoPills app. In this case 8 seconds. I try to set the camera ISO low enough to limit noise, but high enough that you have some idea of the single images captured, The camera has a built in intervalometer setting, so once set up it's just a matter of triggering the shutter and being patient while it does the work over the next few minutes.
Colour balance is a bit trickier. I'm still very much in the learner phase for post processing work. I usually push the exposure to bring out a foreground feature, adjust colour balance for that, then dial back exposure to taste, but some images I end up with 4 or 5 different edits, each one highlighting a different aspect.
My original planned shoot was to use my star tracker for long exposure star shots, then composite those with foreground shots. To get all of my gear to where I ended up shooting from would have been near impossible in the time I had. So it was literally just the camera a torch, and the tripod.

 

[Ralph]

This area is on my hit list here in our homeland. So to that I like what you have posted as it only make me want to get the quicker now.
Well done mate great job.