Exploring Intimate Landscape Photography at Dumaresq Dam
16/08/26
It’s not often I shoot on a Sunday, at least not commercially. After all, it is the Lord’s Day, or so they say. This was one of those rare occasions, however, and while it’s not a project I can talk about just yet, I can say that it was shot out at Dumaresq Dam, and that longtime collaborator Evelyn from Peacock Photography joined me.
Even though I can’t really talk about the shoot itself, I can obviously talk all I like about the photo walk around the outside of the dam that we went on afterwards. Dumaresq Dam is a location I’ve shot at many times now, both professionally and for fun, and seeing it—or at least the first half of the track—recovering from bushfire damage was quite surreal, even with the fire having taken place months ago. I guess recovery takes even longer during the colder months. Where there was once knee-high, blade-like grass, there was now short green grass, fully exposing the absolutely wild amount of granite found throughout the area. I knew the region was rocky, but I didn’t know it was THAT rocky.
Despite how interesting the landscape was, actually finding subjects proved to be a struggle. I did, however, find a few burned-out sections of the environment and some farming infrastructure that I thought were interesting enough to capture.
Evelyn and I also went off the main track a bit for some location scouting, in the hope of finding some good spots for future portrait sessions. We did manage to find a pretty collapsed tree, and while it was easy for Evelyn to climb up onto, actually finding a safe place among the brambles to take photos was a different story. Still, I think the spot has potential, especially in the morning light rather than the high afternoon sun.
It’s felt great over the last few weeks to actually get out and take photos again, and with my parents visiting soon with a nice little road trip planned, as well as some new camera goodies on the way, I have a feeling the next few weeks might be even better.
