The Dandenong Ranges are a set of low mountain ranges approximately 35km east of Melbourne City. It has many day hikes and features fabulous vegetation including lush tree ferns and giant Mountain Ash trees.
I decided to take my family to the Dandenongs mainly because I had never been there. I am relatively new to Victoria and had not got out as much as I should have since moving here a few years ago. While over a million people visit the Dandenongs each year, I have never been one of them.
It is a relatively close location. I consider anything under 3 hours drive relatively close, so we set off on Saturday morning with the aim of getting to the Dandenongs around mid morning. Driving from Bendigo is relatively easy. Just follow the Calder Freeway and the M80 ring road to the eastern suburbs, then link back onto the Burwood road and follow it East to Ferntree Gully.
We arrived at Ferntree Gully and decided the first walk we would tackle was the 1000 steps of the Ferntree Gully walk. It is a big uphill climb from Ferntree Gully to the lookout at One Tree Hill. Yep it sounded scary, but I thought it would be good preparation walk for the big Wilson's Prom Hike later in the year. So we loaded up with packs and water and took to the trail.
The walk is known as the Kokoda Track Memorial Walk, named in honour of the Australian and Allied Forces who battled the Japanese forces in New Guinea during World War 2. The Kokoda track is an isolated trail between Port Moresby and Kokoda, and features some of the most rugged terrain. The Japanese sought to Capture Port Moresby to use as a base to stage battles into Australia and to prevent Allied forces from using Australia as a base during the Second World War. After the unsuccessful amphibious assault known as the Battle of the Coral Sea, The Japanese attempted to take Port Moresby by land assault from the northern town of Kokoda. This would have succeeded had it not been for the stubborn resistance of a vastly outnumbered Australian and Allied force who met the Japanese along the track in a series of bloody battles.
So we headed up the track known as 1000 Steps. Now I didn't count them, but it sure felt like it was indeed 1000 steps. The walk is a steep walk, from the base at Ferntree Gully up to near One tree Hill lookout. My kids raced on, and they tackled it pretty easily, but I had to stop a few times. My excuse was I needed to take a photo or two, but in reality it was to allow my heart to catch with the rest of my body.
Lesson Learned No.1 - get fitter!!!. But that is what these day hikes are for so I won't stress too much about my fitness just yet.
Lesson learned No.2 - don't tell my kids that this hike is to make sure they are capable to keep up in the up coming Wilson's Prom Hike. They will only show you just who needs to prove they can keep up!
Lesson learned No.3 - Make sure in future hikes (even day hikes) that I tell my kids to pace themselves. While it didn't matter on this day, as we were only going to do a few day trails, but in bigger hikes, the challenge is to get through the whole thing, not just the first day.
The trail is a good walk but offers limited scenery to take snaps. Part of the difficulty is competing with the other users of the trail, especially those freaks that decide it is a good place to "run". Yes they were literally running up then down then back up and even showing off by doing push ups at the top...freaks!!! lol I guess the location is close to Melbourne and offers a great place for runners to get fit.
We did catch a glimpse of a female Lyrebird and it's young, which was marvelously spotted by my youngest. There were also some good examples of the lush tree ferns that the town of Ferntree Gully is named after.
This shot was taken about half way up, where the track widened slightly to allow me to shoot while the freaks ran around me. I took a single exposure on f/18 in Raw. I got down low to be able to get under the rail of the fence post that keeps us tourists out of the bush. Once back at home, I used the file and strengthened the saturation. I also added a warm photo filter using Photoshop to bring out the warm colours of the mountain ash in the background and the undergrowth in the foreground.
Having tackled the hill, we decided to walk the additional 600m to the One Tree Hill lookout. When we got there, we discovered that there was more than one tree and that we couldn't see any lookout. We had a good laugh at what my boys called an "epic fail". Ali, John and Danno decided they would walk back down the 1000 steps, while Sam and I decided to take an alternative route along a fire trail that ran somewhat parallel. We all met at the bottom at the Ferntree Gully Picnic grounds arriving at exactly the same time. Total distance covered was approximately 6km. A good warm up walk for the rest of the day.
Our next challenge was a trail called the Sherbrooke Falls Walk. We needed to drive a little distance to Sherbrooke road and parked at the O'Donohue Track Car Park. This allows access to both the O'Donohue Track as well as the track we had chosen for our next day hike, the Sherbrooke Track.
The next track is more like the kind of track I enjoy. It was a marked trail through some stunning vegetation. The Ferntrees were plentiful and of course, the giant mountain ash trees were towering above us. One particular tree caught my attention and I decided to lie down in the ground to attempt to capture it.
Like the previous shot of the ferntrees, I closed the aperture right up so I could get a depth of field that captured the whole length of the tree. I layed on the ground getting as close to the base as I could. The sky was always going to be difficult to meter being so much brighter so I used a circular polariser to just take the edge off, but you will still see a bit of wash out around the leaves at the top. One of the limitations of digital cameras I guess.
I always choose the setting in the camera that shoots both jpg and RAW. While this takes up more memory on the card, it allows me the option of being able to fully process the shot once I get home. The jpg allows me a quicker preview than having to use Adobe Bridge or Lightroom. I simply look at the jpgs then select the corresponding RAW file to import into Adobe Lightroom for processing. That's just my little way, while others simply import everything in and go from there.
Once imported into Lightroom, I played with the saturation and contrast, and then exported three exposures as TIFF files into a folder on my desktop. TIFF keeps a lot of the detail that Jpg loses, and allows a better processing to start with. I blended these exposures using Photomatix to bring out the dynamic range, using a compression setting, and tweaking the settings. Once satisfied I exported it as a jpg file for final editing in Photoshop.
Once back in Photoshop, I played with cropping to frame the tree. I always create a background layer copy then Ctrl T to adjust crop and rotate. This allow me to maintain the original image size which helps later when you go to a lab to get prints.
Getting back to the walk, once again my kids raced off (it was a defined trail so I was not concerned. Boys will be boys). This time i really did take my time snapping away with my little baby camera. The walk was leisurely and not overly difficult. suitable for all levels of walking. The trails were clearly marked.
We headed for Sherbrooke Falls which is the highlight of the track. The Parks Authority have recently built a bridge which acts as a viewing platform for visitors to view the falls. When we got there, I couldn't help but feel just a little disappointed. The falls were little more than a trickling creek running over a couple of rocks. Compared to the wonderful falls of the Otways National Park, these were an anticlimax.
So we decided to get off the defined track and travel downstream a little to see if we could find anything a little more exciting. I am not sure you are supposed to do this, with the trails railed to prevent the like of me and the boys from going walkabout. But I figure there were no real fences, just a rail, and it is a public park after all and did not have any cliffs or overly dangerous things to be aware of except maybe snakes. We soon discovered some old steps that had been carved in the rocks which led downstream. Clearly others had been here before us, and I felt it was a shame the authorites didn't allow the general (behaved) public to use these steps.
Just downstream, the kids had a chance to splash in the creek and cool off while I set up the tripod and captured the creek.
The two creek shots were captured using Shutter Priority setting. I set up the tripod which ws not easy as it was difficult finding a place to position the feet that would allow me the point of view I wanted to capture. I put a ND4 neutral density filter on the lense to allow me to slow down the shutter speed. The neutral density are a great little filter as they do not interfere with colour, but allow you to stop down or slow down your shutter.
In this case I selected 0.5 second shutter speed. It was slow enough to allow me to capture any movement in the water, and to get that silky smooth feel. But slowing down the shutter also means that you capture any movement, so if the wind blows even slightly, you can get blurring in the leaves as the ferns and grasses move.
The only treatment I applied later was to play a little with sharpening and to increase the saturation just a little. looking back I think the top creek shot was a little too sharp, but that can be fixed.
After the splash and the rest of the photo shoot, a bite to eat and more drink, we started heading back to the car taking our rubbish with us of course. The boys have learned from an early age that the only thing you leave behind is footprints, and the only thing you take with you is photos (and memories).
The walk in total is a fairly easy 5-6km round trip. There is a little bit of up and down, but certainly not as taxing as the earlier walk. As we reached the car we had done about 10-11 kilometres for the day and the kids were in good shape. Rather than do another walk for the day, we decided to return some day in the future and try out some of the numerous other walks, There is also the famous Puffing Billy steam train that the boys might enjoy on another occasion. Certainly it is a lovely place to explore.
Instead we loaded up the car and headed into St Kilda to have an evening splash in Port Phillip before heading back home.
Lesson learned No.1 - Need a better light weight tripod. The one I have is hopeless.
Lesson learned No.2 - 10-12km per day is very manageable, with everyone being in good spirits at the end of the day.
I decided to take my family to the Dandenongs mainly because I had never been there. I am relatively new to Victoria and had not got out as much as I should have since moving here a few years ago. While over a million people visit the Dandenongs each year, I have never been one of them.
It is a relatively close location. I consider anything under 3 hours drive relatively close, so we set off on Saturday morning with the aim of getting to the Dandenongs around mid morning. Driving from Bendigo is relatively easy. Just follow the Calder Freeway and the M80 ring road to the eastern suburbs, then link back onto the Burwood road and follow it East to Ferntree Gully.
We arrived at Ferntree Gully and decided the first walk we would tackle was the 1000 steps of the Ferntree Gully walk. It is a big uphill climb from Ferntree Gully to the lookout at One Tree Hill. Yep it sounded scary, but I thought it would be good preparation walk for the big Wilson's Prom Hike later in the year. So we loaded up with packs and water and took to the trail.
The walk is known as the Kokoda Track Memorial Walk, named in honour of the Australian and Allied Forces who battled the Japanese forces in New Guinea during World War 2. The Kokoda track is an isolated trail between Port Moresby and Kokoda, and features some of the most rugged terrain. The Japanese sought to Capture Port Moresby to use as a base to stage battles into Australia and to prevent Allied forces from using Australia as a base during the Second World War. After the unsuccessful amphibious assault known as the Battle of the Coral Sea, The Japanese attempted to take Port Moresby by land assault from the northern town of Kokoda. This would have succeeded had it not been for the stubborn resistance of a vastly outnumbered Australian and Allied force who met the Japanese along the track in a series of bloody battles.
So we headed up the track known as 1000 Steps. Now I didn't count them, but it sure felt like it was indeed 1000 steps. The walk is a steep walk, from the base at Ferntree Gully up to near One tree Hill lookout. My kids raced on, and they tackled it pretty easily, but I had to stop a few times. My excuse was I needed to take a photo or two, but in reality it was to allow my heart to catch with the rest of my body.
Lesson Learned No.1 - get fitter!!!. But that is what these day hikes are for so I won't stress too much about my fitness just yet.
Lesson learned No.2 - don't tell my kids that this hike is to make sure they are capable to keep up in the up coming Wilson's Prom Hike. They will only show you just who needs to prove they can keep up!
Lesson learned No.3 - Make sure in future hikes (even day hikes) that I tell my kids to pace themselves. While it didn't matter on this day, as we were only going to do a few day trails, but in bigger hikes, the challenge is to get through the whole thing, not just the first day.
 |
| Me and the boys resting at the top of the 1000 step track |
The trail is a good walk but offers limited scenery to take snaps. Part of the difficulty is competing with the other users of the trail, especially those freaks that decide it is a good place to "run". Yes they were literally running up then down then back up and even showing off by doing push ups at the top...freaks!!! lol I guess the location is close to Melbourne and offers a great place for runners to get fit.
We did catch a glimpse of a female Lyrebird and it's young, which was marvelously spotted by my youngest. There were also some good examples of the lush tree ferns that the town of Ferntree Gully is named after.
 |
| The beautiful Ferntree |
This shot was taken about half way up, where the track widened slightly to allow me to shoot while the freaks ran around me. I took a single exposure on f/18 in Raw. I got down low to be able to get under the rail of the fence post that keeps us tourists out of the bush. Once back at home, I used the file and strengthened the saturation. I also added a warm photo filter using Photoshop to bring out the warm colours of the mountain ash in the background and the undergrowth in the foreground.
Having tackled the hill, we decided to walk the additional 600m to the One Tree Hill lookout. When we got there, we discovered that there was more than one tree and that we couldn't see any lookout. We had a good laugh at what my boys called an "epic fail". Ali, John and Danno decided they would walk back down the 1000 steps, while Sam and I decided to take an alternative route along a fire trail that ran somewhat parallel. We all met at the bottom at the Ferntree Gully Picnic grounds arriving at exactly the same time. Total distance covered was approximately 6km. A good warm up walk for the rest of the day.
Our next challenge was a trail called the Sherbrooke Falls Walk. We needed to drive a little distance to Sherbrooke road and parked at the O'Donohue Track Car Park. This allows access to both the O'Donohue Track as well as the track we had chosen for our next day hike, the Sherbrooke Track.
The next track is more like the kind of track I enjoy. It was a marked trail through some stunning vegetation. The Ferntrees were plentiful and of course, the giant mountain ash trees were towering above us. One particular tree caught my attention and I decided to lie down in the ground to attempt to capture it.
Like the previous shot of the ferntrees, I closed the aperture right up so I could get a depth of field that captured the whole length of the tree. I layed on the ground getting as close to the base as I could. The sky was always going to be difficult to meter being so much brighter so I used a circular polariser to just take the edge off, but you will still see a bit of wash out around the leaves at the top. One of the limitations of digital cameras I guess.
I always choose the setting in the camera that shoots both jpg and RAW. While this takes up more memory on the card, it allows me the option of being able to fully process the shot once I get home. The jpg allows me a quicker preview than having to use Adobe Bridge or Lightroom. I simply look at the jpgs then select the corresponding RAW file to import into Adobe Lightroom for processing. That's just my little way, while others simply import everything in and go from there.
Once imported into Lightroom, I played with the saturation and contrast, and then exported three exposures as TIFF files into a folder on my desktop. TIFF keeps a lot of the detail that Jpg loses, and allows a better processing to start with. I blended these exposures using Photomatix to bring out the dynamic range, using a compression setting, and tweaking the settings. Once satisfied I exported it as a jpg file for final editing in Photoshop.
Once back in Photoshop, I played with cropping to frame the tree. I always create a background layer copy then Ctrl T to adjust crop and rotate. This allow me to maintain the original image size which helps later when you go to a lab to get prints.
Getting back to the walk, once again my kids raced off (it was a defined trail so I was not concerned. Boys will be boys). This time i really did take my time snapping away with my little baby camera. The walk was leisurely and not overly difficult. suitable for all levels of walking. The trails were clearly marked.
We headed for Sherbrooke Falls which is the highlight of the track. The Parks Authority have recently built a bridge which acts as a viewing platform for visitors to view the falls. When we got there, I couldn't help but feel just a little disappointed. The falls were little more than a trickling creek running over a couple of rocks. Compared to the wonderful falls of the Otways National Park, these were an anticlimax.
So we decided to get off the defined track and travel downstream a little to see if we could find anything a little more exciting. I am not sure you are supposed to do this, with the trails railed to prevent the like of me and the boys from going walkabout. But I figure there were no real fences, just a rail, and it is a public park after all and did not have any cliffs or overly dangerous things to be aware of except maybe snakes. We soon discovered some old steps that had been carved in the rocks which led downstream. Clearly others had been here before us, and I felt it was a shame the authorites didn't allow the general (behaved) public to use these steps.
Just downstream, the kids had a chance to splash in the creek and cool off while I set up the tripod and captured the creek.
 | |||
| Danno, Ali and John, Cooling off |
The two creek shots were captured using Shutter Priority setting. I set up the tripod which ws not easy as it was difficult finding a place to position the feet that would allow me the point of view I wanted to capture. I put a ND4 neutral density filter on the lense to allow me to slow down the shutter speed. The neutral density are a great little filter as they do not interfere with colour, but allow you to stop down or slow down your shutter.
In this case I selected 0.5 second shutter speed. It was slow enough to allow me to capture any movement in the water, and to get that silky smooth feel. But slowing down the shutter also means that you capture any movement, so if the wind blows even slightly, you can get blurring in the leaves as the ferns and grasses move.
The only treatment I applied later was to play a little with sharpening and to increase the saturation just a little. looking back I think the top creek shot was a little too sharp, but that can be fixed.
After the splash and the rest of the photo shoot, a bite to eat and more drink, we started heading back to the car taking our rubbish with us of course. The boys have learned from an early age that the only thing you leave behind is footprints, and the only thing you take with you is photos (and memories).
The walk in total is a fairly easy 5-6km round trip. There is a little bit of up and down, but certainly not as taxing as the earlier walk. As we reached the car we had done about 10-11 kilometres for the day and the kids were in good shape. Rather than do another walk for the day, we decided to return some day in the future and try out some of the numerous other walks, There is also the famous Puffing Billy steam train that the boys might enjoy on another occasion. Certainly it is a lovely place to explore.
Instead we loaded up the car and headed into St Kilda to have an evening splash in Port Phillip before heading back home.
Lesson learned No.1 - Need a better light weight tripod. The one I have is hopeless.
Lesson learned No.2 - 10-12km per day is very manageable, with everyone being in good spirits at the end of the day.
There has been much debate in Australia about whether it should be called the "Kokoda Trail" or the "Kokoda Track". The monument at Owers Corner uses both terms: "Track" on one side and "Trail" on the other.According to historian Stuart Hawthorne, before World War II, the route was referred to as "the overland mail route" or "the Buna road". He states that "Kokoda Trail" became common because of its use in Australian newspapers during the war.Kokoda Track
ReplyDeleteHi Johnny, love your photos. Would I be able to use one of them in my newsletter? Happy to give you credit off course. Please contact me heywow@leady.com.au.
ReplyDeleteThanks,
Wayne
Wayne. I have no problem with you using the photos in your newsletter, providing the newsletter is not used for commercial purposes. Please acknowledge me as the photographer. I would also love to receive a copy for my records if that is not too much trouble.
DeleteKind regards
John Bullen