We are in the Gippsland Lakes for a week or two, attending to some maintenance on Take It Easy. It was the ideal opportunity for Photographer friend, Leanne Cole, to join us on board for a couple of days. It was a special treat to be together, try different techniques and have fun.

We went up the Bunga Arm and anchored at the first blow hole. At this time of year we get beautiful blue days on the Lakes and yet there is no one around. We had the Bunga Arm to ourselves and could not have asked for better conditions, except for the lack of wind to sail there! So what did we do?

First: we walked across to the Ninety Mile Beach where we played around with slow shutter speed and a big zoom – I used my very versatile Tamron 18-400 lens – to capture the movement of the waves in an interesting way. Here are two examples:

Then when we got back to Take It Easy, thousands of Aurelias or Moon Jellies were drifting by the boat; most were tiny but there were a few larger ones. You have to be opportunistic with photography sometimes! We set ourselves up on the sugar scoops, put a polarising filter on our zoom to manage reflections, suppress glare and intensify colours, and amused ourselves for a while! The Aurelias were mesmerising and surrounded the boat only for a short time. If interested in finding out more about these creatures, here is the link to a post we published a couple of years ago: Boneless, brainless, heartless Survivors

Aurelia or Moon Jelly

Aurelia or Moon Jelly

Sunset was magnificent with great colour in the sky reflected in the water. We stood on the roof of the cabin and clicked away!

Bunga Arm Sunset

Regulation orange sky, just for the website!

But the highlight was going out in the evening for a Milky Way shoot. Neither of us had done astrophotography for ages. For this, my wide angle Canon 10-22mm lens was called for, and even then it was hard to get the whole galaxy.  Those of you interested to learn how to capture Milky Way shots, can click on this checklist.

Rowing the dinghy ashore and back to the boat in the night was a hoot, and Wade could hear us giggling all the way. Somebody came very close to falling in the drink as she stepped back on board!

Milky Way over Bass Strait… with a few fishing boats

Milky Way over the Bunga Arm with the lights of Paynesville in the distance

Playing with the torch on the way back to the Bunga Arm side of the dunes

Thank you Leanne for coming to visit, and thank you Wadie for putting up with us girls obsessing about photography. We had such a great couple of days… It beats boat maintenance!