Shepards Lookout 315 Stockdill Drive ///situated.acre.notions (-35.240945° 148.977122°)

About Shepards Lookout

Shepards Lookout is a lovely lookout over the Moloongo River. The view is several hundred feet above the river, while the river does a horseshoe like bend below. Above the river are some views of the nearby Brindabella hills.

Viewpoints

There really is only one viewing position, and that is from the viewing platform. If you walk left from the viewing platform, their is a trail that takes you back to the main path. In the first few metres of this walk, their are some slightly different views of the hills and river, but I found then obscured by trees and not really worth a wide angle shot. A little later on the walk, you get to see the water treatment plant, with a path down towards it. While this is a different view, I did not consider it photogenic.

Viewpoints

There are two main choices:

1. From the Upper Lookout. I dont particularly like this view. If you cant go down the steps, then it is clearly a chance to see the falls, but from a photography perspective there is too much bush in the way for my liking.
2. From the Lower Lookout. Here you are in the river valley, and facing the falls straight on. The sides of the valley limit the range of perspectives avaiable, but they dont stop your cropping and composition. Changing the perspective to the right of the platform gave the images below. The second image being just a crop of the first to elimate the bundle of sticks at the bottom right hand side.

I took my LowePro Backpack loaded with Canon 5DMkII body, Canon 24-105mm zoom, Manfrotto 190 Tripod, and of course a range of lens wipes, spare batteries, sunscreen and bug repellant. I tended to shoot 28-55mm

Techniques

As with any waterfall, I want to blur the water but not the surrounding vegitation. That means using a long exposure and a tripod. I could have used NR filters, but in this case I didnt. I simply changed the aperature to suit. I was already shooting at ISO 100.

Other things to look out for

Nearby to Esrkine Falls are the Staw Falls, Splitter Falls, Cumberland Falls, Sheoak Falls, Upper and Lower Kalimna Falls, Won Wondah Falls, Henderson Falls, Cora Lynn cascades and finally the Phantom Falls. In addition for waterfalls, there is the is the beach, surf, and a range of tourist attractions.

The area is a temperate rainforest, with a range of interesting plants and wildlife. Jenny loves photographing the various fungi that can be found in these places

Location

FWV7+69 Lorne, Victoria Erskine Falls Access Rd, Lorne Vic 3232 ///seatbelts.stilts.contributing (-38.50591, 143.913509)