Photographing Erskine Falls
About Erskine Falls
Erskine Falls is a well known, and well visited set of falls a few kilometres North West of the hoilday / beach town of Lorne. The falls are a 30M drop into a slight pool.
The Love Lorne website provides a nice map of Lorne, its district, and the various walking and waterfalls in the area.
Viewpoints
There are two main choices:
- 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.
- 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.
How I photographed the Falls
What I took - what was in my kit
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)
Techniques used
Kit used
How to get there
The best way to get to the falls is by car. It can be accessed by bike or walking from the town of Lorne. The falls are about 150km from Melbourne (2.5 hours drive) and about 9km from the town of Lorne by road and 7.5 via the walking track (past Splitter and Staw Falls).
If taking a car from Lorne, take the Erskiine Falls Rd, turning off this road onto the Erskine Falls access road on your right. There is a car park near the falls.
If walking from Lorne, the walking track is well made and starts on the Esrkine River at the Caravan Park in Lorne (near the vistiors centre).
Best time to visit
As with any waterfall, the winter / spring post rainy period is the best as more water is likely to flow over the falls and the bush around the falls tends to be greener. During the summer months and holiday periods, Lorne is also a busy holiday town, and there is likely to be tourists near the falls or getting into your photos. For this reason, if you have to visit of a summer weekend day, I would suggest going early.
Accessability
There are two viewing platforms: the upper viewing platform and lower. The upper is a short 5 minute walk from the car park, while the lower platform is down some 240 steps to the bottom of the falls.
The photograph above was taken from the Lower Platform. In this case the weather was overcast and the sky just a uniform grey. While I love a bright blue sky contrasting with the lush green to found around waterfalls - I dont like grey at all, so I composed the shot to crop it out.
Where to stay
Erskine falls is just outside of Lorne - one of the more well known and well liked Victorian Beach towns. There are plenty of places to stay here, from tent sites through caravan sites, bungalows to nice hotels.