Tag Archives: Blue Mountains

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Snow in the Blue Mountains- June 2021

Weather forecasts for some snow around June 10th, 2021 in the Blue Mountains had me intrigued. It was starting to look good for a decent dumping. I’ve been trying to get a great snow photo of the iconic Three Sisters for many years and I thought, perhaps, just perhaps, this could be it, as they had forecast snow down to 600metres. As I packed my camera bag the night before, I’d sneak a peak out the window every few minutes, to see if the snow had started to fall.

I woke up about an hour before sunrise and the snow had begun to fall. You could tell that the snow flakes weren’t as large as the last snowfall and perhaps a little on the wet side. I decided there was no point in trying to shoot the three sisters at sunrise as it was very overcast and not enough snow had fallen yet. After a couple of hours I decided it was time to walk down, (yep I live just up the road from echo point). The snow was falling pretty consistently down at echo point, however the jamison valley was a complete white out at this point and you couldn’t see anything of the 3 sisters. You could barley see out a few metres from the hand railing at times…

Enjoying the snow at Echo point- June 10th 2021

I decided that I would wait and see if the heavy fog in the jamison valley might lift over time. As there wasn’t that much option for still images, I decided to film some video of the snow around the echo point lookout areas…You can watch it on my YouTube channel link below.

It was evident after a few hours that the valley was not going to clear and provide an opportunity for my Three sisters image. I was quite sure that the 3 sisters did have an amount of snow on them, how much, well that I guess I’ll never know…So the quest continues and I’ll continue to try until I click the camera shutter, on the image I’ve had in my head for many years. I only took a few more still images that day and I’ve posted them below….

Hairpin banksia’s in the snow

Gums in the snow

Snowman

Ferns covered in snow

Thanks for taking the time to look at my blog…

Cheers Ben

Ben’s Website

About Ben:

Ben Pearse is an Australian photographer living an working from his home based portrait studio in Katoomba, Blue Mountains, Australia.

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Interconnection

This is my entry into the Blue Mountains Portraits 2021 exhibition, currently on show at the Blue Mountains Cultural Centre in Katoomba.
“In this image of Becky, I wanted to capture and combine two key aspects of Becky’s life, her work with the National Parks and Wildlife Service and as a long-time senior performer with Wagana Aboriginal Dancers. Both of these life paths enable Becky to honour and to be on Country, which as a Kamilaroi woman, is very important to her”.
Subject- Becky Chatfield
Photographer: Ben Pearse
Medium: Photographic print, AO size.

Note: This image went on to win the “People’s Choice Award” at the Blue Mountains portrait exhibition in March 2021.

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Bushfires in the Blue Mountains, NSW, Australia, 2019- 2020- New Blog!

In late November 2019 the Blue Mountains in NSW Australia would see the start of a  unprecedented bushfire season that would destroy approximately 80% of the Greater Blue Mountains World Heritage area. Drought conditions across Australia in the leadup to the fire season left the soil with very little moisture which helped fuel hundreds of bushfires across the nation. By the end of the fire season, 34 people would tragically lose their lives and over 46 million acres (186,000 square kilometres) of land would be burnt. Hundreds of millions of mammals, reptiles and birds would perish during the fires…

I first took note of a very small bushfire that was burning around the Ruined Castle on 27th November 2019 in the jamison valley in Katoomba, NSW. Over the course of the next few days this fire would spread onto the Narrowneck plateau and eventually into the megalong valley. Most of the images I captured are from the Ruined Castle bushfire.

Ruined Castle Bushfire- Ben Pearse 2019

The Beginning-Ruined Castle Bushfire- November 27th 2019

Fire Season- Ben Pearse 2019- web 2048

Small puff of smoke near ruined castle

Begrimed- Ben Pearse 2019

Begrimed- Ben Pearse 2019

Thick dust laden smoke starts to choke the air on sunset in Katoomba. The setting sun takes on an eerie feeling, a forewarning perhaps of troubling times to come…

Sunfire- web 2048

Eerie sunsets

On December 1st, 2019, the Ruined Castle bushfire flares up and races up the sheer sandstone cliffs on the Narrowneck plateau in Katoomba. Despite a strong prevailing breeze against it, the fire raged effortlessly up and down the sheer vertical walls and pushed closer towards the township of Katoomba. Precision water bombing from the RFS helicopter slowed the fire spread before nightfall. RFS ground crews worked throughout the night to control the blaze along the narrowneck plateau.

Narrowneck plateau fire- web 2048

Fire rages on the narrowneck plateau cliffline

Plateau on Fire- Ben Pearse 2019- web 2048

Fire engulfs the treeline on narrowneck plateau

Narrowneck Fire- Ruined Castle Bushfire 2019- web 2048

Thick plumes of smoke choke the air

Raging- Ben Pearse 2019- Web Size 2048

Fire climbs up and down the sheer sandstone walls in minutes

Ruined Castle 1- Web Size

Dry conditions fuel the fires- December 1st 2019

At night concerned local residents would view the Ruined castle bushfire from Echo point lookout. At night you could clearly see the location of the fire as the flames would become visible in the darker conditions.

 

Ruined Castle fire- Ben Pearse 2019- web 2048

Night view of the ruined castle fire from echo point lookout

Fireline- Ruined Castle Bushfire 2019-web 2048

Line of fire in the jamison valley, Katoomba, Blue Mountains, Australia

fire watchers web size

Echo point providing a great viewing platform for the ruined castle bushfire

Jamison valley fire- Web 2048

A wall of flames at night in the jamison valley, Blue Mountains.

Jamison fire- Ruined Castle Bushfire- web 2048

Nightfire- Katoomba, Blue Mountains, Australia- December 3rd-2019.

Jamison valley- Ruined Castle Bushire 2019- web 2048

Fire burns up into Pitts Amphitheatre, Katoomba, NSW.

Mount Solitary at night- web 2048

Fire burns a path onto Mount Solitary. In the background the Kowmung river fire rages. This fire would go on to join with the the Green Wattle creek fire.

Flaring up- Ruined Castle bushfire 2019 web 2048

Ruined Castle fire flares up in gusty dry conditions- December 10th 2019. Planes and helicopters water bomb from above and bring the fire back under control.

Castle Fire- Ben Pearse 2019 - web 2048

Fire returns and burns in behind the iconic Ruined Castle sandstone formations. This was near the point where the fire originated 2 weeks ago.

Twilight glow- Ben Pearse 2019- web 2048

A small flareup on narrowneck plateau as misty conditions permeate the night…

A backburn that was implemented to stop the spread of the massive Gospers Mountains fire, broke containment lines and entered the grose valley. The grose valley fire produced a huge pyrocumulus fire cloud that dominated the skyline…The Gospers Mountains fire was unstoppable and burnt over 1.2 million acres, becoming the largest forest fire in Australian history.

Pyrocumulus Cloud- Ben Pearse 2019

Pyrocumulus Cloud- Grose valley fire 2019

Gospers Breath- Ben Pearse 2019

Gospers Breath- Grose valley fire 2019

Note: I would like to personally thank all the incredible and tireless work that the Emergency workers do across Australia each fire season. Thankyou!

Cheers for looking, Ben.

View Ben’s Website here: Ben Pearse Photography