Echo point Katoomba- Lockdown-August 2021

Echo point in Katoomba is one of the major tourist destinations in NSW, Australia. Located in the township of Katoomba within the world heritage listed, Blue Mountains, it attracts millions of visitors each year with it’s majestic views of the iconic three sisters and jamison valley. However as we enter our 9th week of lockdown due to the corona virus (Covid-19, delta strain), the lookout has been closed off for all visitors, including locals who live nearby. As I wander past most days on my permitted exercise walks, I begin to see new compositions emerge that perhaps would never have been considered….

As I look through the wire fencing that council has installed to keep people out, I definitely think it’s a little surreal to see an empty viewing platform that should be teaming with overseas tourists and holiday makers. I totally understand and agree that these restrictive measures need to be put in place in order to deter and stop the congregation of people mingling together at certain popular areas. I thought it would be good to document this area via some photos, showing how it looked it during the Covid-19 lockdown restrictions in August 2021…

Echo point Katoomba- August 2021
Echo point viewing platform- August 2021
Echo point, closed to visitors due to Covid-19 health orders- August 2021
Echo point fenced off to visitors- August 2021
Echo point- Dusk- August 2021
Moody sunsets- September 2021
sun setting at echo point- September 2021
Quiet streets- September 2021

Stay well and thanks for looking…

Cheers Ben

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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.