I find it hard to be in the right place at the right time in the Snowy Mountains, the weather is so changeable. I can study the weather for days in advance, and be walking around in complete sunshine when it is meant to be windy and snowing, and vice versa. It's plain and simply really unpredictable up there, and perhaps that is great. It opens up opportunities I hadn't thought of but it also creates a long list of re-visit options for locations where the magic doesn't happen or things just don't line up.
On this occasion I had watched a big low pressure system coming across from the west, for a few days, and I also kept a close eye on the snow forecasting sights that have proven to be quite dependable. All in the effort to increase the chances of seeing something really special. The outlook seemed to be great for lots of snow down to low levels. I knew that there was really great potential, but I only had a day and I only had one roll of film, just four photographs. It wasn't ideal but that was better than no film at all. This day trip took place back in 2016, film was more readily available, but it still took three to four days to get hold of, so I had to settle for the single roll and hope for the best. There was great anticipation the night before. It was meant to snow for most of the night. I knew at that stage that I wanted to photograph the Thredbo River, but I hadn't decided exactly where and it kept me awake, thinking of the possibilities and the idea of not finding the 'shot'.
I packed the final things in the car pre-dawn, and really just couldn't wait to hit the highway. There were a few obstacles coming my way that I didn't know about yet. I drove through the dark for a couple of hours, and noticed that as I got closer to the mountains, the traffic was starting to build. By the time I hit the turn off for Thredbo, I was greeted by this huge line of crawling traffic, I wasn't the only one chasing this mega snow system. An hour later and I had arrived above the Thredbo river, and settled on the Ngarigo camp ground as a base to walk out from to find a composition. The snow was thicker and lower than I had ever witnessed, it was truly spectacular and I knew that all I needed to do was find somewhere to park my car and walk out to the river. As I drove along, I couldn't find anywhere to stop, the snow was so thick and heavy from the snow plows, in some places higher than my car, I started to realise that my initial plans may have to be changed. But as I drove past the entrance track to the camp ground, there was this perfect clearing, still covered in snow, but accessible and pretty safe. I immediately tried to pull over but many cars were coming the other way, so I had to drive all the way up to Thredbo and turn around and come back down and park.
It was all good, I had made it, and it was still snowing heavily. I quickly got my gear together and started walking down to the river, the surroundings were just like nothing I had been witness to in the past, pretty spectacular. There was no wind and just heavy snow bucketing down. I crept down into the river at a spot further up from the photograph displayed. It was awesome, but I wanted to try another spot. A spot I had seen years and years prior. At that time, no snow was here and you could hardly see the river from this vantage point due to thick, high growing heath. But I really wanted to see if I could get the trunk of one of these big gums in the shot. To add that third element. As I got closer, I noticed the heath had been pushed down towards the ground by the heavy snow and after clambering my way into this spot, I knew this was it, it was on.
I had two photographs left by this stage, I had to be really careful. I was meticulous about the set up, but the wind started to get up. I checked my composition a dozen times, checked my light meter readings again, and waited for what I thought would be the optimum light. As I looked through the viewfinder, I couldn't help but think about how unique this shot felt.
I pressed the shutter and hoped for the best, I only took one, and then ventured to another spot, to use the last photograph. Having less film than I would have liked turned out to be a bit of gift, because then I could just stop and enjoy this special day. I walked around for a few hours just shaking my head at how good this experience was.
Location: Downstream from Ngarigo camp ground, Kosciuszko National park, New South Wales, Australia
Film: Fuji Velvia ISO 50 120 roll film, no filters
Time of day: 11:00 am on a Wednesday 2016