VIC Summary

Just got back from a week in Victoria shooting background plates and stock images for my composites. Overall the trip went well, but I had a couple speed bumps along the way.

Highlights

• Exploring the city of Melbourne
• Driving along the Great Ocean Road

Lowlights

Road closure - I drove the 4 hours from Port Campbell to Halls Gap (Grampians National Park), only to find when I neared that the road was closed, which was rather annoying, so I took a 2 hour detour in order to get to Halls Gap and I finally made it. It was rather late when I arrived so I stayed the night, and I awoke at 5:30am to catch the sunrise only to find that all roads into The Balconies lookout were closed due to flood damage. So I got no photos at The Grampians, which was very disappointing because it looks like such a beautiful place.

So I wasn't able to get the image I wanted for one of my composites, and as the premise of this composite was basically an excuse to go to that specific location, I can't shoot it anywhere else. Therefore I have decided to replace this composite with my UN competition images.

What I could improve

I did extensive research before I left and found no road closure information about the Grampians, despite going on the official visitors center website. Even when I got there I went to the visitors center; it was closed but there was absolutely no signage. The man at the place I stayed didn't mention anything either. Only after I got there and searched the internet 'Road Closure at Grampians' did I find any information, and even then they made it difficult. So as far as improving goes, I think I took the required precautionary action, however I will probably now be paranoid about future road trips so I will specifically check for road closures next time.