2016 Club Weekend Merna Mora
March Adelaide Cup long weekend saw the more intrepid from the club travel further afield this year going to Merna Mora, a sheep station/ station retreat on the outskirts of the Flinders Ranges.
Travelling there via Quorn and Hawker provided some early photo opportunities in the rail yard at Quorn.
Others had travelled up a day early and taken advantage of some unique photo opportunities nearby
Ross Aldo Windmill Photos
When all travellers had arrived, the roster showed the usual suspects the prez, BarbSeidel, husband (and associate member ) Keith Seidel, past prez Robert Dettman and his wife Rachael, vice president Ross Pollock (without wife, who doesn’t want to be associated with photography), Don and Andrea Brooks with perennial guests Graham and Enid Pascoe, “reliable” Ron Jackson and wife Marie, Ross and Renee Holmes and Renee’s mother Jenny Hocking: who are all club members (definitely a family affair there), camera encyclopaedia and competition organiser Aldo Trissi, a welcome appearance at the weekend away after a couple of years absence, the extremely well credentialed David Smith (followed by a lot of letters after his name) and finally Paul O’Leary accompanied by his nephew from Melbourne David Thompson.
Weather looked promising for a dusk shoot on the first night, so a bunch of us (not sure what is the collective adjective for photographers – perhaps a development) went out to try our luck. Fortunately the early arrivers in Ross P. and Aldo had already sussed out a spot which turned out pretty well.
Tea was followed by the port showdown (as in drinking port not the football port – who haven’t showed much at all this year). Again having missed the finale (as some of us were off shooting some night shots with David Thompson in the fore once again) the result remains a mystery to me.
Saturday morning was a good opportunity for an early morning shoot so the more intrepid headed down to the creek to get a few shots. Post breakfast saw a mass exodus as everyone left to capture that killer shot before regathering at the Parachilna pub for lunch. Due to the distances between watering holes it was decided that we would catch up for lunch rather than a 40k drive at dusk.
The roads around the station were alive with both native and domestic animals due to the rain and care around puddles on the road where animals were drinking was needed. Roadkill was everywhere.
The wide open vistas offered ample opportunity for landscape shots as well as interesting ruins.
