Lake Ballard
Situated deep in the outback is the famous Lake Ballard. Despite being 8 and a half hours from Perth, the destination is worth the time to get there. The skies are dark and crystal clear, the lake is expansive as the skies, with interesting rock formations along some of its sides, and its iconic pyramid shaped hill situated in walking distance from the camp site. And then there are the statues that haunt the lake...more about later.
Walking out onto the lake, you hear the crunch and then a squishing noise as your feet break through the white crust and sink a little into the brown red mud. In the numerous times I have visited the lake, the surface has been relatively dry but beneath it still retains moisture. Fortunately, it has never been as bad that you sink deep into the mud and can't walk on the lake, although I suspect this highly depends upon recent rain. And the colour - it can vary. Occasionally it has a white surface, but it can change with the season to a muddy brown colour. The brown colour does not come out too well in night photography.
From the camp site on the sure one can look out at the pyramid shaped hill, dominating the view of the lake. It is climbable, with a moderate level of difficulty. I could do it with all my camera gear on my back - but I was sweating and puffing at the top (and I'm not unfit)!. The view is fantastic at the top - the whiteness of the lake stretching off to infinity looking north and east (the campsite is situated roughly on the south-western portion of the lake), and the skies - pale blue and endless. In the distances are other smaller "islands" in the lake, but most are small.
On the surface of the lake, the famous "salt people" dwell. These are metal sculptures made by British sculptor Sir Antony Gormley, shaped in honour of the Aborigines, with 51 dotted around the lake a fair distance apart. I have not been to all, or even most of them - that would be a lot of walking.
For night photography, if astrophotography is your game then the dark skies are unrivalled. If nightscape photography is more your interest then there is so many different compositions possible from this location that you'll easily run out of night before running out of possibilities. Naturally, the "hill" is a must do, with good views shooting north to east. Shooting south you don't get so much of the lake in (and the campsite is south and often with camp fires). To the west is a rocky ridge.
The view on top of the hill is also great to get more of a view of the lake - just that there are many words written out on the lake in small rocks surrounding the base of the hill, and so you want to shoot "further out".
The sculptures provide a unique subject matter for day and night photography. I've seen quite a few star trails photos with a sculpture prominent in them, and they are fantastic.
As to when to do night photography, summer is good because the lake is usually dry with white salt on the surface (comes out nicely in long exposures), however the Milkyway core is not visible then. Autumn and Spring are optimal temperature. Winter the core is up, but if there has been rain then the lake surface turns brown and muddy (which appears terrible in night photos in my opinion) and it gets bloody cold.
So how to get there you ask? Well, its about 6 and a half hours to Kalgoorlie from Perth and another 2 hours to Lake Ballard. The road is sealed all the way to Menzies (a small town north of Kalgoorlie), at which point you head off on a mostly dirt road. The dirt road is in good shape and can be travelled with a 2wd car - just that its probably a 40min stretch on dirt road so it gets a bit tiring.
The campsite is popular - so holiday long weekends don't expect to have the lake to yourself. There are no amenities at the camp site, no drinking water, but there are self-composting toilets. You also need to bring your own firewood. And the flies...the flies...I grew up in Kalgoorlie so I know flies, but geez, this lake!
Images of Location
