Gariwerd / Grampians
King’s Birthday Long Weekend - June 2026
I have been to the north end of the Grampians a few times recently with my friends (Michael and Adam) and Jennifer (cousin) but this June we went up as a family for over 4 days. We bought a roof rack, and a pod, and Yuiko got her wish of carrying up a gazebo which was a lifesaver on the first night when it rained relentlessly. We had such a great time exploring Mt Stapylton and Mt Difficult (we didn’t quite get there, but we got up to the plateau just beneath it). And I was able to take some nice photos - but not film this time, digital.
Commencing a walk from the Mt Zero Picnic Area with Mt Stapylton in the background.
Kaisei beneath 'Bird Rock'
Yuiko with Mt Stapylton in the background.
The kids were naturally reluctant to spend all day hiking some mountain range. So Yuiko invented this game where she was scared of hiking in dangerous conditions so she needed a ‘cliff buddy’ to be with her and reassure her. She and Sana were paired up together, and Kaisei was with me (see the whistle he has in his two portraits above - that was for calling for help, and the reason why most of my photos were of Kaisei). It worked well because they didn’t complain anymore for the rest of the day and discharged their duty well.
A rock on the way up to Mt Difficult
These photos were taken on my Fujifilm GFX100RF which I am still trying to figure out how to use 9 months after buying it in Japan last year. I’ve edited these photos in Davinci Resolve (as opposed to Lightroom) - and I like the colours, but these are the first photos I’m ‘colouring’ and I think I need more restraint - the landscape with Yuiko in the middle perhaps is too compressed with not enough contrast, but I do like the colours and the detail and the textures that you can get with digital medium format (even with a fixed f/4 lens tht has no bokeh).