The Californian Redwoods

I unfortunately had not really picked up a camera and take photos for much of 2025, despite me wanting to escape from the daily grind and do what I really enjoy. Thankfully I did find the time to do just that in early August.

I've always wanted to photograph the Californian Redwoods in East Warburton ever since I saw an Instagram post about it after the COVID lockdowns. I'm a sucker for symmetry in nature, having been to the Valley of Liquid Amber some years back with my wife and kids to take photos of the kidlets throwing golden autumn leaves in the air. And so I made a plan to drive early one Sunday August morning, to try and catch the sunrise and golden light beamng through the colossal redwood trees.

Departing

Driving to Cement Creek Redwood forest was an ordeal in itself; I left home at 5am to try and catch a 7:20am sunrise, and the drive took almost two hours. It was a freezing morning (well, freezing for Aussie standards!) and the fog was so thick in some places, that I could barely see a couple of metres past the front of my car while on the road. The only companions I had with me for the drive through the rural twisting roads was a playlist of podcasts, Apple's Siri for directions and the car's heater blasting hot air into the cabin to keep me warm. During the drive I encountered a very nonchalant deer in the middle of the road chewing cud before sauntering away, and an (unfortunately dead) wombat that I avoided by swerving to the other side of the road just in the nick of time. Dead wombats are no joke, they are very solid animals and can do real damage if you manage to collide with one.

I eventually made it to the redwoods, and I was the only person there. The entire forest was mine for the first couple of hours in the morning, and it was so invigorating to feel the still cool air on your face, to hear the lyrebirds chirping in the background, and the distant sound of rushing water.

Rushing water! We all know what that means — long exposures coming up!

The trek to the creek was short but muddy. I'm glad I brought my Leofoto Ranger tripod and not my Peak Design one, the Leofoto is far more suitable for this kind of environment. Setting up the tripod and my trusty D500 up, I took a couple of long exposures of the burbling creek. The shot above was the best from that day. I forgot to whack on the circular polariser though, even though I brought it with me.

I couldn't stay around for too long though. I didn't really study the map of the forest, so there weren't any particular landmarks to visit or shots I had in mind. I just wanted to explore. But as blue hour started to fade into golden hour, I had to move fast.

Walking back away from the creek and into the redwood plantation again, I saw a fallen log in the ferny area, and thought I would take a self portrait as a surprise for my wife and kids. I don't often stand in front of the camera, preferring to stay behind the lens as much as possible, so I took the effort to record me as a 43 year old dad walking aimlessly on a bitterly cold August morning. I had to really crank up the ISO on these ones, as I had dropped my aperture to f/8 to get more depth of field, and I exposure comp'ed by -1.7 to get things a bit more moody.

Hopefully someone in the future sees this photo and says to themselves "that's my grandad" or something.

This shot was actually rather annoying to take. Framing someone that isn't in the photo isn't a skill I have, and focussing had to be done manually as there's no subject to autofocus on when I'm behind the camera setting up the shot. Running back and forth every 10 seconds or so to see if I am looking in the right direction, or if I am in (relative) focus got tired quick. But I got the shot nonetheless.

I took a couple of more shots of the redwoods, this time bracketed 5 frames with 2/3 of a stop gap between them. Lightroom did a good job combining the photos into something that (I think) is pleasing to look at.

Of course, the photos weren't really taken IRL unless you take a photo of your photo taking machine, taking a photo. So here's some iPhone snaps of my gear. I'm sporting the Nikkor 16-80mm f/2.8-4 ED lens, and I also brought my Tokina 11-20mm f/2.8.

Tokina

That last iPhoto snap reveals a little secret – when I switched lenses to my Tokina 11-20mm f/2.8, things got a lot more interesting. There was more sun now, and golden hour had truly started. I started taking more shots of the redwoods above eye level, and as my head tilted up to try and see the tree tops, the shot I needed to capture was much more clear to me.

Bracketing was key here. 5 shots at 1/3 exposure steps and brought together in Lightroom really made the highlights pop. Looking at the photos in Lightroom, I can see how flat the 0EV shot was compared to the final output. Note to self: always bring a tripod to places like Cement Creek Redwood Forest. It pays dividends.

And there's the money shot. What a wonderful capture, if I do say so myself. Wallpaper worthy, I reckon!

I had also brought my Bronica ETRSi with my PE 50mm f/2.8 lens, which was loaded with Ilford 120 HP5 Plus at ISO 400. I had it loaded a few months before, with about a third of the roll already exposed. I had brought my cable release too; the mirror slap in the ETRSi is no joke since it has to be big enough to cover the image circle of a 6×4.5 medium format frame. The cable release is a cheap one I got from eBay, proper old school but as I was starting to use the plunger, it wouldn't come back up!

There's no point pressing the button and then letting go and the cable release not resetting itself. I struggled for about 15 minutes trying to get the darn thing to work, but then gave up and went back to my D500 – at least that has a timer that I can use to reduce camera shake. In the end I fiddled around a bit more with the cable release and got it to work properly again, but by then the desire to shoot with the Bronica had faded. I did get some shots in the can, but I can only wait until I get the film developed and scanned, to see how much I had stuffed up.

At this point golden hour was starting to wane and I was getting proper sunlight. People had started to come to the forest and I wasn't as alone as I was before. I decided to get one more self portrait, so here's one of me holding up one of the redwood trees.

I really enjoyed my trek to the Cement Creek Redwood forest. The drive there was quite the adventure, thankfully the drive back home was less eventful. I could see myself coming back in future, perhaps with my family next time. The forest area is being renovated slightly as of mid 2025, with a visitors centre and some public toilets being constructed. I highly suggest you research the forest before hand by going to the Parks Victoria Redwood Forest page.