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Esperance and South Coast Photography Tour 2022

Let the awe-inspiring beauty of Esperance and the South Coast take your breath away; this is a photography tour for lovers of beautiful landscapes and splendid vistas!

West Beach, Esperance

NOTE: This tour is On Hold for 2022, and may run in 2023.


Tour dates: 23 April – 29 April 2022
Tour length: 7 days
Led by: Nathan Dobbie with Beau Watson
6 – 8 guests
This tour begins and finishes in Perth
Pace: Easy to moderate. Some locations will require walking (along graded tracks).



Prepare to have your senses swept away on a photography tour of two of the most beautiful regions in Western Australia: Esperance and the Fitzgerald River National Park.

You will not believe your eyes as you gaze across crescent shaped beaches of white, powdery sand, towards vibrant turquoise waters fringed by smooth rocks and rounded green hills. Here are settings that are just perfect for photography at almost any time of the day, where the interplay of light and colour brings out very different moods in the landscapes.

This seven-day tour from Perth includes all land transport, accommodation and guidance by brilliant landscape photographer, Nathan Dobbie. You’ll capture amazing scenes while learning about the importance of light, colour and composition in the making of your landscape photographs.

Tour Highlights


DAY 1: PERTH TO HYDEN (WAVE ROCK)

You’ll be picked up at our meeting point in Perth by Ty and Beau, and travel in the comfort of our bus as we head into the wheatbelt for the town of Hyden, home of the iconic Wave Rock. In the late afternoon, we will visit Wave Rock, followed by sunset at Magic Lake, a beautiful reflective lake near Wave Rock. With its calm waters and surrounded by the gnarled remnants of trees, Magic Lake offers a unique photography location.

Wave Rock

Day 2: HYDEN TO ESPERANCE

We begin the day with a sunrise shoot from Wave Rock — where you’ll have the opportunity to climb to the top of Wave Rock (easily accessed) to photograph the light of sunrise over the surrounding countryside.

Twilight Cove, Esperance
Twilight Cove, Esperance
West Beach Sunset

After sunrise, we make one last stop for this leg of the tour at the culturally significant site of Mulka’s Cave. According to Aboriginal legend, the cave was the home of Mulka, a giant cannibal. Within the cave are handprints, some of them larger and located higher than human height — perhaps the handprints of the monstrous Mulka of legend!

We leave Hyden for Esperance, arriving in the late afternoon in time to check in and refresh before enjoying a sunset shoot at stunning Twilight Cove. Shielded from the Southern Ocean by two granite islands, Twilight Cove is a photographer’s delight, famous for its crystal clear waters, calm seas and sparklingly white sand!

DAY 3: CAPE LE GRAND NATIONAL PARK AND WEST BEACH

Hellfire Bay
Hellfire Bay Surf
Lucky Bay with kangaroo
West Beach sunset

Cape Le Grand National Park is the reason photographers flock to Esperance. It’s a vast expanse of untouched coastline, incredible bays and lush bushland. Its white beaches and vivid blue waters stretch as far as the eye can see, regularly placing it on lists of the best beaches in the world.

We have an early start from Esperance to make sure that we spend quality time at Cape Le Grand National Park, beginning with a sunrise shoot at Hellfire Bay, where dramatic morning light and the opportunity to shoot both from the beach and the headland will create stunning images.

Little Hellfire Bay is just a short walk from its larger cousin, but offers unique treasures of its own. By this time, the sun will be higher, sparking off the unbelievable rich blues of the water. It is picture postcard country and we will indulge in creating pretty images with wild abandon.

A trip to Cape Le Grand National Park must, of course, include time at Lucky Bay, an iconic stretch of sand and sea that’s known as home for mobs of kangaroos, many of which are so fearless of humans that they will allow you to get close for some “environmental portraits” of roos on the beach.

Our final stop in the National Park this morning is at its namesake, Cape Le Grand Beach, before we return to Esperance for lunch at the waterfront.

Included in our morning at Cape Le Grand is a “gourmet breakfast” (included) in the national park.

Our sunset shoot is at another beautiful local beach, West Beach, which offers stunning views across calm waters protected by a granite headland.

DAY 4: ESPERANCE AND CAPE LE GRAND COASTS

Frenchmans Peak
Thistle Cove
Cape Le Grand Sunset

Our sunrise this morning takes us back to Twilight Cove, to shoot in a different direction at sunrise, taking in views of Lovers Cove and Observatory Island.

In the afternoon, we return to Cape Le Grand National Park, to take in more of its amazing landscapes, including Frenchman’s Peak (known as Mandooboornup) and Thistle Cove, where we will shoot the sunset.

DAY 5: FITZGERALD RIVER NATIONAL PARK AND BARRENS BEACH

Blue Haven Beach
Blue Haven Beach
Barrens Beach

Our sunrise shoot takes in one of Esperance’s photographic delights: Blue Haven Beach, before we return to Esperance to check out and continue with our photography tour of the region as we head towards Hopetoun, including Observatory Point and Nine Mile Beach.

After checking into Hopetoun, we begin our first photographic survey of Fitzgerald River National Park. The National Park has recently undergone extensive upgrade to its roads and facilities and presents one of the most biologically diverse environments in Australia. We will explore Barrens Beach and complete the day with a sunset shoot from Barrens Lookout with endless views over the Southern Ocean, Culham Inlet and the Hopetoun coastline.

DAY 6: FITZGERALD RIVER NATIONAL PARK

East Mylies Beach Rocks
East Mylies Beach Rocks
Fitzgerald River National Park Haze
Fitzgerald River National Park rocks and bush
East Mylies Beach

Another remarkable sunrise location awaits us at East Mylies Beach, where unique granite structures plunge into the sea. This is one of Ty’s favourite locations for its dramatic geology, intricate rock detail and rugged, dramatic setting. It is also one of the lesser photographed locations in Western Australia, which means that you’ll come away with images that few others would have taken.

In the late afternoon and into sunset, we shoot at Cave Point and West Beach (different from the West Beach at Esperance) and its unique and rather alien-looking pelitic schist formations stacked along the beach.

After sunset, we return to Hopetoun for our group dinner (included in the price of this tour).

DAY 7: HOPETOUN TO PERTH

West Beach, Fitzgerald River National Park

Barrens Beach

Our sunrise shoot this morning is at Barrens Beach, with its unique rock structures providing us with visually arresting foreground elements to use in our compositions. Barrens Beach offers many options to maximise on the blush of colour that comes with the first light of day.

Our tour finishes today with our return to Perth.

Inclusions

  • Six nights accommodation (single occupancy is default; a twin share option is available if you are traveling with a partner or spouse).
  • Land transfers to and from Perth, and in-tour transport in a coaster or minibus.
  • Breakfast at Cape Le Grand National Park (Day 3).
  • All photographic tuition and instruction during the tour.
  • National park entry fees.
  • Group farewell dinner in Hopetoun (does not include beverages).

Exclusions

  • Meals and drinks (excluding the group dinner).
  • Photographic equipment.
  • Personal expenses eg. laundry, medication etc.
  • Any transport outside of this tour. You will need to make your own way to the pick up point in Perth at the start of the tour, and organise your own transport home from the drop off point at the end of the tour.

Price of Tour

  • AUD$4950 per person twin sharing (if sharing with your partner/spouse or a friend who is also a paying guest on this tour).
  • AUD$5530 per person with your own private room during the tour.

RESERVE YOUR PLACE

A non-refundable deposit of AUD$1500 will secure your place on this tour. This deposit is refundable if the tour is cancelled by the organiser (we require a minimum of 6 guests to run this tour). The final payment of the balance is due by 28 February 2022.

For details of the Terms and Conditions of our tours, including cancellation charges and details of our Covid-19 Vaccination Policy, please refer to our Photography Tours Terms and Conditions.

To join this tour or contact us with questions, please use the form below, email seng [at] venturephotography.com.au, or telephone 0417 604 614.

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