Reach For The Sky

Who Poured Lava Over That Landscape?

Photographs copyright: DAVID McMAHON

On the final leg of my journey last Friday to the New South Wales town of Temora, I watched as the cloud started to build up in mid-afternoon. I wondered, as I drove down the Olympic Highway from Wagga Wagga on the last 80 kilometres (50 miles) of my journey, whether the sunset would have any memorable colour.


I emerged from one of the hangars at the Temora Aviation Museum a couple of minutes before five o'clock and I was about to head towards my car when I noticed the start of a beautiful sunset. So I turned left towards the runway instead of turning right to the car park and took the first shot of the clouds below the shade sails, just as the sun sank to the horizon.

As I was about to turn away, I heard a vintage aircraft taxi out onto the runway apron. I waited, wondering if there would be an interesting shot. Sure enough, the pilot of the Harvard went straight between me and the horizon and I was able to fire off this frame as his open cockpit canopy highlighted the colour of the sky.


Then I walked out to the car park and was about to sling my camera bag into the back seat of the car when I heard a formation of three Harvards approaching, with their navigation lights clearly visible in the gloom.

No, I didn't put my camera into the car. Yes, I just stood there and photographed them as they flew. You would have done exactly the same, right?


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