Lourensford Wine Estate in Somerset West is a location that I managed to shoot in my early years of photography, but due to fairly strict security I haven’t been in contact with them recently in order to shoot inside the farm. A couple of weeks ago however, I came across a post in my Facebook news feed about a photography meet up, where access had been granted to anyone who comes to shoot with the group. I decided that it was too good of an opportunity to let pass and having just acquired my 70D, was keen to test it out some more.
I arrived at the farm at 16:30, when the meet up time was set and followed the group to a parking area where we began shooting. It wasn’t long before I learned that the shoot was organized by an instagram group who seem to organize access to areas and organize meet ups for instagrammers to get some photos of places they might not otherwise have shot. I believe the hashtag for the event was #lourensfordautumnwalk.
We began the walk at the top of the main entrance of trees which line the sides of the road. In autumn the leaves turn orange and red and create a beautiful view that welcomes one to the estate. It was then up along the road and to the first dam. The first dam on route was difficult to photograph given that it’s tough to get close to the water’s surface, however a lot of the photographers spent some time here trying to capture the scene.
I pushed on further and came to some open fields, with the magnificent views of both the Helderberg Mountain and the Hottentots Holland Mountains. As the group pushed up we passed a line of leafless trees which lay up against the sky on the horizon.
Not much further was our main destination and the point where I managed to get some of my favourite shots. I climbed through some thick brush to get down to the water’s surface and focused on some logs that were protruding out of the water in front of me, though then to my left I noticed an even more picturesque log and quickly ran over and began to shoot there. As the sun began to set the mountains started to turn colour, from oranges to reds and pinks – offering some unbelievable opportunities.
I hope to try and get access again in the future, perhaps at night – to see what other possibilities there are within the estate.
