Ooo it's bwue, it's Bwue, it's weawwy BWUE!

Ah yes mates! How many of you can guess what actress I am paying homage to with the title of this post?

Go'an, GUESS! No hints, so there.

On to the main subject (sorta) of this post:

Blue Lake, Mt Gambier, South Oz

Yes, it's twue, it is weawwy Bwue! Not just blue, but BLUE! Don't get me wrong, I ain't some naive hick that's never seen blue water before.

I remember once crossing the Gulf Of Alaska in a 32 foot sailboat. Not a hint of breeze, bright blue sky. During the crossing there was a stretch of 5 days in a row of those clear skies and calm waters. Those of you who know the Gulf probably think I'm lying, but I'm not.

Anyways, the ocean was blue. Really BLUE! And clear. In fact one day I was watching some sharks swimming around the boat through the very clear, blue water. I'm guessing they were either salmon sharks or spiny dogfish. Either way, it was the first time I'd seen a live shark in the ocean.

But the water was clear and BLUE!

I've also seen deep lakes on clear days being a bright blue, but a slightly different shade from the deep ocean blue.

Blue Lake in Mt Gambier is blue. It is a completely different kind of blue from anything I've seen live or on a nature show on the telly. It's often described as turquoise blue. That's wrong. It's much more of a cobalt blue. Or like lapis lazuli polished jewels but without any inclusions, mottling, or veins. I've never seen water that colour before.

What's interesting is that there is another lake in the same volcanic crater that does NOT turn Blue from late November to early March as Blue Lake does. Yes, during the Aussie winter (HA!) Blue Lake waters look like any ordinary lake water colour-wise. Riddle me that, batman!

Just use Ma Google and do an image search on Blue Lake Mt Gambier. Or you could see a picture or 2 that myself or Wifey-Poo took.

We arrived as the sun was an hour or so off setting (low sun angle), it was totally overcast, and it was raining! We thought that since we had to drive around the rim of Blue Lake to get to the Blue Lake Holiday Park where we had a cottage booked for 3 nights, that we may as well pull off to an overlook and have a squizz at Blue Lake.

Keep in mind the sun was at a low angle already, it was cloudy and raining. We certainly didn't expect much in the way of blueness from the waters of Blue Lake in those conditions.

We wuz wrong! Here's our first view of the lake. No enhancing or colouring was done to this pic, I SWEAR!



Cloudy, low light, intermittent rain. And it was still this Blue!

The next morning the clouds had lifted slightly. It was only 8:30AM so, again, low light. Yeah, this is BLUE!



Notice the trees on the far shore are getting that "washed out colour" look and yet the lake water at the far shore is still this wonderful shade of Blue. Yeah, cool.

*********************insert sound of gears shifting****************************

Naturally, I decided that once we got back to the ole homestead I'd play around with Vue10 and see if I could perhaps come up with a 3D piece that does justice to this wonderful lake that Mother Nature provided us.

I couldn't. Well, maybe with a years' practice in Vue, shitloads more RAM (hint to Wifey-Poo), and an ecosystem module (another hint to Wifey-Poo) I might be able to. But I did come up with something rather neat at the end of an arvo.




Dang mates, Momma Nature is soooo much more better at this than I! Maybe it's those extra few billion years of practice She's had?

And I figured that since I already had the 3D terrain made and populated with plants, that I may as well draw the camera back "just a wee bit", change the at-moose-fear a bit, and make meself a nice piece of artwork.

I'm sure you're all just all a-tingle to see the finished piece of art. Right?




I'm pleased with it. Obviously, else I wouldn't have shown in to ya! What are your thoughts?

I'm sure that my Mom would be pleased with it as well. I imagine she'd be smiling this big:



Yep, grew up in a trailer. But even back then Mom made sure we were surrounded by BOOKS! Notice the  chair? I was only 4 at the time but that chair was one of me favs! I remember it well mates.

More soon. Many pics from South Oz's Limestone Coast and, of course, more 3D stuff from Yours Truly.