The release of the annual Bureau of Meteorology calendar is a much anticipated event for weather watchers and photographers alike as the stunning weather photographers are revealed.
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Two local photographers - Andrew Thomas and Phil Hart - are among 13 from across the country to have their photographs featured in the Australian Weather Calendar .
It's a hat-trick for Ballarat photographer Andrew Thomas who has had a fog-related photograph in the calendar three years in a row.
"I've become pretty good at judging the fog around the district," he said.
His eye-catching photo shows a V/Line train crossing the bridge spanning the Lal Lal Creek Valley on November 12, 2017 and is the image that adorns the month of September.
"On this particular morning I was flying the drone and the conditions were just perfect with the sun flitering through the fog. Then in the distance I heard the whistle of the train, and so I hovered for a minute or two and grabbed the shot as it passed over the bridge."
Last month Mr Thomas took out the Golden City Paddle Steamer Museum Society's Best 'O Lake photographic award for his images of Lake Wendouree, which were part of a Ballarat International Foto Biennale exhibition.
Living nearby, he often photographs around Lake Wendouree and almost all of his shots are taken within 42km of Ballarat - because he is a former marathon runner.
Talbot photographer Phil Hart is better known for his astrophotography and capturing objects in the night sky, but on a trip to Tasmania he captured a different kind of dark sky with a rainbow in stormy skies over the D'Entrecasteaux Channel at Partridge Island off Tasmania's south coast.
"We'd chartered a yacht in the D'Entrecasteaux Channel and looked at the 5 o'clock weather forecast and saw the wind had swung a little bit more southwesterly, and thought, 'this isn't going to be the most comfortable spot to spend the night!' he said.
"The crew motored to a more sheltered bay and bunkered down as the storm passed. Skies cleared up around sunset and there was some amazing texture in the clouds.
"I'd packed the camera gear with the idea that I'd do some night photography and possibly capture some aurora activity if conditions were right, but when these amazing storm clouds and double rainbow appeared I couldn't resist."
Astronomy, sailing and weather are Mr Hart's three passions - and his father was a meteorologist who passed down his interest and knowledge to his son.
"Anybody on a yacht is looking at the weather regularly, but even more so when you've got a passionate meteorologist and his son! I'm always checking the marine forecasts and warnings, because when you're sailing you're completely at the mercy of the wind."
Last month Mr Hart took out the open prize at the Ballarat International Foto Biennale for his exhibition of photographs from an eclipse in the US in 2017.
Mr Hart scaled the 3300m Table Mountain, Wyoming, to plant an automatic camera near the summit three days before the eclipse.
The 2020 Australian Weather Calendar is on sale from today online at shop.bom.gov.au, by phone 1300 798 789 or from the Bureau of Meteorlogy office in Melbourne.
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