Week 14 – Ten Stop Castle Blocks

This place is somewhat special for me.. and I will revisit this in mid August but it is now my local beach! You would probably notice that I am indeed a sunrise man. So wait.. what? This is a sunset? Yep… this day I headed off from work at 4 after starting early at 8.. and caught the glimpse of some colour that I thought would make for a wonderful sunset. Now I am not normally one to rush down and pickup the camera on a whim but I raced into my house and down to the beach and setup.

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Week 13 – Ten Stop Starting Blocks

This little shot I grabbed not long after the shot I used in Week 8. Upon re-reviewing some older shots I liked it so much I wanted to share it as part of the project. It is on the other side of the ocean pool at North Narrabeen facing South East. The water was actually splashing up and over the side but I loved the light difference between the smoothed water in the pool and the water of the ocean just on the other side of the wall. I wish there were some clouds to complete this photo.

Till next time..

Week 12 – La Perouse at 10 Stops

On a very gloomy morning Daniel convinced me to head out for a sunrise.. well it wasnt much of a sunrise.. it was really wet.. it was really cold with a fierce wind and we went to a place that normally has the sunrise blocked by the northern headland.. needless the say it become the perfect opportunity to get a long exposure! Now this was a bit of trial and error for me.. I was horrified when a 6 minute exposure came out mainly black.. that isnt the usual there really was hardly any light this morning. So I reframed my shot and set the exposure off and went to town….

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Week 11 – Neilsen Park Sunset at 10 Stops

I find it hard to believe that this was my first visit to Neilsen Park… and what a location it is. I have attempted to go there a couple of times.. unfortunately they were all in summer when finding a park anywhere near or around Vaucluse is enough to kick in some hidden road rage tucked away in your personality. I get to thank my housemate Zee for taking me along here.. and we headed out this afternoon in the hope of catching a good spot for sunset overlooking the city. Unfortunate for Zee he did the old ‘leave my memory card plugged into the computer’ trick and wasnt able to shoot at all. None the less.. Neilsen Park has a beach… and a rocky foreshore.. and a tree lined path and lots of nice grass and well.. basically for someone who likes to take photos of people.. and Sydney.. I dont think you can go wrong.

As you can see from this shot it is perhaps a little too far from the city for shooting this wide as it doesnt have much of a presence or impact. I can see however the potential for some future sunsets at a longer focal length with the sun setting directly behind the city. Time to get out the prediction tools and plan a sunset again. Looking forward to head back.. maybe in spring when I can find a park and brave the water for a swim.

Till next time..

The Green Moss of Turimetta

The moss at Turimetta Beach is a sight to see every winter and the colours and textures it creates are nothing short of phenomenal. I have been heading to Turimetta beach for almost 2 years now; the beach is wild and windy and when the surf kicks up there is so much water movement and power it is a sight to see. Unfortunately my luck at this beach hasnt been so great.. up until last month I hadn’t had a great sky at Turimetta.. ever! I went two weeks in a row (one by chance) and the skies came to play. I have yet to blog that morning yet but I will get to that soon.. this post is all about the moss.

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Week 10 – Gordons Bay Sunset at 10 Stops

This spot is around a 10min walk from my new place. It is good and it was a spurr of the moment shoot. I think I can do better though the framing and the natural vignetting due to not exposing long enough can be improved. I have somewhat neglected the local area this last couple of months.. not for lack of wanting to visit but making the most of the later sunrise times by visiting places much further away from home. Cant wait for my first full Summer in Coogee however.. it is going to be magical. Gordon’s Bay actually used to have boat hire and there is a little shed out on the left.. but these boats dont look like they are used very much anymore. I will have to head back and maybe get closer to that rock structure on the right of frame there.

Till next time..

Week 9 – Ivo Rowe at Ten

This shot at the Ivo Rowe Pool in South Coogee in Sydney is actually very close to the main reason behind purchasing a 10 stop filter. I love the smooth water effect and the silky sky with clouds.. a good friend and inspirational photographer Alex Wise has captured some marvelous moments with his. The basic crux behind using a 10 stop filter is that it is so black that you must expose for a significant amount of time to allow light to hit the camera sensor. Hence you generally have to expose so long that you create the misty water/streaky sky effect you can see above. I have found a lot of great examples of this over time and as this project continues I hope to bring many more to the screen. My downfall is actually that I love colour (and I find these suit B&W) and that if the weather isnt great I generally wont head out.. but it is usually the best time to go and capture shots like these.

Hope you like it..

Till next time..

Week 8 – North Narrabeen at Ten

This shot eventuated from a morning that had a rather bland sky.. and some colour cast caused by the B+W filter. I dont mind it though, the highlight isnt too in your face to distract you from the entry points of the railing.. I just love the shadows of the poles as they enter the water and are reflected. I remember it was quite a high tide this morning and it really assisted in the effect. At 301 seconds I hadnt ventured into too many very long exposures until this point.. 5minutes now seems almost the minimum I will go. This project is a lot of fun, but has taken a back seat over the last few weeks. As it’s not defined by strict length of time I am aiming for 52 shots per year and perhaps taking shots over a couple of years to fill out the project.

I am in the process of writing more blog posts and scheduling them for the next week or two. I seem to apologise often for the gaps between blog posts.. I am putting it down to my enjoyment of blogging a whole morning in one go, but I am moving to editing shots on a single basis and quite slowly. I think ill now just blog my new shots as I process them and perhaps discuss a little more about the process involved.

Till next time..

Week 7 – Australia Day Sunrise

Week 7 – Australia Day Sunrise saw an epic mission unfold! As touched upon in Week 6.. the Australia Day long weekend for 2011 turned out to be epic! Basically a 5 day weekend was formed and myself and a few friends used this to our advantage. We decided to head down south for the first time.. to a little place called Coalcliff which is just south of the Royal National Park. There has been much said about this location for seascapes and sunrises and with Dan suggesting an all night journey.. how could we resist?

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Week 6 – Whale Beach

Week 6 takes us back to Australia Day 2011.. a long weekend which saw me heading out for 2 sunrises, one which included an all night trip down the south coast (not such a great idea.. I recommend sleeping in the car!)

This was one of the most successful sunrises for me yet.. and it came about from sitting on a rock perch above the platform I was resting the camera on. It is a bit wild the old Whale Beach with the headlands not really protecting the rock platforms next to the beach due to the way they have been formed. So I sat on a higher rock with my tripod fully extended on the rock below.. I would then shoot with my cable release and yank the tripod up by the neck if the larger sets rolled through. By the end of sunrise I was drained.. just from the focus and ongoing concentration on not only what the camera is doing but what the ocean is doing around it.

Makes it sound complicated eh? And some people think all you need to do is press a button! I have been doing lots of shooting lately, but less processing… I seem to be moving towards less is more approach and I might need to restructure my blog posts to include less images (i.e post images up as I complete them rather than wait for me to finish processing sunrises). At the moment I have around 5 sunrises which are incomplete, some which I havent uploaded any photos from at all.. it doesnt bother me too much but I am finding I will edit a shot from one sunrise and move to the next.. to keep it fresh. I think this requires some further thought.

Till next time..

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