Saturday, August 31, 2013

At Last - A Decent Sunrise

I've been trying for so long to have the energy to make it to a sunrise shoot with the Focus Group. It seems every time I attend one of them the clouds are a no show and every time I decide I'm not going to bother waking at 4.00 a.m I miss out on a doozy. So I recently decided I'd attend every one and I'd eventually be rewarded with something other than a single bright golden orb.
I didn't have much time to set up and I wasn't keen on negotiating the rocks in the dark, even with my head torch. The guys all clambered over the rocks in an endeavour to find their preferred location for a good comp but I was quite happy where I could capture some wave action and a few rocks. Unfortunately I was unable to alter the comp to have a better sky/foreground ratio as the tripod was on a small uneven rock shelf so I had to be happy with what I got.
The base of Sea Cliff bridge is accessible from Coalcliffe at low tide and there are lots of opportunities for reflection shots. Definitely would take a while to milk this location. I was playing around with some processing techniques and the image reminds me of the tonal variations in the work of El Greco which I've always loved. The sky resembles an HDR nightmare but I think I'll definitely revisit the technique.
A sample of El Greco's work below

Sunday, August 25, 2013

How Much Is That Doggie ?


Attended an open day at the Guide Dogs Association at Glossodia. Was really impressed by the cleanliness and the warmth and helpfulness of the staff. My mum taught me never to trust a person who can't empathise with animals and I've discovered she wasn't far off the mark. Another bonus was that it was a great day to be out and about in the country with my daughter.

Thursday, August 22, 2013

Blue Moon

Seems as though "blue" is the only word I'm able to associate with moons. Haven't seen a decent full moon let alone photographed one, since late 2011 due to a myriad of unfortunate co incidences and conditions.  The Supermoon earlier this year was a complete fizzer in Sydney. I headed down towards the beach at Cronulla in spite of stormy predictions. I wasn't prepared to take the risk of being a slave to weather forecasts just on the slim chance that the moon would find some way to force its way through the cloud cover and leave me with recriminations and regrets and others with stellar images.

It wasn't to be of course, so I had to content myself with watching the antics of a bridal party led by a dill of a photographer onto the beach in the gusty wind with rain obliterating any semblance of style left in already bedraggled hairstyles. The beauty of being an eternal pessimist !

It was looking good the previous night when the moon rose clearly visible above the horizon. There were minimal clouds but that's better than full cloud cover, so it looked promising for the following evening. Was looking good until a thick cloud bank settled right slap bang in the centre of the horizon and completely covered the moon until dark descended and all we were left with was a golden orb - not the sort of moon I'd wanted at all.
Looks like another moon chase next month.