Crash

And Flow is a 3-exposure HDR that I originally didn’t like much, but I played with the processing a bit to give it more of a different feel, and now I’m happy with it

Flow

Thanks for looking!

These two are HDR bracketed exposures with the Canon 5D Mark II and 24-105mm lens with a 0.9 GND filter.

I love the sense of movement this first one gives.

The Rush

And this one is called the Promise, because it was the first sign that the skies were going to open up a bit and give us some dawn colours that we’d been missing. It was after this that a hole opened up and we got our Beam of Light.

The Promise

Thanks for looking, comments welcome!

I’ve reprocessed the images of the Beam of Light I shot at Turimetta Beach because the colour was just all wrong – too much cyan, too much saturation in parts.

I hope you like these better. I won’t tell the story again – read the original post for that. But enjoy these images.

Shining Light

The Light Wave

The Light Hole

The Light Hole

Thanks for looking!

It’s a fantastic secluded location near Narabeen, with no horrible sodium lights, nice and dark (for so close to the city) and some beautiful rock structures and formations that give amazing opportunities for seascapes with an interesting foreground. It’s also the type of place you could visit time and time again, as different tide heights and different moon phase open up new and different photographic opportunities.

We had an uninspiring mixed dawn early on, with some heavy low clouds preventing any dawn colours from breaking through. It was getting close to the time to call it a day so I could head to work, but as the Sun crept further above the horizon a break in the clouds out over the ocean gave us our money shot. A magnificent beam of light shone through the clouds into the ocean and finally gave us a focal point to compose around.

Beam of Light

After not much to inspire us early on, all of a sudden David and I were frantically running from shot to shot looking for the best composition, knowing that this shaft of light was fleeting and could disappear at any time.

Light Hole

It was a magnificent sight, and our patience was rewarded.

The Light Hole

This shot was cropped to a 3:1 panorama. I love the motion in the waves and makes the shot feel alive to me.

The Light Wave

I’ve got a few more shots from the morning which I’ll post soon. Turimetta Beach is definitely a place I’ll head back to again soon.

All of the above are single shots with a Canon 5D Mark II and 24-105mm lens. I used a Lee .9 GND filter too. Processed using Lightroom 4.1RC2 (extremely slow pain in the arse to use!) and Photoshop.

Thanks for looking – comments always welcome.

It was a gorgeous sky I was fortunate to capture as I ducked in and out from watching Eliza swimming at a Guides carnival in Gosford Pool nearby.

Gosford Waterfront Marina Sunset

This lone fisherman captured my eye, as he sits beneath Venus and Jupiter shining like beacons above.

Fishing under the Planets

This 3:1 panorama was taken on the North side of Gosford Marina with a stunning orange sunset.

Gosford Waterfront Marina Panorama

The clouds were perfect for photographers. I could tell from about 2 hours before sunset that they were going to light up a beautiful pink.

Gosford Waterfront Sunset

More pink clouds.

Gosford Waterfront Pink Sunset

This was my first light for the Canon 5D Mark II and I fell in love immediately

Thanks for looking.

Well when my wife Kate and I were away on our weekend at Nelson Bay, while walking up Mount Tomaree we decided to make our own collection of funny photo poses. I used my wife’s compact as my camera, while Kate took photos of me using the camera phone. It was a lot of fun, and sometimes quite tricky and hard work holding the pose for long enough!

Without further adieu, here they are..

Handstand Photography

Up the Tree

Push Up Photo!

Fence Railing

Squaaatt!

Almost Planking

Reverse Planking

Submerged

Fence Railing Squat

Up the Tree Closeup

And the good news, I actually took photos while holding the pose. Here’s some of the results

Road to the WWII bunkers

The Nelson Bay Heads

Trees while upside down planking

I hope you enjoyed some of those

Let’s see your efforts!

To my knowledge, noone received anything nasty from my site – I even visited it myself, but it certainly put a very rapid decline on my visitor stats for the past few days. Of course it started happening on a Friday afternoon when I was in Salamander Bay, away from my computer and leading into the weekend when the hosts weren’t able to provide help.

In any case, it’s all fixed now – the offending code has been removed. It seems to have been some out of date plugin or something which caused the problem. I’m sorry for any inconvenience.

Now, onto better things. My wife and I went away for the weekend up to Salamander Bay, and we spent quite a bit of time around Nelson Bay, Shoal Bay and Fingal Bay. It was a lovely weekend, beautiful weather and great company. I promised Kate I wouldn’t take my camera, so all I had was the iPhone camera.

Still, that was enough to at least record some memories of the weekend.

At the top of Mount Tomaree, there’s a growing trend to put a padlock with you and your partners names engraved on it, and secure it to fence. I guess it’s a symbol of unbroken love or something. Apparently it’s been a big thing to do overseas and now it’s growing here in Australia at certain landmarks or tourist spots. This photo was Kate’s idea, but the camera in her phone wasn’t good enough to capture it how she intended, so I took it with my iPhone which did a pretty good job of it.

Padlocks at the Summit of Mount Tomaree

We drove to Fingal Bay and then went for a walk around the headland. In a small cove I found this beautiful green tide pool. This is a 3-image panorama taken and stitched using the AutoStitch app.

Fingal Bay Rock Pool

And here’s Fingal Bay itself, a 5-image panorama again taken and stitched with AutoStitch.

Fingal Bay Panorama

On Friday night, we had dinner at Nelson Bay and the sunset was just gorgeous. This photo doesn’t do it justice, but the reddy/orange on the horizon with the boats in silhouette was just stunning.

Nelson Bay Sunset

Kate and I went for a nice brisk walk to the summit of Mount Tomaree on Saturday and I jogged up it on Sunday morning. It was a lot harder to jog up than I expected! It’s very steep. This image is from the Saturday more leisurely session

Mike at the top of Mount Tomaree

And here’s Kate in front of some of the rocks near the tide pool at Fingal Bay. I love this one because it reminds me of our trek around the headland, across the rocks, only to get into the small cove and find some stairs leading down

Kate near the rock pool at Fingal Bay

Thanks for looking.

The Sunset colours and clouds in the sky complete the scene in what was a stunning dusk and sunset over Brisbane Water at Gosford Waterfront.

These images are from slightly earlier than the one already posted, Venus and Jupiter Conjunction at Gosford Waterfront. There’s still a few more to come from earlier in the session, but these are the last that show the planets.

Beacons in the Sky Panorama

Taken with my Canon 5D Mark II and 24-105mm lens, the image above has been cropped to a 3:1 panorama. The image below has been cropped to a 2:1 panorama.

Beacons in the Sky

Thanks for looking.

I was in luck – a small gate to negotiate, but then a clear field and the skies started clearing, just enough, at the right time.

A few test shots, and then captured this  - the Road to the Milky Way. A self portrait vertical panorama with the Scorpius and Sagittarius part of the Milky Way bulge rising.

Road to the Milky Way

EDIT: New version added. This version has much more contrast and colour in the sky.

I was at Somersby now, much further East than I had intended and so the light pollution was terrible – especially when the clouds were around. The lights from Gosford and surrounds reflected terribly.

I had wanted to be out at Yarramalong – I imagined clear dark skies out there with a nice gate or fence or windmill in the foreground. Unfortunately I hadn’t taken into account the difficulty of finding such a site in the night time. It was almost impossible, because I could only see what was right beside the road. I really needed to do my reconnaissance during the day.

It’s not exactly the result I had in my mind; darker skies and a better foreground would’ve been nice, but I’m really happy with the end result, especially given my challenges and frustrations of driving around for 2-3 hours with nothing to show for it. It also gave me some practise with the 5D Mark II and 24mm f/1.4 lens and the type of exposures and ISO needed for these shots.

Technical details about the picture: 2 images, 20s each exposure, ISO3200, f/2.2, Canon 5D Mark II, 24mm f/1.4 lens. Images combined using AutoPano Pro and Processed in Photoshop. The Milky Way part of the image was processed using Gradient Exterminator to help even out the light pollution so I could apply curves and levels.

I’m not sure if there’s too much foreground – I’m wondering whether to crop a bit of the road – what do you think?

Thanks for looking.

The first photo is of Andrew Murrell, who I arranged to meet at Avoca that morning. I love the motion in the waves!

Andrew and Wave

The next photo is of the setting almost full Moon and some of the only clouds in the sky that morning.

Moon at Avoca

The last photo is of the same fisherman from Sunrise Contemplation, but also with another photographer who was there that morning (identity unknown ). Cropped to a 2:1 pano.

Fisherman and Photographer at Avoca

Thanks for looking.