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Roaches Beach

Roaches Beach 3 by BrendanDavey
Roaches Beach 3, a photo by BrendanDavey on Flickr.

It’s been a long while since I’ve posed to my blog, and a lots been happening. I’m aiming to get more regular updates and articles up, in the mean time, here is a picture I took last week.

Long exposure with 10 stop, I got the timing just right to capture the clouds when they lit up, 2 mins either side and it would have been rather dull.

Two close, but not quite.

Lauderdale Beach, Tasmania
Lauderdale Beach, Tasmania

Lauderdale Beach Tasmania
Lauderdale Beach Tasmania #2

This morning I saw the best sunrise we have had for a few weeks, I’ve been waiting for just the right amount of cloud and light. I shot a few good shots, and could not decide which ones to upload. So I’ve uploaded 2.

I’m really missing my wide angle lens, but the 24-105mm is serving me well. It’s certainly not as sharp as my old 16-35mm. Most of the exposure were long in low light, so complete manual focus and no IS. At 24mm it’s not to bad, and you can still fit a fair bit in the shot, but I’m really looking forward to my new 17-40mm. I could see myself with a 24mm TS-E in the future for sure.

Black and White

Taroona Sunset South Derwent
Taroona Sunset - Black and White

Sometimes you look at a picture and you think, “It’s okay, but nothing special, I wouldn’t hang it on my wall”. Occasionally these shots can be converted to Black and White with fantastic results. This picture has a very rich blue sky and when converted to B&W it was possible to change the hue and saturation of the blue to make the sky really “pop”. The effect was created in Lightroom, and I suspect better results could be achieved with Nik Silver Efex Pro.

Early Starts

Lauderdale Beach Tasmania
Lauderdale Beach Tasmania

Ever had one of those mornings when you could not sleep? Decided to grab the camera and go somewhere local for a few shots?

Well that’s what I did this morning, not much of a sunrise, so I decided to change over to the 50mm f1.4 and shoot some portrait shots of some local pillars on Lauderdale Beach. I really need to get a 58mm to 77mm step up ring so I can use my filters on my 50mm, better exposure in the sky would have been nice. However the washed out sky does work well with the glamor filter in post. I’m hoping to capture the same shot soon with a good sunrise in the background.

Freycinet Peninsula

Mayfield Bay Sunrise - Tasmanian East Coast
Mayfield Bay Sunrise - Tasmanian East Coast

The Mayfield beach coastal reserve is a popular spot for campers on Tasmania’s east coast, run by parks and wildlife you can stay for only a gold coin donation, but be warned there’s no water and only a drop toilet. With an easterly view towards the Freycinet Peninsula the beach captures fantastic sunrises. I’m still deciding if I should add this shot to the shop for purchase or not.

South Arm (Iron Pot)

South Arm - Fort Direction

After living in Tasmania for all my life I shouldn’t be surprised when I stumble onto “new” fantastic locations.

I’d been viewing lighthouses recently on flickr and decided to try shooting the Iron Pot lighthouse, after a quick visit to google maps it appeared the only suitable location from shore to shoot was Fort Direction near South Arm.

During the Second World War Fort Direction was used to monitor the mouth of the Derwent river and protect Hobart. Because there is still a military base located there, the only way to the southern most tip for shooting the Iron Pot is via walking the coast line, about a 30 min walk.

Some of the rocks and foreshore are the most interesting I have seen, with patterns that seem almost impossible to form.

Due to poor weather I don’t think I took any fantastic shots, so I’m waiting for that “magic” weather pattern.

South Australia & Victoria

Portland Sunrise, originally uploaded by BrendanDavey.

Over the past week or so I’ve been travelling the great ocean road, many days were a wash out, but there were a few nice mornings where I managed to be up for some great sunrises.

Portland and Lorne were two towns where I grabbed some great pics, over the comming weeks I’ll upload a few to the store, and this time around I managed to shoot a lot in landscape, rather than portrait.

The attached picture is from Portland.

Tessallated Drama

4:19 Soundly asleep.
4:20 Abruptly awoken by alarm.
4:35 Start driving to Eaglehawk Neck for sunrise.
6:00 Arrive at the tessellated pavement, setup equipment.
6:10 Start shooting sunrise.
8:00 Depart.
9:10 Arrive at work.

End result, grumpy, tired and frustrated with nothing more to show than a couple of sepia shots. Why? For some unknown reason all the shots turned out extremely red. From some reason I’m still yet to explain or replicate my new hi-tech filters caused the sky to turn red, resulting in nothing more than b/w usable images. *sigh*