Rodney Campbell's Blog

Was invited again by some keen photographers to another dawn seascape – this time at Dee Why on Sydneys Northern beaches. The plan was to shoot till sunrise at Dee Why and then move across to Newtown (Sydneys inner west) for breakfast and then some Street Graffiti shooting.

This time my eldest daughter came along with me and when we left home at 5:45AM it wasn’t looking all that good. On arrival at Dee Why ocean pool at 6:15AM it was raining lightly and the sky was black with clouds and huddled in the car overlooking the ocean it only got heavier :(. We could catch glimpses of clear sky down south but it really wasn’t looking good.

However only a few minutes before sunrise the sky looked to be clearing a little and the rain stopped. We decided to risk the move down to the rocks and started shooting and as if by magic the skies parted enough to get some decent colour and cloud action and the rain stayed away till we finished shooting just before 8AM. As we were making our way back to the cars the heavens opened again – luck!

Note: These images (especially the wider shots) look much better when larger – so click any of the images below to see larger versions in an inline overlay gallery viewer.

Dawn Surfer

NIKON D7000 + 17.0-50.0 mm f/2.8 @ 17 mm, 3 sec at f / 16, ISO 100

Raging White

NIKON D7000 + 17.0-50.0 mm f/2.8 @ 17 mm, 1/4 sec at f / 16, ISO 100 + CPL

and my favourite image of the day – Ocean Outcrop

NIKON D7000 + 17.0-50.0 mm f/2.8 @ 17 mm, 0.4 sec at f / 16, ISO 100 + CPL

God Rays

NIKON D7000 + 17.0-50.0 mm f/2.8 @ 17 mm, 1/4 sec at f / 22, ISO 100

Our family was invited to a picnic day a few weeks ago (originally it was going to be at Vaucluse but due to bad weather was relocated to Clovelly in Sydneys eastern suburbs).

Whilst we were at this seaside location my daughters and I of course went to a bit of a wander with the camera and took some photos. The location we were at (Clovelly bowling club) is perched high up on the cliffs overlooking the ocean and unlike my usual seascapes these were not taken at the crack of dawn but rather at the most unflattering middle of the day – however the very overcast weather helped a great deal with reducing the contrast in the scenes.

The cliff edges were littered with these vines with bright purple flowers which I’ve incorporated into some of the images. In this first I’ve used a wide angle to promote the flowers in the scene.

NIKON D7000 + 17.0-50.0 mm f/2.8 @ 17 mm, 1/100 sec at f / 11, ISO 100

The view along the cliff edge

NIKON D7000 + 17.0-50.0 mm f/2.8 @ 17 mm, 1/100 sec at f / 11, ISO 100

The view out to sea (and yes that is a sailboat out there on the ocean :))

NIKON D7000 + 70.0-300.0 mm f/4.5-5.6 @ 102 mm, 1/60 sec at f / 11, ISO 100

and finally a bit of fun with my girls jumping on this rocking stone they found…

Jump

NIKON D7000 + 17.0-50.0 mm f/2.8 @ 42 mm, 1/1250 sec at f / 4.0, ISO 100

Week 13

Stop

NIKON D90 + 50.0 mm f/1.4 @ 50 mm, 1/200 sec at f / 2.0, ISO 200