Rodney Campbell's Blog

Our last morning on our long weekend away staying near Coffs Harbour up on the mid north coast of New South Wales.

So my last chance to catch my favourite time of the day to photograph – twilight and sunrise.

My good wife had actually suggested I head to this location the day before (saying that there were all these green mossy covered rocks all along the beach) so how could I resist.

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

Unfortunately I knew the tide would be high around sunrise so I was expecting most of the good green covered rocks would actually be underwater – which proved to be the case. Still it’s always good to be out at this time of day – it’s so peaceful when it’s so still and calm – and the colours of the light are so subtle and beautiful.

5:43AM and way before sunrise. This shot actually looks quite good in colour but to me I was drawn to doing a monochrome conversion so…

Endless

NIKON D600 + 24.0-70.0 mm f/2.8 @ 70 mm, 52 sec at f/8, ISO 100

One of the few exposed rocks with any hint of green on it :). 3 Stop GND over the sky and some light painting of the foreground rocks to bring them out of the darkness.

Dawns Delight

NIKON D600 + 16.0-35.0 mm f/4.0 @ 18 mm, 117 sec at f/11, ISO 100

I spied this lone figure way up the northern end of the beach and out on a rock in the ocean looking out to sea. He was actually standing silhouetted against the sky when I first saw him and I was hoping he’d stay still that way whilst I changed to a long lens to capture the scene with those subtle aerial layers of the mountains behind. Unfortunately by the time I’d switched over he’d sat down but still I’m drawn to his tiny presence in this vast low contrast expanse. It’s just a couple minutes till sunrise and he’s waiting and watching the slow rise over the horizon.

Watching & Waiting

NIKON D600 + 70.0-300.0 mm f/4.5-5.6 @ 155 mm, 1/160 sec at f/4.8, ISO 640

and finally when I’d walked up and past the northern most end of the beach and around to the next beach entrance I’ve got two final shots of the morning. Almost a before and after. The first shot is just with the Lee 0.9 grad and Heliopan CPL and was taken just moments after sunrise.

Landing on Alien Soil

NIKON D600 + 16.0-35.0 mm f/4.0 @ 18 mm, 1/2 sec at f/11, ISO 100

and the second just four minutes later but the sun had well and truly risen and burned off the mist and low cloud. I added the Lee LittleStopper for some daytime long exposure goodness.

Stopping Aliens

NIKON D600 + 16.0-35.0 mm f/4.0 @ 18 mm, 62.00 sec at f/11, ISO 100

Notice how the shadows are more defined after we’ve started loosing the soft light and the completely different colouring and feel even though I’ve set the white balance for both shots manually to Daylight. The transition that occurs with the light, the colour, the intensity, the whole look and feel over just a few minutes at the transition of the day makes an enormous difference to your end results.

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