Rodney Campbell's Blog

Today marks the 100th anniversary of the Gallipoli landings by the ANZAC’s (ANZAC stands for Australian and New Zealand Army Corps). On the 25th of April 1915, Australian and New Zealand soldiers formed part of the allied expedition that set out to capture Turkey’s Gallipoli Peninsula.

Anzac Day goes beyond the anniversary of the landing on Gallipoli in 1915. It is the day on which we remember Australians who served and died in all wars, conflicts, and peacekeeping operations. The spirit of Anzac, with its human qualities of courage, mateship, and sacrifice, continues to have meaning and relevance for our sense of national identity.

100 Years of ANZAC

NIKON D750 + 28.0-300.0 mm f/3.5-5.6 @ 45 mm, 1/800 sec at f/4.2, ISO 100

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 slideshow gallery viewer.

The official state Dawn Service was held at the Cenotaph in Martin Place at 4:30am, which is believed to have been the approximate time at which the first Australians waded ashore at Anzac Cove on the 25th of April 1915.

Gerry and I got up at insane o’clock this morning to head in to the city for the Dawn Service. So at 2:40AM (after a 1:45AM wakeup for me… shudder…) we met up near Martin Place. Even though the service wasn’t starting till 4:30AM it had been reported that with the massive popularity of this years event – it would be full by 3AM. They were not wrong – by the time we were in there the place was already packed with tens of thousands of attendees – easily the biggest turnout ever.

Finding a position to photograph anywhere in Martin Place let alone near the cenotaph was near impossible. Thousands had been camping out positions overnight and by this time it was easily over 30 people deep. But somehow this very nice couple allowed me to setup my tripod right in front of them to take a number of shots before moving on. They were standing right next to a row of other photographers with their tripods with a great view from the steps across Martin Place.

Faces of Anzac

NIKON D750 + 16.0-35.0 mm f/4.0 @ 17 mm, 1 sec at f/8, ISO 1000

The Cenotaph

NIKON D750 + 16.0-35.0 mm f/4.0 @ 16 mm, 1 sec at f/8, ISO 1000

Great chatting with you both and thankyou so much for allowing me to cramp your space for a while.

Later Gerry and I headed down to Circular Quay, The Opera House and the Cahill Expressway to shoot what turned out to be a very nice twilight and sunrise. It was looking very iffy before twilight but right on cue the clouds came in and saved the day.

Lest We Forget

NIKON D750 + 28.0-300.0 mm f/3.5-5.6 @ 62 mm, 8 sec at f/8, ISO 200

Up on the Cahill Expressway the morning turned awesome around 6:20AM (right on sunrise) and it was another chance to test out my new 28-300mm travel lens as a landscape photographers tool. Here this six frame panorama taken at 28mm is stitched in the new Adobe Lightroom CC (using the Merge to Panorama feature).

Anzac Dawn

NIKON D750 + 28.0-300.0 mm f/3.5-5.6 @ 28 mm, 1.6 sec at f/11, ISO 100 x 6 Frames

Don't forget to Share...

Google

Facebook

Twitter

Linkedin

Pinterest

Email

Print