Rodney Campbell's Blog

Out for my first sunrise shoot in well over a month. Our good friend Melinda (AKA KK) was in town so arrangements were made with Gerry, Tom and I to take her on a sunrise shoot.

Touch the Sky

NIKON D750 + 16.0-35.0 mm f/4.0 @ 19 mm, 55 sec at f/11, ISO 100

Here we are at Little Bay in Sydney’s Eastern Suburbs and the swell and sea spray was in full force :). It was low tide just before sunrise (6:40AM) but that didn’t stop Gerry from getting absolutely drenched by a rogue wave (or three) to end the session.

Not only did I have to contend with sea spray on the filters it appears I had a smear (of water?) down one of my filters (my Lee 3 stop hard grad). Of course I only noticed this when I was looking at my images in Lightroom – sigh… Thankfully the sea spray caused me to give all my filters a bit of a clean out in the field about half way through. I still had to contend with about 40 RAW captures with this ugly smear down the middle of the image (including these first three shots). A bit of clever Lightroom cloning magic does wonders :).

Fine Spray

NIKON D750 + 16.0-35.0 mm f/4.0 @ 26 mm, 62 sec at f/16, ISO 100

It was good to catch up with Tom and Melinda again (who I hadn’t seen since last year) – cheers to the both of you for making the trek to Sydney.

Here is a shot I took of Tom after sunrise. It’s actually a blend of six exposures (from -3EV to +2EV). I had Tom both move where I wanted him and to stand still for the captures – so not quite a sneaky behind the scenes capture :).

Tom

NIKON D750 + 16.0-35.0 mm f/4.0 @ 19 mm, 1/13 sec at f/16, ISO 100

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.

So here we are at the end of the session. Like me Gerry is shooting a BigStopper long exposure only a couple metres to the right of me. Six minutes in and mine is cooked. Looking to my right I see this huge wave coming and shout to Gerry to look out… moments later he’s standing tripod held in the air and the wave hits the rock shelf and bursts up and over him. A little sea spray is annoying enough on the filters but being drenched really takes the cake…

Finite Blue

NIKON D750 + 16.0-35.0 mm f/4.0 @ 28 mm, 368 sec at f/11, ISO 100

The last time I’d been to this spot I was a small child. Back then this formation was called the London Bridge and I was able to walk right out to the end of the rock on the right.

London’s Down

NIKON D750 + 24.0-70.0 mm f/2.8 @ 24 mm, 328 sec at f/16, ISO 50

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.

London Arch (formerly London Bridge) is an offshore natural arch formation in the Port Campbell National Park. The stack was formed by a gradual process of erosion, and until 1990 formed a complete double-span natural bridge. The span closer to the shoreline collapsed unexpectedly on 15 January 1990, leaving two tourists stranded on the outer span before being rescued by helicopter.

I’d arrived here just past 7PM (still two hours till sunset). It’s a fantastic location and I had an image in my mind of what I wanted to create whilst I was here. The photography weather gods must have been smiling on me because those clouds I’d been wanting all day so far had finally appeared. Lots of fluffy white puffs in the sky set against the blue between were moving rapidly across the sky (towards me even – bonus).

So it was time to setup for that long exposure I was looking for. A bit over five minutes later with the Lee BigStopper stacked with a Lee 0.6 Grad and the CPL we had the shot I was looking for. There was even enough time to chat with this very nice family who’d come to sight see.

I was planning to continue past Port Campbell to visit a few other locations like Loch Ard Gorge and The Razorback but I was running out of daytime. I was keen not to miss my chance at going down Gibson Steps so I headed straight there just in case.

Staying so very close to the western end (Bay of Islands) of the world famous Great Ocean Road I was sorely tempted to try and visit one of the world’s most scenic coastal drives for sunrise or sunset.

I hadn’t been on the Great Ocean Road for perhaps twenty years and the time before that I was a young child.

Trajectory

NIKON D750 + 24.0-70.0 mm f/2.8 @ 48 mm, 30 sec at f/11, ISO 100

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.

I was initially considering the option of driving all the way across to the Twelve Apostles and Gibson Steps for sunrise. However it is a 90 minute drive from Port Fairy and with sunrise before 6:30 and wanting to be on location an hour beforehand after a 20 minute walk down the cliff steps and across the sand I’d need to be getting up at double insane o’clock. I’d then spend the day slowly driving back and finish with sunset at the Bay of Islands before returning home. It would be an insanely long day as well (with astro twilight at 10PM).

I opted instead for the slightly easier option. I’d leave in the early afternoon and start at the westernmost end at the Bay of Islands (a one hour drive) and then work my way eastwards along the Great Ocean Road stopping at various places to shoot until I reached the Twelve Apostles or Gibsons Steps for sunset. Then return home very late when done.

Bay of Islands

NIKON D750 + 24.0-70.0 mm f/2.8 @ 24 mm, 1/30 sec at f/11, ISO 100 x 4 Frames

So first stop was this Bay of Islands – an amazing spot really and one that most people coming from the Melbourne side probably don’t make it to after a long day.

As I was shooting in the middle of the day I always knew the conditions would definitely not suit the style of photography I like. So I pretty much always knew I’d be shooting daytime long exposures with some heavy ND filters (the Lee Little and Big Stoppers). Even still I was hoping for some good moving clouds in the sky but it looked like today I was going to be out of luck. Still it was the only day I was going to be here so I was going to make the best of it.

Pro Tip: The first image up top was taken from the normal public viewing platform next to the signposted car park for the Bay of Islands. A thirty (30) second exposure using the Lee BigStopper, Lee 0.6 Grad and a CPL. The view from this spot is quite spectacular but unless you’re willing to jump the fence and go risk it all the compositions are somewhat limited and at this time of day (4:30PM) there are lots of people around. I’d recommend instead to drive a few hundred metres west of here where you’ll find another road which leads to a boat ramp (going all the way down the cliff to the water). From the car park here theres a small walk out to another much more private viewing area where it was much easier to jump the fence as it were and get to spots with much easier compositional choices. The four frame stitched panorama above and the image below were both taken from this area.

Shooting with the sun still high in the sky to the west (sunset was at 9PM) I was somewhat limited with my compositional choices. I basically couldn’t face my camera westwards at all without suffering massive contrast issues and intensely washed out areas. So my compositions were generally limited to eastward views and I still had to deal with severe flare issues with the large rectangular and square filters. Holding my hat up high in the air to shade my filters and camera for minutes at a time during the exposures must have looked “interesting”.

Island Stacks

NIKON D750 + 24.0-70.0 mm f/2.8 @ 52 mm, 61 sec at f/11, ISO 100

Driving a couple kilometres east you come to a place called the Bay of Martyrs. This spot provides an ideal location to look along the coastline and all the island stacks which make up the Bay of Islands.

Bay of Martyrs

NIKON D750 + 24.0-70.0 mm f/2.8 @ 56 mm, 51 sec at f/11, ISO 50

I was looking directly into the sun here so that was painful – lucky I was going for that hazy soft dreamy look ;).

The Grotto is a sinkhole geological formation and tourist attraction, found on the Great Ocean Road outside the township of Port Campbell. Wooden steps wind down the cliff face to the bottom, providing visibility of the sea beyond a pool at low tide.

The Grotto

NIKON D750 + 24.0-70.0 mm f/2.8 @ 24 mm, 1/50 sec at f/11, ISO 100

The normal photos you see from this location are taken from the viewing platform at the end of the steps looking out through the arch towards the sea. The tide was obviously very low at this time so I headed out to shoot from the outside looking in. With a low tide thankfully the rocks were all quite dry and so getting wet wasn’t on the cards. However those really really jagged rocks seemed very sharp. You have to be very careful with your footing here lest you fall and do some serious damage to yourself.

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.

Below is the view from the Grotto looking out over the edge over the sea. The water was actually a few metres below me here.

Dragons Head

NIKON D750 + 24.0-70.0 mm f/2.8 @ 32 mm, 41 sec at f/11, ISO 100

I was hoping for a little colour in the sky post sunset here at the Craggs. I hadn’t seen (or at least hadn’t been out on a shoot in a good location when I saw it :)) a really good sky in months. Tonight however the sky went absolutely nuts and with this prehistoric coastline in front of me having an epically prehistoric sky to match was too lucky.

Prehistoric Times

NIKON D750 + 16.0-35.0 mm f/4.0 @ 19 mm, 15 sec at f/11, ISO 50

It wasn’t all rainbows and unicorns however… we still had gusty windy conditions and lots of fine mist and sand falling onto the filters. There wasn’t any point cleaning it however since we were just getting more every few seconds with each new wind gust. I’d just have to live with it…

The colour up to sunset was looking pretty ordinary and it wasn’t till quite a few minutes after sunset that things started getting interesting. I was already facing westwards along the coast when shooting at sunset so the image up top was taken at 9:03PM (7 minutes past sunset).

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.

Then a few minutes later (9:05PM) it really started to get good. The whispy clouds started going pinks and vibrant reds. It was all I could do to keep pressing the shutter as it seemed to be getting better and better.

Land the Time Forgot

NIKON D750 + 16.0-35.0 mm f/4.0 @ 17 mm, 13 sec at f/11, ISO 50

I wanted to change up the composition but was fearful the conditions would suddenly change. I looked behind me and saw that the subtle whispy cloud formations were going fantastic pink against a blue sky turning twilight. So I quickly turned around and ran the 50m back to where I’d first been shooting earlier looking eastwards up the coastline – 9:08PM.

Firestorm

NIKON D750 + 16.0-35.0 mm f/4.0 @ 17 mm, 30 sec at f/11, ISO 100

Time only for two shots before returning to this spot above this curved cove I was still drawn to. As the fire in the sky was raging overhead my foreground was falling into shadow as the day slipped more into night – 9:10PM.

Fiery Skies

NIKON D750 + 16.0-35.0 mm f/4.0 @ 17 mm, 25 sec at f/11, ISO 100

I moved maybe a couple metres to my left and setup a vertical composition looking down and out to sea. Even though this is the very next frame and less than two minutes later (9:12PM) already the colour was fading rapidly. Soon it would all be lost.

No Escape

NIKON D750 + 16.0-35.0 mm f/4.0 @ 17 mm, 25 sec at f/11, ISO 100

I moved around shooting a few more compositions till I was shooting natural long exposures as the light dropped rapidly. At 9:25PM I was done and the colour had almost faded.

As with much of landscape photography you spend many hours at a location looking and hoping for that brief five to ten minute period when things are just right. Today we got lucky, job done.