Rodney Campbell's Blog

We were at South Curl Curl beach here on Sydney’s northern beaches for a pleasant sunrise

My daughters had wanted to watch the sun rise over the horizon whilst swimming in the ocean. So here we were getting up before the crack of dawn so we could be just on time

The Sun Rises

NIKON D750 + 16.0-35.0 mm f/4.0 @ 20 mm, 1/2 sec at f/11, ISO 100

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

The prediction was for clear skies and no clouds – sigh :(. I’d packed my camera gear the night before… just in case… However looking out the window at home before leaving in the morning I could see stars everywhere. Thus the chance of clouds was, well, nil

Wink

NIKON D750 + 16.0-35.0 mm f/4.0 @ 20 mm, 1 sec at f/11, ISO 100

We’d arrived pretty much exactly on sunrise. This was about an hour after I’d normally be arriving for a sunrise shoot anyway. So I wasn’t actually expecting to get any decent shots with the D-SLR

One of my Christmas gifts to myself was a new DJI drone – the Mavic 2 Pro. More about that later. It however was what I was expecting to shoot with on this clear morning – on it’s maiden flight

The air had a lot of sea spray and fine mist so it was quite hazy. This was actually probably helpful as the sky whilst cloudless had some very nice pastels

So whilst the girls swam in the ocean pool I quickly moved to the nearby beach next to the pool to shoot

Drag

NIKON D750 + 16.0-35.0 mm f/4.0 @ 20 mm, 2 sec at f/13, ISO 50

The tidal pool here at South Curl Curl beach was at the southernmost end of the beach. Right next to the pool were a few nice stones in the sand at the waters edge

These provided at least some chance of some decent foreground interest in some shots. With some nice pastel skies it was time to try and create something out of nothing

Angler

NIKON D750 + 16.0-35.0 mm f/4.0 @ 20 mm, 1/2 sec at f/11, ISO 100

This last is probably my favourite. With the sun just rising enough to cast a golden glow over the lip of the pool and onto the water and rock. Now it was just a matter of adjusting the camera settings. A shutter slow enough, but not to slow, to capture the motion of the water and then it’s just timing for the waves

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