Rodney Campbell's Blog

Dark Swirls

NIKON Z 7 + NIKKOR Z 14-30mm f/4 S @ 14 mm, 5 sec at f/11, ISO 64

More moody dark swirls pre-sunrise imagery from Garie Beach. Crazy nice water swirls… Part of (good) seascape photography is obviously coming up with interesting compositions. However another major part is choosing the right timing for the shot

This is half about choosing the appropriate shutter speed – not necessarily the exact but rather roughly. For example it could be anything from tens to hundreds of seconds (long exposures), to single digit seconds, to low fractions of a second (e.g. 1/25th to 1 sec), to even faster speeds, to extremely fast speeds (e.g. 1/1000 sec and above)

The other timing half is exactly when to start the exposure. Waiting for the right wave or wave conditions, how the water is flowing and where, is it coming in or dragging out and so on. For this you also have to imagine how the shot will actually look. This is because depending on the shutter speed you’re using, the actual look of the final image will be quite different to what you’re seeing with the naked eye

So whilst you may have a composition and camera setup, you may actually need to wait a long time for the conditions to suit the shot you’re aiming for

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.

Toonoum Falls

NIKON Z 7 + NIKKOR Z 14-30mm f/4 S @ 16 mm, 5 sec at f/11, ISO 64

After our extended sunrise session south of Garie Beach (more to come soon); Gerry and I headed out to shoot some waterfalls. We tried to go to National Falls – however it was closed off due to a landslide – typical…

So here we are at this pretty crappy location – Toonoum Falls

There was just too much stuff in the way and the direction of the light was “unwelcome” (contrast sapping). So this is the best of the worst…

Kase CPL stacked with a Lee 0.9 (3 stop) ND to drag out the shutter

Dark Rift

NIKON Z 7 + NIKKOR Z 14-30mm f/4 S @ 14 mm, 13 sec at f/11, ISO 64

South of Garie Beach in the Royal National Park south of Sydney. Just before 6:50AM and about 20 minutes before sunrise

Stainless

NIKON Z 7 + NIKKOR Z 14-30mm f/4 S @ 14 mm, 62 sec at f/8, ISO 64

I joined Gerry for another Sunday session. The plan was a sunrise seascape shoot followed by waterfalls. With Sydney weather as it has been for the past few weeks and as it’s predicted for at least the next week I wasn’t hopeful. In fact I was anticipating a completely rained out session. Gerry however had confidence in his weather forecast – rain overnight but no rain till 11AM

It was a relatively early start for me – 4:15 wakeup. Drove to Gerry’s to pick him up and then onwards to the Royal National Park south of Sydney

Here we are near Garie Beach at 6:40AM (about 25 minutes till sunrise). At this fantastic little rock shelf that was working just after high tide. A nice natural long exposure with just the 0.9 (3 stop) reverse grad and CPL from Kase filters

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.

Shoalhaven

DJI Mavic 2 Pro L1D-20c + 28.0 mm f/2.8 @ 10.26 mm, 1/640 sec at f/8, ISO 100 x 26 Frames

Shoalhaven, New South Wales

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.