Canon 5D Mk II + 17-40mm F4 L USM @ 35mm, 1 Second, f/14, ISO125

A few nights ago I witnessed one of the best sunsets I’ve seen for a long time.

Simon Beedle and I noticed some nice cloud in the sky a bit earlier in the afternoon so we headed towards Cottesloe Beach – taking an extremely long scenic route along the coast. We arrived at Cottesloe shortly before sunset. Initially we were unsure whether or not the sky was going to light up. There was some fairly thick cloud cover where the sky met the ocean. But, as the sun got closer to the horizon, the lower cloud burnt off and the sky turned a fiery red colour. Smoke from a nearby fire also caught the suns last light and helped us out a bit.

The light was gone as quick as it appeared, so I only got to fire off a couple of shots. It was extremely cold and windy so I tried to keep the exposure as short as possible, while still capturing a bit of motion in the water. I also had to underexpose the scene a bit to make sure I didn’t blow out the red channel.

Canon 5D Mk II + 17-40mm F4 L USM @ 30mm, 0.6 Second, f/16, ISO50

In 1935, the SS Maheno drifted ashore on the coast of Fraser Island during a strong cyclone while being towed from Melbourne to Japan to be pulled apart for scrap metal. 75 years later it is one impressive piece of scrap metal, and also one of the main tourist attractions along the east coast of Fraser Island along 75 Mile Beach.

The light on this particular morning was brilliant, illuminating the left side of rusting ship perfectly, without being too harsh. Nobody else was around. The tide was out just enough to expose a lot of the ship, but also in enough to create the leading line I had in mind. There were low clouds and high whispy clouds both catching the soft warm light. This was one of those times when you’re out shooting photographs and you just know that you’re going to come home with something satisfying. The conditions couldn’t have been much better.

As always, I enjoy reading your feedback, so please leave a comment below.

Canon 5D Mk II + 17-40mm F4 L USM @ 17mm, 1 Second, f/16, ISO50

In an attempt to bring my blog back from the dead – I’ll be honest, I’ve neglected it for a few months now – I have re-designed a few things and tidied up around the place. I am in the process of writing a few new posts which I will publish over the coming weeks. I plan to spend a bit more time and effort writing each blog post before pressing the “Publish” button.

The photo featured above is from a quick trip Clint Baker and myself took down to Dunsborough in June earlier this year. I recall waking up on this cold morning and heading down to Meelup Beach to photograph the sunrise, only hoping that the light would be nice to us. It was dark and quite overcast when we arrived – so it was fairly hard for us to tell what was going to happen. Thankfully, there was a thin break between the clouds and where the sun was to appear from. When the sun finally hit the horizon, it lit the sky up a gorgeous orange colour, which reflected across the water and changed the whole scene.

We were the only people at the beach on this morning, besides a lone fisherman in the distance. To me, it’s a great and satisfying feeling to be out there, early in the morning with hardly anybody else around, witnessing something so beautiful, especially in such an amazing part of our country. Photographing scenes like this to share with others only makes that feeling better!

I hope you enjoy this one.

If you like it why not purchase a print of “Meelup Sunrise”, or leave a comment below.

After watching the sky all day, hoping that the clouds would stick around for sunset, I made the decision to head to Cottesloe Beach to take a photograph I had been wanting to shoot for some time. When I arrived at Cottesloe, the clouds were looking great, and I knew that I was going to witness a brilliant sunset.

I climbed up a few rocks to get to this vantage point and watched the light show begin. The sun disappeared over the horizon and the sky slowly lit up a nice pink colour. I was surprised to find that there weren’t too many people down at the beach on such a nice night.

I can’t wait to see this one printed!

Following the lead of Darren Tierney, I thought I’d post my version of the SS Maheno shipwreck I shot during our trip to Fraser Island.

On the third morning of our camping trip to Fraser Island, Simon, our human alarm clock, woke us up bright and early. Bleary eyed, and definitely not feeling like getting out of my warm sleeping bag, I somehow managed to lift myself up and, through the trees above, take a quick look at the sky outside. It was still dark, but we could see stars in the sky – not a bad sign. We quickly got dressed and woke ourselves up as much as possible, packed our camera gear into the 4×4 and we were off.

The SS Maheno Shipwreck is about 15km south of our camp site, stranded on 75 Mile Beach, and by the time we arrived sunlight was starting to appear over the horizon. Not much later, the clouds were beginning to pink, and the sky turned a nice pastel blue. This is what we came here for.

Each of us found our preferred composition around the ship and we began another long day of shooting.