The Jetties of Portsea and Sorrento

Portsea and Sorrento are coastal villages located at the tip of the Mornington Peninsula, south east of Melbourne. They both share a wild and woolly ocean beach to the south and the much calmer waters of Port Phillip Bay to the north. As a photography enthusiast I enjoy the contrast between the ocean and bay sides of the peninsula.

In winter and early spring you can stand on the ocean beach and not see another soul, a prospect I find very attractive. The only problem is that the wild and woolly conditions that keep the crowds away also make photography difficult. A photographer here has to contend with the difficulties of high winds and sea spray, not impossible I know but very annoying when combined with the low temperatures of winter.

For this reason I’ve found myself gravitating towards the calmer bayside beaches on my last couple of trips down that way.

Below – “34 Steps” which is available to purchase as a print here.

I’ve recently been trying to consciously simplify my images by attempting to exclude as many distracting elements as possible. Whilst shooting on the bayside beaches this has been fairly easy to achieve by using long exposures to reduce the detail in the water and sky. Another benefit of the long exposures is that birds and boats can move through the frame without even appearing in the finished exposure. I used a combination of an ND400 and an ND8 filter giving me about 12 stops of darkness to make the exposures up to 30 seconds long for these images.

Below – “The Danger of Diving”, Portsea beach, which is available to purchase as a print here.

Portsea and Sorrento bayside beaches feature a wonderful collection of public and private jetties.
Below – “Outbound”, Sorrento beach, which is available to purchase as a print here.
Despite being technically over exposed I like the drama this high key image presents.
I like the way the sea and the sky are almost one. A personal favorite.

Below – “Nature versus Nurture”, Portsea beach, which is available to purchase as a print here.

Below – “Boomerang”, Portsea beach, which is available to purchase as a print here.

Below – “Civilization meets the Sea”, Portsea beach, is available to purchase as a print here.

Below – “The Trappings of Wealth”, Sorrento beach, is available to purchase as a print here.