Playing in the Wind – Flinders, the Blowhole Track
A selection of images from the beach at the end of the Blowhole Track at Flinders on the lovely Mornington Peninsula.
On the day I was there the wind was so horrendously strong I had to push down hard on the tripod to stop it from vibrating and blurring all of the long exposure shots.
Pictured below – Flinders Beach, the Blowhole Track.
A very picturesque coastline battered by the relentless surf.
Exploring the Pointy End of Phillip Island
I’d been to this part of Phillip Island on previous occasions but I loved it so much I thought I’d revisit.
That’s one of the joys of photography, you can visit the same location on several occasions and come away with completely different images each time.
Pictured below – Old wooden remnants at Cat Bay, Phillip Island.
Pictured below – The beach at Right Point, Phillip Island, located between Cat Bay and the Nobbies. The violence of the ocean waves smoothed by the use of long exposure.
Sorrento Back Beach
Shortly before xmas I took the opportunity to snap some images just before the summer “silly season” struck Sorrento.
I’m certain that one day the Sorrento/Portsea area of the Mornington Peninsula will become so heavy with tourists that it’ll snap off and fall into the sea.
Until that day I’ll continue to enjoy it as much as I can.
Pictured below – A couple of long exposure images from south-east of the main beach.
Pictured below – Bay of Islands – Sorrento
Located a short walk from the car park at the end of Diamond Bay Road.
Tenby Point Revisited
There’s something quite magical about Tenby Point. It’s one of those areas I feel compelled to visit from time to time.
A great surprise this visit was to find the road is now surfaced with asphalt. I’m going to miss all the corrugations and pot holes that once adorned the old dirt track leading to the beach.
The Mists of Kilcunda
On an unseasonally warm winter’s day last weekend, I took advantage of the fine weather to reintroduce myself back to our fine ocean coastline.
Upon arrival at Kilcunda, located on Victoria’s Bass Coast, the sea was remarkably calm and there was a thick haunting mist in the air. A wonderful sight indeed. 🙂
Technical stuff – The image was taken mid afternoon using an ND400 filter to lengthen the exposure time and thus soften the appearance of the sea.
Swimming at the Sixteen – Rye Beach
After a recent photographic excursion to Koonya beach two weeks ago, I swore not to return my feet to the icy waters of the ocean until the warmer weather arrived.
Alas, the lure of the salty seas proved to be too much for me.
This week’s excursion was a low tide expedition to Number Sixteen beach at Rye on the Mornington Peninsula.
Unfortunately I arrived just a little bit too late in the tidal cycle to safely photograph my intended target. Rather than risk my life on the rocky shelves I decided to play around on the beach photographing easier targets, …..and only got wet up to the knees. 😉
A long exposure image from Rye beach.
This rock is one of the main features of the Number Sixteen beach. It dramatically changes it’s perceived shape depending on the direction from which you photograph it.
Water rushes back from the beach to join the pounding surf.
Water swirls around the foreground rocks as it enters the beach.
The landmark rock from a different perspective.
The Chill of Winter – Koonya Beach
Winter has suddenly struck with a vengeance in Melbourne and it’s surrounding areas.
The reduced temperature of the Bass Strait water combined with chilling winter winds now makes wide-angle shooting amongst the crashing surf fairly unbearable.
On my most recent trip to Koonya beach, the chill of the winter water running across my lower legs caused my teeth to ache, ….well almost. 😉
Wild winter conditions at Koonya beach, Blairgowrie.
Until the weather warms up a little I’ll be using the mid-range zoom in an effort to keep my feet drier and warmer.
No more long exposures standing in the surf, …..bbrrrrrrr !!
Magic of the Phillip Island coastline.
Following on from previous posts I thought I’d share with you just a few more images from the Phillip Island coastline. I feel like I’ve just scratched the surface down there, …….there’s just so much beauty to explore and discover.
Pictured below – The Roost – old jetty remnants that serve as a safe roost for the local birds at Cat Bay.
Pictured below – Evidence of Life – a soft misty view of some wonderful wave action off Cowrie beach.
Pictured below – The Long Swim Home – another view from Cowrie beach looking towards the Nobbies in the background.
Pictured below – Pyramid Rock, taken in strong windy and wet conditions from a vantage point ahead of the lookout area.
A Trip to the Pointy End – Phillip Island
Over the weekend I did a quick reconnaissance trip down to the pointy end of Phillip Island.
The images below were taken on a stretch of unsealed road named “The Boulevard” which runs along the south coast of Summerlands and ends at the Nobbies. The Boulevard is a grand name indeed for what amounts to a narrow dirt track, however the coastal views can be quite impressive from here.
Pictured below – The view from The Boulevard looking west towards the Nobbies.
Unfortunately for those of us who like to immerse ourselves in these kinds of coastal environments there is no beach access permitted. We’re reminded of this fact by strategically placed signs warning of penalties for such breaches.
Pictured below – The view from The Boulevard looking east.
Pictured below – a zoomed in view of the coastline. It looks like a fine place for a photographer to play.
When finished with the south coast I made the short trip over to the north coast to visit Cowrie beach. I’ve been here once before but I had some unresolved images in my head that I wanted to try to capture here. Most of the northern coast is photographer friendly, allowing one to get as close to the water as one dares.
Pictured below – Bull in a China Shop, one of the less sedate Phillip Island waves attacking from left of frame.
Pictured below – A long exposure image using an ND400 filter, The Course of the Penguin, one of the many corridors used by the penguins of Phillip Island.
After finishing at Cowrie beach I left the island and crossed the bridge over to San Remo on the mainland. As I was crossing the bridge I noticed some amusing looking stairs below, surrounded entirely by the water of a high tide. It appeared to be a stairway going from nowhere to nowhere.
Pictured below – From Nowhere to Nowhere, San Remo.
The day concluded with a delicious meal of fish n’ chips from the Fisherman’s Cooperative, …..what bliss!
HMVS Cerberus shipwreck at Half Moon Bay
After a delicious lunch at the Ricketts Point teahouse, Chris from Ambientcapture and I drove to Half Moon Bay where the wreck of the HMVS Cerberus rests semi-submerged some distance offshore.
The HMVS Cerberus was launched in 1868 and is the only remaining breastwork monitor class warship left in the world. You can find more details about the ship’s rich history at it’s Wikipedia page here, or it’s dedicated website here.
My idea from a photographic perspective was to capture the Cerberus using long exposure techniques to blur the motion of the water and clouds, and yet keep the wreck in sharp focus.
I had to wrestle with this one in post processing due to the extreme brightness of the background but I think I finally found a unique vision of the wreck.
Pictured below – HMVS Cerberus is available as a print in various sizes and formats here.
Pictured below – a long exposure view from the Half Moon Bay pier looking north along the coastline. The little blurry bit at the lower center of the image is a buoy bobbing around in the waves.
Pictured below – a more distant long exposure view of the HMVS Cerberus.
Pictured below – the structure behind the Cerberus wreck.
I have no idea what it is, but it’s very popular with the birds.
The Vagabond Tide – ND400 long exposure
Following is a series of images taken at the Sorrento back beach, Victoria, Australia, using an ND400 filter during bright afternoon light conditions.
Pictured below – Dorsal.
Below – The Vagabond Tide.
Below – The Rinse Cycle.
An Afternoon at Cowrie Beach, Phillip Island.
Cowrie Beach is located just a few hundred meters north-east of the popular tourist destination “The Nobbies” on Phillip Island, Australia. The beach sits just inside the entrance to Westernport Bay and is subjected to rough surf originating from Bass Strait.
The thinly vegetated sandy portions of the beach are home to Fairy penguins and some other more endangered species so there are signs present advising which areas to avoid.
The main attraction here from my perspective is at the water’s edge. The beach is blessed by the presence of dark basalt rock formations continuously pounded by waves.
Below – The Nobbies – an image from Cowrie beach with The Nobbies in the background.
Below – Down the Winding Path – a long exposure looking out to sea from Cowrie Beach.
Below – Awaiting the Devil – a frightening part of the beach where unexpected waves suddenly inundate the dark basalt platforms. There’s a warning sign on the beach reminding fishermen and other visitors how easy it is to be swept off these rocks.
Below – The Ordeal – How the Phillip Island penguins manage to survive the violent Bass Strait surf combined with rocky beaches escapes me.
Below – Through the Vapour
Exploring the light at Right Point, Phillip Island
Saturday’s excursion to Phillip Island turned out to be very rewarding from a photographer’s perspective.
In the late afternoon I stopped at a place called Right Point, which seems to be a very popular destination for surfers. As I peered over the edge of the cliff towards the beach I instantly fell in love with this spot.
Below me were the remains of an old jetty being pounded by the violent surf.
With the sun starting to drop towards the horizon what more could a photographer ask for?
I grabbed my tripod and camera bag and dashed down to the beach like an excited child. The images were already forming in my mind before I had even reached the sand, ……..oh what a feeling !! 🙂
Below – Drawn to the Ocean
Below – The Penguin Pool
As the sun dropped even closer to the horizon a good situation became even better when suddenly Crepuscular rays broke through a gap in the clouds.
Crepuscular rays, also known as “God rays” or “God beams” are explained here.
Below – Running to the Light
Below – Sky Burst
Below – Agaze
The Flinders Pier Excursion.
Images from a recent trip to Flinders with friends Christine Wilson and Caroline Gorka.
The objective for the afternoon was to capture some images of the old wooden pier before it’s replaced by the concrete monster that’s currently being constructed right next to it.
As usual I became distracted.
Below – “IiN” some ghostly remains from further along the beach.
Below – “Flinders Point” just around the corner from the calm harbor area there’s a lot more ocean wave activity.
There were waves crashing all over the place here but the long exposure makes it look deceptively calm.
Below – “Flinders Back-Beach” near the blow hole area. Stop giggling, that’s what it’s called !!
Exploring Cape Schanck
Cape Schanck is located at the southern tip of Victoria’s Mornington Peninsula.
The beaches here offer a feast of opportunities for photographers. At the tip of the cape sits Pulpit Rock, a huge monolith standing proud amongst tidal rocky platforms.
At low tide the rocky platforms are exposed allowing fairly easy access to a large number of rock pools. These pools are home to a variety of sea creatures including small fish, crustaceans and octopuses. Depending on the time of year the pools can contain various forms of brightly coloured seaweed, providing wonderful hiding places for the rock pool residents. This is a great place to dunk your waterproof compact camera if you’re lucky enough to own one. Unfortunately I don’t own one (yet).
Below – Pebbles at the Pulpit
The beach leading out to Pulpit Rock is covered by rounded rocks that roll around and pound into each other with each wave creating an interesting sound that’s quite difficult to describe.
Below – Cape Schanck Lighthouse overlooking the west side of the cape.
Below – Cape Schanck East. The eastern side of the cape provides a rocky beach where there are lots of opportunities for the photographer who enjoys capturing waves crashing over and around rocks. I took quite a few long exposures here.
Below – The Schanck. The white surf and dark rocks contrast each other nicely and provide excellent material for making great black and white images.
Fluid in Motion – Flinders
One of my favorite spots for photogenic wave action along the Mornington Peninsula is Flinders.
West of the township the rugged coastline features extensive cliffs with access to the rocky beaches in only a few places.
The deliciously dark rocks here provide a wonderful contrast to the bright white surf as waves from Bass Strait relentlessly pound the beach.
On this occasion I visited the beach during the early afternoon so conditions were extremely bright and contrasty.
I used an ND400 filter, sometimes in combination with an additional ND8 filter, to darken the scene and enable the use of slow shutter speeds to blur the moving water.
It’s always fun and games being close to the edge in places like this. Despite keeping one eye on the camera and the other eye on incoming waves I was caught by surprise on a couple of occasions during the afternoon and drenched by rogue waves exploding on the rocks.
This is really quite an extraordinary spot from a photographer’s perspective. Not so special for the grand seascape but more for the myriad of recesses where the surf dynamically interacts with the rocks.
Construction at Powlett River
The construction of the controversial desalination plant near the mouth of the Powlett River has yielded a temporary point of interest for photographers.
A large platform has been placed offshore to assist with the construction of the required underwater pipeline.
Although not the most beautiful structure in the world, it acts as a nice point of interest for an otherwise potentially boring background.
I’m in no way a supporter of this project but I decided to take advantage of the platform while it’s there and took a series of images from the spot where the Powlett River meets the ocean.
The idea behind the images was to use the lines created by running water and rock edges to draw the viewer into the scene towards the platform in the background. The images were taken in bright mid afternoon light using strong ND filtering to enable the exposures to be long enough to blur the water.
Below – Platform One
Below – Platform Two
Below – Platform Three
Below – Mouth of the Powlett – Looking north-west across the mouth to the sand dunes, the waves crashing onto the rocks in the foreground just appear as mist due to the long exposure time.
Below – a couple of experimental panoramic shots of the river and dunes.
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.
Incorporating HDR tonemapping techniques with long exposures
The following images were experiments using HDR tone mapping techniques combined with the effects of long exposure times.
Each image was constructed from at least 3 separate exposures using in-camera auto exposure bracketing. In my case, being a Canon shooter, I used 3 exposures of -2,0 and +2 simply for convenience. I believe Nikon shooters have a bit more flexibility in this area.
The images were all taken during daylight hours so it was necessary to use some heavy ND filtering in order to increase the exposure times and achieve a nice misty look to the water. In my case I used an ND400 and an ND8 filter stacked together to achieve this.
With the camera set to aperture priority mode I adjusted the aperture and filter combination (sometimes removing the ND8) to achieve an exposure of 8 seconds. When the shutter button is depressed the camera would then give me 3 exposures at 8 seconds, 2 seconds and 30 seconds (which is close enough to 0,-2 and +2). My particular camera doesn’t let me expose for longer than 30 seconds unless I go to bulb mode and use a remote timer, so out of laziness I tend to limit many of my exposures to 30 seconds. 🙂
The exposures were then combined and tonemapped using HDR software and tweaked in Photoshop to achieve the end result.
Despite all of this sounding a bit technical it’s really quite simple and I encourage you to try it. The results are often very rewarding.
BELOW – Jurassic Afternoon – Sunlight and waves break through a slit in the prehistoric Pinnacles rock formation on Phillip Island.
BELOW – The Mist of St.Pauls – A long exposure at St. Pauls beach, Sorrento, Victoria, Australia.
BELOW – Prehistoria – An image from The Pinnacles, at Phillip Island, Victoria, Australia.
BELOW – Swimming with Dinosaurs – Down amongst the prehistoric Pinnacles rock formations at Phillip Island, Victoria, Australia.
Daytime experiments with the ND400 filter.
The following long exposures were taken during daylight hours using an ND400 and ND8 filter stacked together on the front of my Sigma 10-20mm lens. The combination of these two filters attenuates so much light that peering into the viewfinder reveals an inky blackness even during bright daylight conditions.
It’s therefore necessary to compose the image BEFORE screwing the filters onto the lens. It’s also necessary to adjust the focus manually since the auto-focus system has no chance of working under such conditions.
*** (Update October 2012) The introduction of “live view” to many DSLR cameras means that is’s no longer necessary to compose and pre-focus with the dark filters off the lens. I shoot all the time now using live view to peer through the combined darkness of an ND400 and ND8. The filters now stay on the lens which means there is a lot less fiddling around. If you’re looking for a guide to show you how to use an ND400 have a look at my recent blog post here.***
I found that if I set the ISO as low as possible, and set the aperture very small (i.e. a high number), then it was possible to obtain a shutter duration of about 3 minutes. Such long exposures during daytime create some interesting images. I’m looking forward to experimenting more with the ND400.
Dusk at Sorrento ocean beach – some long exposures
A series of long exposures taken at Sorrento beach, Australia.
Tempest over the Ocean – Blairgowrie
This is a reworked version of one of my first images posted to Redbubble. I’ve finally had time to tweak it the way I way I like it.
It was a taken on the beach at Blairgowrie as a storm was rolling in from the ocean. It was an amazing storm to see, …dark swirling clouds, lightning, halos formed by the sun shining through sheets of rain, ….marvelous stuff !
Tempest over the Ocean – Blairgowrie
Tempest over the Ocean is available as a high quality print at my Zazzle and RedBubble websites.
Deep in the Woods
Fog blows across an otherwise sunny section of Mt.Difficult Road near Halls Gap, Australia.
This image is available as a quality print here.
Through Spider’s Eyes
An alternative view of changes.
“Changes” – an autumn fog landscape
“Changes” was taken on a foggy autumn morning on farmland in Cranbourne, Australia.
The lush green grass is such a contrast to the dry barren earth found on this spot during summer.
This image is available to purchase as a print here.
Close of Day
The sun sets over mountains west of Neerim, Victoria, Australia.
This image is available to purchase as a high quality print here.
Flying Solo – exposure after sunset
This image was taken at Sorrento beach shortly after the sun had dropped below the horizon.
The long exposure (30 seconds) smooths out the motion of the waves and gives the ocean a smooth, almost cloud like appearance. The pink hue is a remnant of the sunset.
This image is available to purchase as a high quality print here.
Toorongo Falls – a view from the base
When no one was looking I climbed down off the official viewing platform and walked across a fallen tree trunk to capture this alternative view of the falls.
This image is available to purchase as a high quality print here.
Autumn’s New Mist – a mountain landscape
The sunsets near Neerim, Victoria, Australia as a typical autumn mist engulfs the local mountains.
This image is available to purchase as a high quality print here.
Photography by Jim Worrall 