Pictured below, a storm rolls across Port Phillip Bay whipping up waves and sending them onto Mornington Peninsula bayside beaches. This image is from the Safety Beach jetty. Tech stuff – 0.8 sec, f/10, ISO400, ND400 filter.
Following the destruction and subsequent rebuilding of this iconic jetty at Sullivan Bay, it took a few visits here for me to catch it in favourable light.
This is a long exposure of 204 seconds on a cloudy day giving nice diffused light.
Most photography enthusiasts will know this feeling. Â It’s a gamble, … it’s half an hour before sunset, … and there’s half an hour travel involved. Â The clouds may or maybe not behave.
Luckily on this occasion the gamble paid off with a beaut sunset at Seaford pier.  🙂
Pictured above, the sunset went off like a charm.
Pictured above, just prior to the sun dropping below the horizon a break in the clouds allows beautiful long shadows to be cast across the sand.
Pictured above, a great behind the scenes shot, courtesy of Sally.
Last weekend we visited the new jetty at Olivers Hill in Frankston on the Mornington Peninsula.  As the sun dropped down towards the horizon the sky exploded in a way that we really didn’t expect.  It seems that predicting a colourful sunset in Melbourne is a bit like predicting the outcome of a coin toss.  🙂  These are short exposure shots using my phone camera as I left the “big boy”at home.
In the image above, the glowing red “eyes” and silhouette of a small drone can be seen hovering near the top edge towards the left of frame.  The constant buzzing noise from these little buggers can ruin an otherwise tranquil atmosphere, …but hopefully the owner captured some great scenes from up there.  🙂
A long exposure sunrise image from Sullivan Bay, Sorrento, on the Mornington Peninsula. Â The iconic jetty has recently started to fall to bits. Â I suspect she wont be around much longer. Â
Last weekend we had our ND group excursion for beginners.  It was a great turnout with lots of enthusiastic people attending.  We started shooting at Bridgewater Bay in Sorrento in very difficult conditions with the wind blowing a continuous mist of fine rain onto our lenses.  I was both surprised and delighted that so many people stayed and had the patience to put up with these conditions, …..such a dedicated bunch.  🙂  Many thanks to Jason Cincotta and Michael Stringer for assisting with so many ND newcomers.
Later we moved onto the front beaches at Point King, Sorrento, followed by Shelley beach, Portsea , both providing us with much more friendly shooting conditions.
Pictured below – Point King jetty. Â Tech stuff – 132 secs f/18.
Pictured below – Shelley beach, Portsea. Â Tech stuff – 60 secs f/18.
Pictured below – Shelley beach, Portsea. Â Tech stuff – 136 sec f/18. 10 stop ND + 4 stop soft grad.
Pictured below – Most of the crew from the group excursion, Bridgewater Bay.
Images from a pre-dawn trip to Seaford pier with friends from the ND400 Long Exposure group on Facebook. We arrived in the pitch black of early morning, ….a VERY unusual time for me, ….and waited for the sun to rise.
As the sun slowly rose behind us pastel colours appeared in the sky.
A long exposure image from under Seaford pier.
The morning was finished nicely with a civilized hot breakfast at the pier cafe. 🙂
The photography community seems to be polarized over the use of phone cameras and associated filter programs such as Instagram.
I must admit to being slow to travel down the “phone and filter” path and have only recently decided to give it a go to see what all the noise is about.
Since giving it a trial run I must admit that the use of Instagram and other similar programs has reintroduced a fresh and fun aspect to my photography.
Pictured below – Rye Pier.
I find it refreshingly simple to just pull out my phone, click, process and even publish the image so quickly.
I also enjoy being forced to rethink my compositions into a square format after being conditioned by years of using a 3×2 SLR format.
Pictured below – A foggy morning at Tooradin foreshore.
Admittedly I’ve had to resist the urge to “pixel peep” at the noise and visual anomalies created by some of the clunky filters.
This will never replace my SLR photography but I reckon it will complement it nicely. Phone photography has definitely introduced a fresh fun aspect to my photo life.
A couple of images from a recent stroll on Shelley beach, Porstsea, Victoria.
It was one of those great days for photography. The clouds were very heavy causing a nice subdued light.
The threat of impending rain also meant I had the beach to myself, ……nice. 🙂
The day started out well with brunch in Sorrento at the Buckley’s Chance restaurant with friends Christine and Caroline.
After being suitably fueled by brunch we strolled to the other end of town and boarded the Sorrento-Queenscliff Ferry for the short trip across the mouth of Port Phillip Bay to Queenscliff.
On arrival we departed the ferry to see what photographic treasures we could find along the beach.
Pictured below – Queenscliff Pier, shot in the early afternoon using an ND400 filter to extend the exposure time and soften the waves.
Pictured below – Evidence of Dredge, a pipeline from the offshore dredger snakes it way past heavy posts buried in the sand at the shoreline. The waves softened to a mist by the use of long exposure time.
Pictured below, an unusual long exposure action shot of the ferry departing the Queenscliff beach on one of it’s many return journeys to Sorrento.
Pictured below – Caroline and Chris explore the beach with a ship load of onlookers viewing from the top deck of the ferry.
The Mentone groyne is located on Mentone beach just south of the Mentone pub. In the past this groyne has been incorrectly referred to as the “Old Mentone jetty” by myself and others. There’s off road parking close to the groyne but unfortunately the local council here tries to screw you over with a three dollar per hour parking fee.
All of the following images were taken using an ND400 filter to extend the exposure time and smooth out the waves on the water.
On the afternoon I visited the groyne it was almost high tide so these photos are only showing the very top bits of the structure above the water. Next time I visit I’ll be making sure I arrive during a low tide when the structure appears more like a series of small arches. I think that would be worth getting wet feet for. 🙂
On the walk back to the carpark, some kind of territorial dispute erupted amongst these seagulls on a small rocky island just offshore. The image below doesn’t properly convey the ensuing ruckus but it was quite impressive to watch a little bit of nature’s drama playing out in front of me.
Saturday’s excursion was down towards the pointy end of the Mornington Peninsula.
After a hearty lunch of fish ‘n chips on Dromana beach, it was off to Sorrento for a cappuccino and also check out the surf conditions on the ocean side.
On arrival at the back-beach the surf was violent and unruly, fueled by a ferocious onshore wind.
I’ve tried to capture long exposure images under these conditions a couple of times before and come away from the experience with disappointing results. A howling wind always manages to soften my long exposure images regardless of tripod technique.
With this in mind I resigned myself to exploring the calmer more docile side of Sorrento, the bay side. The view from the beach here was quite nice with small boats bobbing and wobbling around in the water. I took a few shots of the little boats but couldn’t find anything particularly satisfying so I moved my attention to the huge bollards near the pier.
Pictured below – Bollard.
Above – In this image the huge concrete bollard remains motionless whilst surrounded by the blurred movement of waves on the water. It’s nearby neighbors, the boat and the buoy wobble and rock in compliance with the waves. I used a high key effect to eliminate some distracting elements from the background. Both ND400 and ND8 neutral density filters were attached to the lens to achieve the desired long exposure under fairly bright conditions.
Pictured below – The Sorrento Bollards.
Above – The massive bollards are used to assist with holding the Queenscliff-Sorrento ferry in place at the pier during the exchange of passengers and cars.
After shooting the bollards, mother nature tried to grow me a rainbow. The left and right ends of the rainbow were developing nicely and gradually growing skywards then suddenly fizzled into nothingness.
Pictured below – the left end of the incomplete rainbow.
Pictured below – the right end of the incomplete rainbow.
Photography by Jim Worrall 