5 Landscape orientation images stitched together in +Adobe Photoshop
D750 coupled with 24-70mm f4 @ 70mm Aperture: f/18 and Shutter Speed: 1/3s
ISO 100
its like floating on soft monochromatic velvet
Next to honeymoon bay 🙂
Exif/setup love:
5 Landscape orientation images stitched together in +Adobe Photoshop
D750 coupled with 24-70mm f4 @ 70mm Aperture: f/18 and Shutter Speed: 1/3s
ISO 100
out front – Hoya Circular Polariser
where babies love happens
This is where everyone went in the 90s and early 2000's for their honeymoons.. ya know how i know that? 'cause now everyone that visits this place has kids around the same age 😉
A quick grab shot as we drove out of the place from our few nights camping there (chaos, tickles and da boss). This image is 4 landscape orientation shots stitched together, it was taken pretty well in the middle of the day hence the light is somewhat flat, however with the use of the Polariser the sky and the greens get a great kick to give it a little more to combat that overhead sun and the life of a mediocre image :).
This place is perfect for families with kids, the swimming , snorkeling etc is excellent, the sheltered bay means the water is particular calm, even more so than the water from the bay a few hundred metres out, which is pretty calm anyway. Perfect for a clever hungry shark too methinks 😉
Here you can see a typical day in the life of the holidays at Honeymoon bay, 30 odd degrees Celsius and the routine consists of a quick dip followed by a lazy lay on the beach, in the shade of the overhanging trees or in the sun, whichever you prefer, you can also sprawl out on the grassy knoll at one of the beach if your not a fan of the sand 🙂 This is repeated through the day with intermittent breaks for food and beverages 🙂
I hope all you northern hemisphere inhabitants in the grip of the cold winter enjoy this one 😉
Exif/setup love:
4 Landscape orientation images stitched together in +Adobe Photoshop
D750 coupled with 24-70mm f4 @ 42mm Aperture: f/9 and Shutter Speed: 1/320s
ISO 100
EV -0.7 (just to protect those highlights
out front – Hoya Circular Polariser
old vs new
Sitting back in the campsite at Honeymoon Bay i spent some time studying the google earth / map of this lighthouse situated out atop some thumping great cliffs, I had never visited the place before, nor seen any images, however from the satellite view I was scoping out a panorama view with the lighthouse as the key feature.
I had a few images in my head of what I thought i could capture, as as with most images ideas in my head it all changed when i hit the location 😉 firstly, what clown went and built that fugly scaffold tower with a dinky light on top right smack in front of the prestigious and majestic old lighthouse? planning fail moment, right there 🙂 secondly… well, i think that fugly tower is deserving of second place too!
anywhos .. I spent quite a considerable amount of time circling the lighthouse looking for that nice pano shot with complimentary light, i did cave and take a few portrait orientation shots at 16mm (standby for those), after a few circuits and a couple of half baked panos i stopped and thought about what I wanted to portray in a panorama format…. i loved the old house and the line of the path and fence, I loved the warm light on the lighthouse, i didn't like the new scaffold structure, however I had accepted by that point it was now part of history, hence it needed to be included. It was just a matter of how to join these elements into a panorama that did not suffer from empty foreground or a flat view or whatever other pano fail feature 🙂
The light was not that wonderful, however, one must always make the best with what there is, by this stage it was lucky no one was around since I was wandering around like a nutter with the camera partially attached to my head trying to find that angle, that line and composition…
finally this popped out.. now if I had found this about 45 minutes earlier it would be covered in pastel pink tones and much nicer… but thats life 🙂
This light house sits on top of the cliffs at Point Perpendicular with a height of about 80 metres… thats base jumping material 😉 what I will say is that it is a dizzy height, one which I momentarily looked at before retreating to the safety of the fence.
Exif/setup love:
5 Landscape orientation images stitched together in +Adobe Photoshop
D750 coupled with 24-70mm f4 @ 24mm Aperture: f/18 and Shutter Speed: 1/25s
out front – nothing, the graduated filter was causing havoc here 😉 there was a few rabbits around though…
or whatever shape you think it looks like
As with alot of the hot summer days on the north coast of NSW, a storm was brewing inland during the day which then turned into one crazy looking storm cell and consequently dumped a whole bucket load of rain, most days like this mean the sunsets get muted by the heavy cloud on the inland hills, however today was different 🙂
After visiting Byron Bay…and being very thankful to be able to leave the place 😉 (i like my solitude some-days;) ) I noticed some breaks in the storms armour, letting thru some light and promising the potential of some colour, so with a leave pass from the boss and promises to Chaos that yes I will take her sunsetting soon… just not today cause it was late, wet, slippery and I was heading into tiger country 😉 ok.. maybe not the tiger (four legs man eating etc) that most think of, but more the tiger snake kind 🙂 anyway thats irrelevant. A quick visit to the local lookout to see if there that potential for colour was still there and low and behold, I met another tog who had been chasing the storm, seems they are everywhere nowadays 😉 after a quick gear chat I donned the spray jacket and headed into the scrub bound for the rocks that form the base of Goanna Head.
After some scrambling, slipping and plenty of cursing I found a new little rocky outcropping which had all the potential of awesome selfie location – enter the Shoe Horn, the sun had just dissapeared over the headland and things were gonna get dark real quick. The problem with sunset is the longer you stay the darker it gets (well derrr i hear ya say 😉 ) but consequently the harder the walk out becomes, unfortunately all the sweet light really occurs as the sunset has disappeared over the horizon which means in the shadow of a headland things are getting pretty dark…
So, that little bit of rock sitting out there in the ocean… I was gonna stand on that for my selfie, however, responsibility got the better of me, half an hour from anywhere and if I slip off there there is probably only one outcome ;(
So, to the picture..without me in it, probably better that way 🙂
Vertical Pano style
D750 coupled with 16-35mm f4 @ 16mm Aperture: f/18 and Shutter Speed: 10s
ISO 100
out front – Lee Graduated Filter (0.9x) and Hoya CPL, lots of spray, slippery ass rocks and sweet colour.
D750 coupled with 16-35mm f4 @ 16mm Aperture: f/13 and Shutter Speed: 189.1s
ISO 100
out front – Hoya CPL. and Lee Graduated Filter 0.9x (3 stops) and Lee bigstopper
smoothing out the rough bits
Single frame, long exposure
Exif/setup love:
D750 coupled with 16-35mm f4 @ 16mm Aperture: f/13 and Shutter Speed: 189.1s
ISO 100
out front – Hoya CPL. and Lee Graduated Filter 0.9x (3 stops) and Lee bigstopper
and you cannot hide behind the rock
4 frames
Exif/setup love:
D750 coupled with 16-35mm f4 @ 16mm Aperture: f/18 and Shutter Speed: 1.3s, 4s, 8s and 20s
out front – Hoya CPL.
and the right direction
pretty bizarre flow at this place, the water here is flowing towards me, but the ocean is behind me 🙂
Exif love:
D750 coupled with 16-35mm f4 @ 16mm Aperture: f/20 and Shutter Speed: 4s
ISO 100
out front – Lee Graduated Filter (0.9x) and Hoya CPL and a mysterious source of water flow 😉
Silent Sentinel – (c) 2015 Gerard Blacklock
Exif/setup love:
D750 coupled with 16-35mm f4 @ 16mm Aperture: f/16 and Shutter Speed: 210.3s
out front – Lee bigstopper
holding the fort against the fuzzies
After a failed attempt at sunrise this morning (due to rain and lack of sleepage), which involved a few mad text messages with Rod at some ungodly hour…. I had a some time to burn and was nearby this marine navigational aid (which was the failed location of the sunrise session), so myself and Chaos made the decision to brave the drizzle and take a look, having never been there I thought a reccy would be worthwhile, so after a few minutes walking we came to this steel rung ladder leading down the small headland, hmmm probably not so appropriate for a 5 year old….. so I said to Chaos
‘are you brave enough to try and climb down there with me?”
to which she responded
‘not sure dad…its a long way down’
now, just some perspective, this is the girl that climbs on those crazy looking jungle gyms in the park and scares the the living daylights outta dad 😉 ohh and those climbing gyms are probably a bit higher than this ladder…
‘ I’ll spot you as you go down?’ to which she said very indignantly , ‘no i don’t need you to spot me i can do it by myself!’
🙂
anyway i did insist on me spotting her as we went down, rung by rung in the wet 🙂
After which we recc’ed the joint and took two long exposures, Chaos insisted on cleaning up all the rubbish on the shoreline at the small outcropping with exclamations of ‘oh my gosh, these naughty people who drop their rubbish… don’t they know a pelican could swallow that! ‘
gotta love kids…
Single frame, long exposure
Cremorne Navigational aid
Exif/setup love:
D750 coupled with 16-35mm f4 @ 16mm Aperture: f/16 and Shutter Speed: 210.3s
out front – Lee bigstopper
D750 coupled with 16-35mm f4 @ 16mm Aperture: f/13 and Shutter Speed: 15s
ISO 100
out front – Lee Graduated Filter (0.9x) and Hoya CPL and a barrel load of sea spray.
sea spray on your filter / lens
Its always a battle when there is a onshore breeze, for every wave its a continuous cycle of shoot, and then wipe the filter down… on this particular day I felt like that bird trying to crack a nut on the rock, only have it roll down into the creek after each crack at it. Unlike the bird, which learnt and moved to a new rock, I did not, I simply kept doing the same thing…shoot then wipe 😉
Anyway after much filter cleaning and post processing clonage, I got to a point where I was somewhat happy with the result.
Exif love:
D750 coupled with 16-35mm f4 @ 16mm Aperture: f/13 and Shutter Speed: 15s
ISO 100
out front – Lee Graduated Filter (0.9x) and Hoya CPL and a barrel load of sea spray.
D750 coupled with 16-35mm f4 @ 16mm Aperture: f/9 and Shutter Speed: 30s
ISO 100
out front – Lee Graduated Filter (0.9x) and Hoya CPL
I suffered for this image, i was eaten alive by mosquito’s, I got soaked by the rain waited ages for a couple of cars to go by (no other fool was silly enough to be out in this weather) and missed all the sweet lightning – however knowing my luck it would have belted me if I hung around 😉 and to make things worse, half my shots where outta focus – damn technical issues 🙁
This image was mean to be panoramic image of the scene, but only one of the frames was salvageable, this one. I still like it, its got all the key elements from the session, the warm disappearing sunset from around the hill, the car light trails and the thunderous clouds (excluding my epic lighting bolt right on top of the hill 🙂 )
Exif love:
D750 coupled with 16-35mm f4 @ 16mm Aperture: f/9 and Shutter Speed: 30s
ISO 100
out front – Lee Graduated Filter (0.9x) and Hoya CPL
you don't need to stand tall to make a difference, just stand strong
'Dad, that must be a really happy rock, 'cause it got a big smile'
Chaos, my 4 yro, probably the best critic i have 😉 this ones for you pumpkin.
Exif love:
D750 coupled with 16-35mm f4 @ 17mm Aperture: f/13 and Shutter Speed: 1s – the golden shutter speed for rocks and water…
out front – Lee Graduated Filter (0.9x) and Hoya CPL…. and a 🙂 rock
D750 coupled with 16-35mm f4 @ 16mm Aperture: f/20 and Shutter Speed: 6s
out front – Lee Graduated Filter (0.9x) and Hoya CPL…. and a funky /_\ rock
truth be known i am a bit of a ascii art fan 😉
I am trying a little to shake my addiction to vertical/portrait orientation shots 😉 well ok, i could not fit it in using a portrait frame 🙂 but really, i am working on it, honest.
This was one cool rock with some very interesting channels around it, as the waves washed thru I was surprised in the way the water circulated around the rock in a triangular manner, which was a pleasant surprise, since I expected to get wet shoes again.
D750 coupled with 16-35mm f4 @ 16mm Aperture: f/20 and Shutter Speed: 6s
out front – Lee Graduated Filter (0.9x) and Hoya CPL…. and a funky /_\ rock
20,000 years in the making – (c) Gerard Blacklock
D750 coupled with 16-35mm f4 @ 16mm Aperture: f/18 and Shutter Speed: 20s
out front – Lee Graduated Filter (0.9x) and some big ass rock with a hole in its bum.
20,000 years in the making…
I was watching some show on the telly before about the oldest skeleton ever found, in England with some woolly mammoths head 🙂 apparently its 29,000 years old.. thats pretty old.. the cave where they found it is right on the ocean, however apprently back in the day when the body was buried there the water was significantly lower 200 something feet and there were plains and stuff not the sea!
It never ceases to amaze me that in my short life time I can revisit a place, like this, several times in my life and I am pretty well guaranteed that it ain’t gonna change due to natural forces..and yet to form this little isolated island rock out cropping it would have taken thousands of years… yep i feel pretty insignificant.. especially given the billions who have came before..
well at least they did not take photos here I suppose 😉
h/t to mother nature again 🙂
4 shot panorama (landscape orientation)
Exif/setup love:
D750 coupled with 16-35mm f4 @ 16mm Aperture: f/18 and Shutter Speed: 20s
out front – Lee Graduated Filter (0.9x) and some big ass rock with a hole in its bum.
D750 coupled with 16-35mm f4 @ 16mm Aperture: f/14 and Shutter Speed: 20s, 1.6s, 8s and 4s
out front – Lee Graduated Filter (0.9x) and Hoya CPL.
no time to burn
It feels like about 12 midnight and and I hear my youngest daughter, tickles aka Mayhem, stirring in cot, there was a little too much fun at the beach the day before and a bit too much heat for the little tacker which meant for a restless night – after 10 minutes of gerry’s pro rocking and soothing skills she was back down for another round of sleep and i thought, ‘sweet i gotta plenty of hours before my alarm goes off for my sunrise session’ 🙂
However low and behold, what felt like literally 5 minutes and the alarm goes off and its 4:30 am…. damn…I lay there for several minutes contemplating whether the sunrise is gonna be worthwhile and whether I should get those extra 2 hours of sleep… as it happens, a few days before I had woken up early with the girls (chaos and mayhem) and we all watched the most spectacular sunrise I had ever seen, from the lounge room window 🙂
I dragged myself from the bed with my ninja sleath skills and promptly cracked my head on the door as trying to carry my camera bag out in the dark, but luck was on my side and tickles remained asleep.. well long enough for me to bail 😉
A short drive to Chinamans beach and i noticed the colour developing in the sky, awww man this means I am gonna have to run to get to my sunrise spot, with the camera bag on and the anti-spider equipment deployed I started a jog down to the beach…jeez..i should have layed off that crackling from christmas ;(
I love seascapes, i love sunrise, i do it all even in light of the lack of sleep and the pain of getting up and getting to a place.. the moment the suns colour develops and the morning starts it simply rejuvenates my soul. Standing alone with nothing but the sea washing up and the sound of peddles rolling in the surf there is a sense of calm and control about the world…
Techie love:
4 frames, manually blended in Adobe Photoshop, i could just about do it with one shot, however i wanted to maintain that rich colour in the horizon where the sun was poking up and also the shadow detail in the pebbles in the foreground.
D750 coupled with 16-35mm f4 @ 16mm Aperture: f/14 and Shutter Speed: 20s over exposed shot (foreground rocks), 1.6s underexposed (for the sun and horizon) and 8s and 4s just to capture that nice blue in the sky which was a bit dark from the graduated filter.
out front – Lee Graduated Filter (0.9x) and Hoya CPL.
D750 coupled with 16-35mm f4 @ 16mm Aperture: f/13 and Shutter Speed: 37.8
out front – Lee Graduated Filter (0.9x) and Hoya CPL.
So here in lovely oz we have some great wildlife/fauna and flora, all of which I love and enjoy seeing and photographing, but there are some days though when I wish we had New Zealand’s dangerous species..which amount to about none 🙂
Let me paint a picture for ya 🙂 its summer over here, its hot and the sun rises damn early, so to capture sunrise means I need to be at the location at least 45 minutes or 1 hour before the sun is scheduled to peak its nose over the horizon. This means if you have a bit of a hike to get to the place, its a dainty walk in the dark.. anyway, back to that picture…its 4:30am in the morning and I have about a 20 minute walk to get to the rocks on the headland (this ones called Goanna Head, should be called something else i reckon 😉 ) so I set off, tripod in one hand with one leg (the tripod not mine) extended in the air to do a fine battle with the local spider colony and in the other hand a nice bright torch…cause damn its dark and there’s no moon.
This particular headland is much like many others dotted up and down the NSW coastline, low heath and brush, overgrown tracks, often quite sandy in spots and perfect environment for sneaky spiders to drop a face plant on the gerry when the tripod sword has wearied 🙂 i digress.. I am a few minutes into the walk and already have felled many spidery enemy, I take to the turn to the right, cause the other way takes you off the cliff.. bad place that 🙂 and by chance, rather than looking straight head I glance down and in the torchlight.. thank goodness for the big berther torch (600 lumens of night piercing goodness) there is a sneaky … ok lets be honest nothing sneaky about this one… there is shakey snakey curled up on the sand on the edge of the path, another step and I would have planted my great hoof right on him…
Now, after suffering a minor coronary I took the appropriate steps… backwards away from said shakey snakey, at a safe distance (well i reckon its safe) of about 4 metres, i beamed him proper with the torch..nothing, not a flinch. Whats got me concerned is why this shakey snakey did not do what normal snakes do.. be invisible and slither off into the bushes at the sound of me coming? now I know what ya thinking.. its dead… nope, rest assured he alive and well 🙁 so a bit of stamping and tripod waving (at a distance) and he was still not moving his lazy ass..much. Probably because its early in the morning and he’s lost all the heat in his body thus reactions and response are slow and muted, this is probably the most dangerous for people since they don’t get out of the way soon enough and the snakes simply strike at the last minute.
Anyway, there was no way I was doing battle with this snake, I about faced and headed back, luckily there is a couple of paths on which I could circumnavigate shakey snakey. The remaining of the trip in was slow since i was pretty cautious and overly aware of how little protection my comfy sneakers would provide from a snake bite. Strangely enough I also saw a bundle of kangroos and two echidas, fauna’s day out or something i think :-/
Goanna head.. which i think should be renamed snakey head 🙂 is actually quite renown for the number of brown and red belly black snakes (both which will kill you in a very short time), it was not that long ago a bloke was spraying bitou bush in the dunes not far from here and was bitten by a brown snake and was found a day later… 🙁
In this case there was a happy ending, I made it to the spot I wanted to be at, just as the colour in the sunrise was coming on and very appropriately the first image resembles that of snake, reaching up into the gulleys of the rocks, didn’t get me this time 🙂
Enjoy your New Years… without the shakey snakes 🙂
Techie love:
Single shot
D750 coupled with 16-35mm f4 @ 16mm Aperture: f/13 and Shutter Speed: 37.8
out front – Lee Graduated Filter (0.9x) and Hoya CPL.