Just a quick shot I snapped on sunset as I was teaching my landscape photography workshop on Manly Beach on Saturday (7th Nov). The north part of Manly Beach is sometimes referred to as Queenscliff Beach.

The sunset was beautiful but the back light gave us the perfect dynamic range and simple beautiful colour. It’s not all about shooting where the sun is setting.

The dark sand to the bottom left of the shot was from a Volley Ball game that left in perfect time so us photographers can have our fun.

Just advising those who were interested in my Blue Mountains 29th Nov 09 Photo Workshop and Central Coast 9th Jan 2010 Photo Workshop they are currently full.

Please see my site for alternate available dates. Thanks.

Empress Falls is the first main waterfall you come to when you set out on the Valley of the Waters Walk in the Blue Mountains. The tourist / cafe spot at the top of the walk has a great range of images of the waterfalls along the route.

We (my Blue Mountains Course participants) didnt walk all the way as it is a long hard walk and when you throw shooting into it I would say it is a two day job.

This shot is a five image stitch shot at 17mm and cropped 1:1 ratio. Would have loved some more detail in the left shadow but it wasn’t meant to be.

Couple of shots taken this week while running a private course from sunrise to the afternoon.

I must say that for us photographers based on the Central Coast we really do have an amazing range of locations to shoot all within such a small area.

Both shots are from the same morning. Top one is a single image. One on the left is made from 6 shots.

For those who follow the work of Ken Duncan around this time each year he releases his latest exhibition of images.

His latest exhibition is now out and is titled Great Southern Land. Once again beautiful work from some places that take quite a bit of dedication and planning to get to like Macquarie Island.

Anyway have a look and enjoy. (Exhibition Link)

The Central Coast really has everything a photographer could want to shoot all within a short drive. Somersby Falls is about 5 minutes out of town tucked away just of the f3 freeway.

This shot was taken this Sunday (25th Oct) on a rainy day while I was running a one on one course. Perfect conditions for shooting such a location.

Earlier this week I was hired by a company to shoot wide angle shots of the city that could blend into each other on their web site. So this is what I came up with. They wanted the to have the whole city and pan around to North Sydney. About a 220 degree view. These shots are from sunrise at the bottom through to about an hour later at the top.

Amazing detail in each shot and I have provided a cut out from each shot for you to see. This kind of commercial shooting is interesting and I have done a bit of it this year. Hanging out of cranes shooting view shots for units that haven’t even been built, machinery in use on farms, standing on the top of buildings overlooking Hyde park again shooting view shots on sunrise and sunset for multi million dollar apartments and nearly getting blown off by the wind in the process and still shots for TV show magazines. Fun stuff and all in a days work.
 

 

 

 

 

 

Good old Forresters Beach. It’s hard to go to this place and shoot and not to come home with something to show for your efforts. On this morning I headed out with a mate Adam who shoots with a Medium format 6×7 Pentax.

We waited for a break in the weather as it was pouring down. There was some serious dark clouds and rain coming in from the coast on the right as we shot this. (Got shots of that on the GX617). This shot was on the 5D Mark II at 17mm and was a blend of 3 exposures +1, 0 and -1 and then blended in PS.

I don’t know what’s happening, but trying to buy Lee Filters from the US just isn’t happening. I have been watching on B&H Photo for months now and even Adorama and nothing is coming and staying in stock and as soon as the product comes available within hours their out of stock again for months.

I have been waiting to replace my own Lee Filter Soft Grad set as they are totally flogged after 9 years of use. Sure they could have been better cared for over the years and not put into pockets, in between legs but it was more important to get the shot at the time than worry about slipping it back into its case. In saying that I’m very careful with my new Lee hard grad set.

Anyway I found a company in the UK that seams to have everything in stock. From the filters to the adaptor rings and the foundation kits.

I just bought my soft grad kit (.3, .6 and .9) filters for $128 pound that’s $247 Aust + postage. Pretty good and a better price than B&H where the filters cost $283 Aust + postage.

The website is www.morco.uk.com

Hope this helps all of you waiting and looking for these filters.

A few posts ago I added a shot of this spot in Woy Woy on the Central Coast that was shot on the 5D Mark II. This is a shot taken with the good old trusty Fuji GX617 from the same morning just a bit earlier. The film has captured the colour a lot better and the composition is much more flattering as well.

From memory F22 @ 2 sec | Velvia 50 | 2 stop lee ND soft grad.