Rock Guardians

Part of the joy of photography for me is the appearance of faces in the forests and cliff faces. I find it intriguing that many people don't see them, because to me they're easily discernible. I love to think of them as Nature's guardians of spiritual places and to imagine the secret life of trees.  Creating a slideshow of some of these guardians has long been on my agenda so at last I've compiled a short slideshow of some of the more persistent ones from the Kamay Botany Bay National Park. The quality is not what I would like but at least I've taken some action and I am relatively pleased with the sound track. 

Yena Sunrise

It's been a while since I posted but I have been out and about. We joined the Focus group for a shoot in the National Park. Carolyn and I elected to go to Yena while the others climbed down the cliff face at Solander to make use of access at  low tide. I'd hoped to try out my Firecrest ND Filter but feel I'd be best to do this when I'm not limited by time constraints.

I love the way Yena offers easy access to the rock shelves and it was interesting to see the comps which opened up at low tide. The sunrise was vibrant but not long lasting, but the way the colour from the rising sun lights up the rock pools is mesmerising. I only wish I could have moved to a better position but it is dangerous to not have respect for rogue waves at Yena and it was the best I could do on the day.

As we were shooting three dolphins swam past but I only managed to capture one in frame. The sky also changed remarkably in the time we were there. Grey clouds replaced the deep pink.

My Canon Powershot comes in handy as a second camera for zooming in on details like this tiny crab hiding in the crevasses between the rocks.

High Tide At Yena

 

 image: our shadows reflected on the sandstone rocks just as the last of the light welcomed the new morning

Carolyn and I ventured down to Yena this morning in an endeavour to catch the elusive sunrise which always appears on work days but rarely during my holidays. It was another early start and I was prepared to be disappointed and wake to a cloudy sky, but the weather was perfect, just a touch of an Autumn breeze to disturb the still air. The waves were high and loud and from first light we were thrilled with the colour on the water and rocks. It is an arresting sight looking back towards the city of Sydney, the juxtaposition of Nature's water and craggy rocks against the Man's modern skyscrapers. There are many places to explore with a seemingly endless number of compositions possible. The natural colours are so spectacular that there is really no need to process the images other than a crop or resize.

image: the city can be seen above the breaking waves in the distance

 I'm no longer one for deep red sunrises, preferring the less saturated colour combinations. We spent more than two hours photographing the location as the light lasted for an extended period and bathed the rocks in the most beautiful golden light. It is my favourite time of the morning and there were so many interesting subjects and compositions: a tiny tug guiding in the large tanker;  seagulls cavorting in the rockpools filled to the brim with clean rainwater;  waterfalls cascading down the rockshelves in between waves;  golden light shining on the windows of the city skyscrapers giving it the appearance of a golden city; a spectacular cloudy sky and natural vegetation reflected in the clean and clear rockpools: fluffy white and pink clouds floating in a rich blue sky; the iridescent sheen created on the rocks by receding waves; and of course those magnificent rock formations with the morning light sculpting large stone faces on the hillsides.

Blue Moon

Seems as though "blue" is the only word I'm able to associate with moons. Haven't seen a decent full moon let alone photographed one, since late 2011 due to a myriad of unfortunate co incidences and conditions.  The Supermoon earlier this year was a complete fizzer in Sydney. I headed down towards the beach at Cronulla in spite of stormy predictions. I wasn't prepared to take the risk of being a slave to weather forecasts just on the slim chance that the moon would find some way to force its way through the cloud cover and leave me with recriminations and regrets and others with stellar images.

It wasn't to be of course, so I had to content myself with watching the antics of a bridal party led by a dill of a photographer onto the beach in the gusty wind with rain obliterating any semblance of style left in already bedraggled hairstyles. The beauty of being an eternal pessimist !

It was looking good the previous night when the moon rose clearly visible above the horizon. There were minimal clouds but that's better than full cloud cover, so it looked promising for the following evening. Was looking good until a thick cloud bank settled right slap bang in the centre of the horizon and completely covered the moon until dark descended and all we were left with was a golden orb - not the sort of moon I'd wanted at all.

Looks like another moon chase next month.

Today's Gift

Met up with Chris and Carolyn and drove out in the pouring rain to Cape Solander hoping for the best. After sheltering in the whale watching station, we took advantage of a very brief lull in the rain to show Yena, The Leap and Inscription Point to Chris.

We're very wary of The Leap after Carolyn had a few close calls with waves, but Chris was keen to get as close as possible. I don't know what use a jolly umbrella would have been !

 All I can say is thank goodness for gumboots. In spite of all my precautions many of the shots have water spots on the lens - thankfully rain, not salt water.

I stayed on as it was the first day of my holidays and I wasn't going to be put off so easily by the weather.. Whenever it lets me down a serendipitous gift always seems to cheer me up. This morning it was a hawk which settled in a large banksia tree above my head. I've seen this hawk previously, but only as a tiny blur flying by and impossible to capture clearly

Stormy Day At Yena

Back to Yena expecting great things with a 4.8 metre swell anticipated following the Super Moon which never arrived ! Unfortunately the tide was low so the waves were less impressive than expected and I couldn't really relax due to the impending rain. At one stage there was a tiny chink in the cloud cover which allowed a bright patch of blue to emerge for what seemed like only a nanosecond. 

It's disappointing that still images really don't do justice to wave power and majesty. Carolyn decided to navigate some tricky rocks in order to capture some waterfall flow but I elected the easy way out and spent my time observing the waves crashing against the rockface. I love the light which is reflected in the rockpools after a storm. I thought I'd try a B/W conversion for a change.

Yena Sunrise At High Tide

One of my favourite times to shoot is just after the sun has risen and the new day's light casts a golden glow over everything in its path. I've not published most of my images from this time period because SOOC they look over saturated and I just can't bring myself to tone the colour down.  I went to Yena with Carolyn and we carefully made our way to our own vantage points close to the crashing waves. It was a beautiful mild morning and exhilarating to be down close to the water without having to scale any cliffs or risk life and limb. Just as well we had to waves to shoot because the sunrise was definitely lacklustre. Many of the craters in the rock shelf comprised of exposed Hawkesbury sandstone were filled with water which created some great opportunities for reflections.

 It was worth another trip back for me later on in the morning after we'd had breakfast at Kurnell. I spent some time on the cliffs at Solander to make up for the other day when the wind was blowing so hard that I was unable to stand upright or hold the camera steady.