The Nun's Pool

Yet another attempt to capture sunrise colour, this time at Shelley Beach with two photo buddies. Unfortunately the promising red glow in the sky dissipated and all we were left with was a pink shade of sorts and I regret to say I was not positioned particularly well. However I've heard there's a light at the end of every tunnel, and my light was a few dolphins arcing through the water, enough of a gift for one day.  If you look VERY closely the dolphins can be seen catching a wave on the very left of the image.

The customary breakfast was not to be had as the Nun's Pool Restaurant didn't open until 8 a.m. It was named after a rock pool where nuns used to bathe by the park so I wandered down to the actual pool. Rock pools hammered out of rocks at the ocean’s edge making a natural swimming pool, are one of Sydney’s defining characteristics. 

Wattamolla Sunrise

Sunrise at Wattamolla (or that was the idea) !

Wattamolla is a sheltered cove with a sandy bar at the inlet behind which lies a lagoon fed by the waters of Wattamolla Creek and Coote Creek. This lagoon  then enters the sea via an ankle-deep (so they say) stream at one end. Coote Creek finds its way down another valley, then as a beautiful waterfall, it rushes over a sandstone rock face into the lagoon below ( sourced from Wikipedia )

Although the sky was very cloudy the rain appeared to be holding off so David Mills and I decided to give it a go. Walked down the path to the lagoon where we took some shots of  the lone palm tree and waterfall, then on to the beach where we had to negotiate the narrow channel to reach the sand. David assured me the tide was going out so apart from initially sinking almost up to my knees in something akin to quicksand I was able to take some shots looking out towards the horizon. Missed a great shot of some guys jumping off the rocks at the top of the waterfall. Must go back with my wide angle.
Reminder to self : Don't ask David again for his opinion about tides ! On the way back the channel was deeper and wider :-)

Coledale

Lesson learned:  always check the white balance from the shoot before and reset.  My white balance had been set for light painting the previous night and most of my shots had an unusual blue hue :-)

I met up with Carolyn, (a fellow member of the Focus Group) who had been camping at Coledale.

Coledale is a small sea-side village approximately 18 kilometres north of Wollongong along the Princes Highway in New South Wales, Australia. It is part of the City of Wollongong and lies between Wombarra and Austinmer.   I've not photographed many sunrises - too complicated to explain the reasons - today's exercise was somewhat of a tragedy as I failed to check my camera settings and the white balance was set to tungsten from a previous shoot. Initially I considered rectifying it PP but began to like the blue tones and decided to leave well enough alone. Not to be daunted I have endeavoured to resurrect some memories as best I could.


I've been experimenting with different programs for creating videos. The first is Slide.ly which is a free online creator. One of the advantages is unlimited photos and an option to select a reasonably clean interface. Other options are One True Media which also requires free subscription but has a limit of 30 images on the free version, Roxio Photo Show which supplies a basic show with greater access to sound and styles with  premium membership and You Tube which appears to allow unlimited images but makes sound tracks difficult to locate.

 Looking down on the camping area at 5.30 a.m

Bluebottles scattered along the shore punctuating large patches of seaweed.

 

   

Tankers lined up along the horizon waiting for access to Wollongong Harbour 

With a high tide of 1.9 metres, surfers had some great opportunities to catch a decent wave

 

Seagulls, oyster catchers and terns were out in force

Surfers enjoy the conditions

 

Camping is popular with many families 

The rising sun paints everything in its path with a golden glow