South Head Sunrise 15th Nov

[biggerry]

Well, the sunrise meet did go ahead this morning, myself and Suren made the trek out to a better part of town at a stupid hour I think some of the sidewalk pavements in that side of town are worth more than the house I inhabit..

We met up at 4:30am (yes that is right..4:30AM) and made the short walk across camp cove beach, past the HMAS base, past the nudie beach to the light house on the headlands, and well were we surprised, it was peak hour, fishermen/drug smugglers everywhere..ok i exaggerate alittle (there was only a few).

Not having any real clue on the locale or where the sun was going to pop we had to think on our feet and having that extra time up our sleeve was crucial, we started at the light house for a few shots then tracked down a path to rocks and the subsequent high tide.

After a good hour and half of taking pictures we made the trek back, noticing more fishermen on the way there and also a few more inhabitants of teh nudie beach Additionally camp cove had attracted a few teens who thought the beach was better than a bed

Anyways. onto the pointy end of the stick, the pictures, compositionally i struggled, however we have planned to return, I think with a mental picture in your head of the location the composition side of things would be much easier. A UWA lens would also be handy methinks, even 17mm was a struggle to get everything I wanted in...

Now that we have paved the way and ironed out some of the bugs, it would be great to do this again, its a great way to start the day, traffic is non-existent (barely 20mins from newtown to the campcove carkpark) and parking is a breeze.

5 images in this post, no point in busting it out into two threads, let me know if this is an issue.

yep it was dark



Are you really fishing? I did ask but my mandarin was not good enough...


Suren Hard at work - I though i was gonna have to go for a swim when i saw that wave coming in!

[Geoff M]

The converging vertical in the first is somewhat off putting for me, but I do like the composition and the conversion. The last is the pick of the bunch for me, looks like an HDR, nice texture in the rock forms and good tonal range. I can see a face in that foreground rock.

[aim54x]

Great to see what i missed out on....if we are doing this again I am definitely going to try hard to make it.

I have to say that the 2nd is my pick, rich colours and motion combining to give a very engaging landscape of the surrounds. I would have liked to see the fisherman and surenj more off centre in those shots, but both images have promise. The last one...D-Lighting? looks great

Do you have any more to show off?

[surenj]

My fav is #2. You have managed to soften the waves and keep some detail on colours of the sunrise. Were you using your ND and bracketing for this? [none of my soft wave shots were usable due to flare. I have a feeling it's the low quality graduated filter]

The last photomatix HDR has nice composition. I would tone it down a touch so it doesn't have that signature look.

I think some of the sidewalk pavements in that side of town are worth more than the house I inhabit

Yes. That goes for many of us.

fishermen/drug smugglers everywhere

That is the best explanation for non-English speaking 'fisherman' at an odd hour in that location. But then, I am sure they were thinking the same for us.

few teens who thought the beach was better than a bed

That's what I thought!

its a great way to start the day

Absolutely! I feel like I am have accomplished alot today.

[Jenno]

Good to see that you were rewarded for rising early with a colourful sky.
Like #4 where you have captured the Sea Princess exiting stage left and Surenj in the middle distance.
#5 is quite stricking and my fav of the images
Ray

[ATJ]

The last one if my favourite. The texture and colours are wonderful.

The second one is great but I'm a little put off by the lost highlights around the Sun. There's not much you could have done about it, than perhaps with HDR.

The third one is good, too, although I'd like to see the fisherman and the Sun a little further to the right.

[biggerry]

The converging vertical in the first is somewhat off putting for me

yeah agreed, i did try and remove some of the distortion, but had no luck, I would have liked to take a few steps back and zoom a bit to remove it but there was a minor problem of the 10m drop.

I can see a face in that foreground rock

lol..I can see a few, but i have a bizarre imagination...

Were you using your ND and bracketing for this?

ND8 stacked with polariser from memory

I would tone it down a touch so it doesn't have that signature look.

agreed...

Good to see that you were rewarded for rising early with a colourful sky

lol, rewarded in so many ways, including, but not limited to, wet socks...
Ta Ray!

fisherman and the Sun a little further to the right.

yeah in hindsight that would have been a much better composition, for some reason I had it stuck in my head to nail him right in the middle.

so ya's all keen to attend the next crack at it!