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Sunrise at Bombo, i drove bloody 50mins in the dark to get to Bombo only to be greeted by one very smelly sewer treatment plant. Nonetheless, this place is a wealth of compositions and juxtaposed rocks, its a real distinct location which could be used for a number purpose (photography that is!) I reckon a some of these glistening black rocks would lend themselves very well to some artistic nudes - next time!

I will be back to the location I reckon, this visit was a good scope out and certainly would have been better if I had a torch at the time and could see where I was going. There was some colour in the sky, but this lasted a mere 2 minutes - mother nature waits for noone..

Comments and critique more than welcome and as always, good bad and ugly welcome and not necessarily in that order. These are a couple that capture my themes from the moring.

My picks are 3 & 4. Number 3 for the light and 4 for the hdr effect and composition which add to the surreal effects of the landscape.

Very interesting location - love those rock formations - we should all go down and do a joint shoot sometime.

I like the idea of the reflections in the second but there probably isn't enough of it (water that is).

The last however is fantastic (except for that slightly distracting white line in the right half) - HDR?

These are really good Gerry. I love # 3 and 4 the most. #4 is amazing with the gold sunlight hitting the side of the rocks and the grass in the background. The angle you shot at is great too and I like how you shot it higher up which gives you more of golden grass in the background. Did you just use a wide angle and crop the image? How did you get the high dynamic range and strong contrast? Did you do a HDR or exposure blending? As I can't see any ND grad lines. Only thing that bugs me is image #5 as it looks a bit too HDRish and not realistic but apart from that they are all amazing. Bombo quarry is about a 15 minute walk from my place. Go a bit more north and you will get boneyards and then cathedral rocks and then Stack Island which are all amazing places to take images.

Nice work Gerry - I particularly like that last one.

I already did an artistic nude shoot down there and it's a great place for that genre too...

There are great my favourite being #4, but you have some great subject matter between the early morning light, the rocks, and the blurred water. I wouldn't mind seeing what the camera saw (rather then the HDR version for comparison).

Dude, you are the master of composition. These are all superb and contain great lines, curves and competing elements. Precisely engineered!

I can only see minor haloing because I am looking for it and the HDR technique is really impressive!

#5 how many brackets did you have to combine for this one?

i dont like the first 3 much.

the last 2 are just freakin awesome though. the colour in the last one is stunning.

CraigVTR wrote:My picks are 3 & 4. Number 3 for the light and 4 for the hdr effect and composition which add to the surreal effects of the landscape.

cheers, #4 is not a HDR image, #5 is the HDR one in this batch.

Remorhaz wrote:Very interesting location - love those rock formations - we should all go down and do a joint shoot sometime.

yeah this place rocks, I am really keen to get down there again, its a definite overnighter tho, I had to drive from south of Nowra to get there that morning.

Remorhaz wrote:I like the idea of the reflections in the second but there probably isn't enough of it (water that is).

The last however is fantastic (except for that slightly distracting white line in the right half) - HDR?

yeah the water looked bigger in real life - the one thing I have not conveyed very well is the scale of these scenes

dervish16 wrote:These are really good Gerry. I love # 3 and 4 the most. #4 is amazing with the gold sunlight hitting the side of the rocks and the grass in the background. The angle you shot at is great too and I like how you shot it higher up which gives you more of golden grass in the background. Did you just use a wide angle and crop the image? How did you get the high dynamic range and strong contrast? Did you do a HDR or exposure blending? As I can't see any ND grad lines. Only thing that bugs me is image #5 as it looks a bit too HDRish and not realistic but apart from that they are all amazing. Bombo quarry is about a 15 minute walk from my place. Go a bit more north and you will get boneyards and then cathedral rocks and then Stack Island which are all amazing places to take images.

Hey chris, I was gonna PM you to see if you would be around, but I was not sure whether I was gonna make it there on the sunday. I reckon you need to give us a bit of tour around the area methinks!

The great thing about the quarry, even just limited bit i saw, is teh ability to get up on the rocks and really rty different angles, now that I have had a chance to scope it out there are a few other positions I would love to try. That high possie is quite good and a smart place to setup for the golden sunrise, I was unfortunately further back around the othe rrock for the good few minute with teh pinks etc...

All these shots are with the 11-16mm tokina, typicall at the tele end of the range.

As mentioned before, the only HDR one is the last image, all the rest had the 0.9 GND filter, I did stack the 0.6 ontop of that at one point, but is was only for a few shots and none of teh ones posted.

with regard to teh GND line, just choose the line carefully so that any sign of teh line can be locally PP's out. in teh 4th image the GND was just on the rock line with the exposure to backed off a bit so I could bring the light out in PP.

The 5th is a definite HDR look, unfortunaetly I am struggling with the HDR's at the moment since the new D7000 nefs are not recongnised by the old version of the software, so I have use tiffs which is a bit cumbersome and does not do as good job imo.

I am keen to check out these boneyards and the cathedral rocks, do you have any samples in your gallery?

leek wrote:I already did an artistic nude shoot down there and it's a great place for that genre too...

hmmm, another reason to check this place out again...so many possibilities and so little time.

Alpha_7 wrote:There are great my favourite being #4, but you have some great subject matter between the early morning light, the rocks, and the blurred water. I wouldn't mind seeing what the camera saw (rather then the HDR version for comparison).

this one was not HDR, just the ND, GND and polariser. If i get time I will pop out the original file - however its pretty meaningless without the PP steps and serves little purpose but to demonstrate the quantity of PP done. The PP was basically 6 odd steps with a bit of dust cloneage at the end - I have a few batch scripts of PP techniques that I have built up over the last few sessions so people will definitely notice similiarity with previous images.

surenj wrote:Dude, you are the master of composition.

ha, its easy at this location, trust me, just point teh camera and you pretty guaranteed a good compo!

surenj wrote:#5 how many brackets did you have to combine for this one?

3 images -2 0 +2, no filters exculding teh polariser.

Rooz wrote:i dont like the first 3 much.

nice blunt feedback, i like it

Rooz wrote:the last 2 are just freakin awesome though. the colour in the last one is stunning.

Thats teh reason why liek to canvas peoples thoughts, I actually find the last one a bit lame and garish, but did inlcude it because I did spend alot of time working and visualising the compositions there, I have quite a few other ones of similiar processing all with teh intention of creating that lord of rings style fantasy scene.

cheers all for teh feedback.

I like #3 and #5.

I think #3 would benefit from significant darkening of the sky. I think also #5 could benefit from a little graduated darkening at the top.

biggerry wrote:Hey chris, I was gonna PM you to see if you would be around, but I was not sure whether I was gonna make it there on the sunday. I reckon you need to give us a bit of tour around the area methinks!

The great thing about the quarry, even just limited bit i saw, is teh ability to get up on the rocks and really rty different angles, now that I have had a chance to scope it out there are a few other positions I would love to try. That high possie is quite good and a smart place to setup for the golden sunrise, I was unfortunately further back around the othe rrock for the good few minute with teh pinks etc...

All these shots are with the 11-16mm tokina, typicall at the tele end of the range.

As mentioned before, the only HDR one is the last image, all the rest had the 0.9 GND filter, I did stack the 0.6 ontop of that at one point, but is was only for a few shots and none of teh ones posted.

with regard to teh GND line, just choose the line carefully so that any sign of teh line can be locally PP's out. in teh 4th image the GND was just on the rock line with the exposure to backed off a bit so I could bring the light out in PP.

The 5th is a definite HDR look, unfortunaetly I am struggling with the HDR's at the moment since the new D7000 nefs are not recongnised by the old version of the software, so I have use tiffs which is a bit cumbersome and does not do as good job imo.

I am keen to check out these boneyards and the cathedral rocks, do you have any samples in your gallery?

That's fine. Yeah I would love to do that but maybe in about 5 weeks when I finish my uni exams?

Yeah the rock walls act like stairs so you can pretty much get any angle you want. Bombo Quarry is a place I won't to revisit and haven't been there for a sunrise yet.

I think as a HDR #5 is an amazing image and it brings out all the colours beautiful but if you are trying to hide the HDR maybe reduce it a bit. Probably only pops out for me as I know exactly what it looks like haha. But I think it's a great HDR as it has so much colour and brings out all the texture in the rocks perfectly. You were able to hide/pp out the ND grad line well as I couldn't detect it.

Pretty much 90% of my seascape images are taken in Kiama.

This is Cathedral rocks:
http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4107/5196928874_1496d55d10_b.jpg
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3316/5721776235_eeef15f80d_b.jpg

I don't really have any images of boneyards but have one I took like 2 years ago on a point and shoot that gives you an idea of what it looks like(facing south west):
http://a2.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-ash1/25113_387323361888_563531888_3773154_5653432_n.jpg

This is was taken very close to boneyard, but really want to redo it as I am not happy with the sunset and the location deserves a better finished image:
http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5150/5590519665_3c197c5afe_b.jpg

This is Minnimurra (stack island) just around the next headland:
http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4154/5194945758_173bf77fc5_b.jpg
http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4103/5088480294_3d5e36c095_b.jpg
http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5188/5590626757_87e6200838_b.jpg

So these are some of the places I could show you around. All about 5 minutes drive from each other.

Cheers
Chris

dervish16 wrote:Pretty much 90% of my seascape images are taken in Kiama.

lol, well you dont have to go far, there are some cracking locations down there!

dervish16 wrote:So these are some of the places I could show you around. All about 5 minutes drive from each other.

hmm, i reckon this would be a great location for weekend session - i got a bed at gerrigong so this could well be a goer.

they look awesome! Each has it merits, and in the eye of the viewer they all appeal.

#3 - I love the water movement and the gloss of the rocks at the base, and the golden light higher up

#4 - great light, and lines....what more can I say

#5 - are you sure you didnt render this for a game? VERY CGI to me

These three are the strongest, but to me they are a bit too surreal, they feel like they could be digital art (are you sure it is not your inner painter coming out via your Wacom???)

aim54x wrote:These three are the strongest, but to me they are a bit too surreal, they feel like they could be digital art (are you sure it is not your inner painter coming out via your Wacom???)

lol, wish I had a wacom

pushing it now

Jebus Gerry!! That is stunning....could really belong in a game of some description!

It just needs a pterosaur landing ....

Forgetting about the great compo and postprocessing, I reckon this D7000 has retained great F%^&*(#@ shadow detail! Or am I just dreaming?

By far, the last one is the strongest. Just delete the rest. Otherwise, your grandchildren will have a hell of a time trying to price these to be sold as limited edition prints...

surenj wrote:I reckon this D7000 has retained great F%^&*(#@ shadow detail! Or am I just dreaming?

Sorry Suren - I took some sports images of my daughter and her team playing netball the other day (4:30-5:30) - i.e. sunset @ 1/500 sec so I'm hitting the high ISO's badly (up to 6400) but still relatively clean images - certainly printable at 6x4 and 8x10.

Back on topic... given the plethora of fantastic looking locations it looks like a multi day trip is in order My parents live in Nowra so not too far away (still a long early morning drive tho).

This location is not practical for a sunrise unless we stay in that area overnight.

Excellent work Gerry. I particularly like the last one.
Let me know when you are around again as this is only a short drive away.

Hey Gerry, you should reduce the midtone contrast on the sky a little bit. It will make it look less HDRed but still pretty 3D and edgy.

biggerry wrote:

aim54x wrote:These three are the strongest, but to me they are a bit too surreal, they feel like they could be digital art (are you sure it is not your inner painter coming out via your Wacom???)

lol, wish I had a wacom

pushing it now

that is insane good. and there is nothing wrong with surreal PP imo.
no amount of PP will ever fix a crap image.

Well Gerry where to begin....
I really like the foreground in #3, but not as keen on the colour in the rest of this image. It feels a little to bright.
#4 is very nice all round.
#5 and the 6th image have awsome fore to mid ground but loose something in the background. The sky is cool but that last bit of those cliffs is a bit odd. Does that make sense?

Definately a stay over effort. Whos up for a camping trip? We could do some light painting and star gazing for the evening as well.

colin_12 wrote:Definately a stay over effort. Whos up for a camping trip? We could do some light painting and star gazing for the evening as well.

Now we're talking - I can use all those LED light gadgets I've been buying (perhaps in the warmer months however).

Murray Foote wrote:I like #3 and #5.
I think also #5 could benefit from a little graduated darkening at the top.

cheers Murray, I hear what you mean with the darkening (GND) of the sky on #5, it would probably also help push the viewer into the centre of the image.

Murray Foote wrote:I think #3 would benefit from significant darkening of the sky. .

colin_12 wrote:I really like the foreground in #3, but not as keen on the colour in the rest of this image. It feels a little to bright.

With regard to #3 I am not so sure, the sky was quite bright and this to me feels like a real representation of the scene - however I am always open to suggestions and I will tweak it to see the effect, thats the great thing about getting other peoples eyes on it, they see alot of things I don't!

This shot is my favourite since it really represents what I saw but is still so very surreal, that strong colour contrast between the slick black rocks and the golden warmth of the sun on the rocks is not something I have seen very often before, coupled with (imo) some nice water movement it really jumped out at me. I took about 12 shots (10minutes) at this spot to nail the best water movement.

colin_12 wrote:#5 and the 6th image have awsome fore to mid ground but loose something in the background. The sky is cool but that last bit of those cliffs is a bit odd. Does that make sense?

Thats a good observation and probably teh reason they look flat and lack a 3d feel (in a space sense), HDR is a real tricky technique and I think you need know what the output is going to look like before taking the shot so you can ensure the features of the scene compliment the technique.

surenj wrote:Hey Gerry, you should reduce the midtone contrast on the sky a little bit. It will make it look less HDRed but still pretty 3D and edgy.

believe it or not the sky is dialed back a fair bit, i wonder whether dialing back or including more noise reduction on it would help in the 3d department..food for thought and cheers

aim54x wrote:Jebus Gerry!! That is stunning....could really belong in a game of some description!

lol, that was the idea, a real fantasy world shot - thats where this location really comes to its own i reckon, the cliffs and protruding rocks coupled with really nice crashing wave action makes this place awesome. Note, the swell on this day was tiny, i would love to see it in full swing!

Murray Foote wrote:It just needs a pterosaur landing ....

damn you Murrary, you just made me google that and spend 10 minutes of my life learning about that extinct thing

surenj wrote:Forgetting about the great compo and postprocessing, I reckon this D7000 has retained great F%^&*(#@ shadow detail! Or am I just dreaming?

3 shot HDR, but yes the dynamic range is quite something, I have actually struggled with the dynamic range a bit, since it has quite a range its easy to retain the hihlights but the (in surise conditions) colours can look 'dodgy', I have worked around this by dialling in -1 stop, just like i did with the D80, this, for me, produces much nice and realistic colours, particularly yellows of a sunrise.

surenj wrote:By far, the last one is the strongest. Just delete the rest

I like the last, but for some reason it does not really blow me away, i prefer even #2 over it. It will also probably never get printed, maybe its just that whole concept that it still feels like a manufactured cgi image (which was the intent in alot of regards) - just my rambling thoughts...

Rooz wrote:and there is nothing wrong with surreal PP imo.
no amount of PP will ever fix a crap image.

that sounds like someones sig line definitely agree, PP should compliment the scene.

Remorhaz wrote: My parents live in Nowra so not too far away (still a long early morning drive tho).

fyi, i drove from further SE then Nowra that morning, painful, but doable...about the equiv. of driving from sunny Newtown to whale beach.

Remorhaz wrote: multi day trip is in order

Gadgit wrote:Let me know when you are around again as this is only a short drive away.

colin_12 wrote:Definately a stay over effort. Whos up for a camping trip? We could do some light painting and star gazing for the evening as well.

I reckon this would be a cracking session, get down there in the arvo, scope out and do sunset, followed by astro and back up in the morning for sunnyrise.

in terms of accommodation - i just had a quick look and (bear in mind I love camping so I don't mind roughing it) and the Killalea State Park http://www.killalea.com.au/ looks pretty good and is just up the road.

Remorhaz wrote:

colin_12 wrote:Definately a stay over effort. Whos up for a camping trip? We could do some light painting and star gazing for the evening as well.

Now we're talking - I can use all those LED light gadgets I've been buying (perhaps in the warmer months however).

harden up , it will only get down to about 8 odd degrees hopefully. Canberra had -7 the otehr day, now thats cold...

biggerry wrote:

Remorhaz wrote:

colin_12 wrote:Definately a stay over effort. Whos up for a camping trip? We could do some light painting and star gazing for the evening as well.

Now we're talking - I can use all those LED light gadgets I've been buying (perhaps in the warmer months however).

harden up , it will only get down to about 8 odd degrees hopefully. Canberra had -7 the otehr day, now thats cold...

I would be keen! But sadly I think I will be out of action for overnighters for a while...just changing jobs in a few weeks so I wont be able to take time off for a while.

Yes 8 deg is not that bad

biggerry wrote:harden up , it will only get down to about 8 odd degrees hopefully. Canberra had -7 the otehr day, now thats cold...

Haha love your enthusiasm Gerry. Killalea State Park is a good place to camp and it is very close to the water. Walk a bit south and you will get to Mystics Beach and North you have The Farm. Also go east and you will get to sheer cliff faces. Interesting places to take images but have never taken any there yet.

biggerry wrote:

Remorhaz wrote:

colin_12 wrote:Definately a stay over effort. Whos up for a camping trip? We could do some light painting and star gazing for the evening as well.

Now we're talking - I can use all those LED light gadgets I've been buying (perhaps in the warmer months however).

harden up , it will only get down to about 8 odd degrees hopefully. Canberra had -7 the otehr day, now thats cold...

Nah, no wind chill factor. Quite pleasant,really.

Murray Foote wrote:Nah, no wind chill factor. Quite pleasant,really.

Now that does make a difference! Wind Chill Factor.....definitely something to consider!

Love the warm light in 3 and 4. And a great job with composition of #5.

Where is the fantasy world of Bimbo, anyway?

Murray Foote wrote:Where is the fantasy world of Bimbo, anyway?

on the south coast, just north of Kiama

sunny bombo

dervish16 wrote:Haha love your enthusiasm Gerry. Killalea State Park is a good place to camp and it is very close to the water. Walk a bit south and you will get to Mystics Beach and North you have The Farm. Also go east and you will get to sheer cliff faces. Interesting places to take images but have never taken any there yet.

lol, i had a bit of google over the surrounding areas and it looks like a great spot, so much in a really tight space! Its also a nice change from sydney beaches and seascapes..

When I first saw this photo my immediate thought that it was a Bryce creation - and in my book that is the highest compliment one can give