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Having seen some photos from others around this location I'd long wanted to try the spot myself - it is however a two hour drive south of Sydney . I was staying the night at my parents house in the Shoalhaven over the weekend so decided to get up early on Sunday morning and make the 30 minute trip to Bombo Quarry (near Kiama) on the south coast.

I arrived about an hour before sunrise and parked in the parking area overlooking Bombo beach on Panama street - a couple of rock fisherman were also arriving at around the same time and one of them gave me some directions to where I wanted to go.

As luck would have it I ended up with a nearly cloudless morning again with just some heavy cloud on the horizon which just delayed the appearance of the sun so no brilliant coloured clouds and skies for me again

Still this location is a treasure trove of interesting rocks, pools, formations, colours, textures and lines and you could literally spend days exploring and photographing this small area. I think summer would probably be a better time to photograph the main wall of extruded rock since the rising sun might hit the face of the rock from a more southern angle rather than rising behind as it does in winter. A sewerage treatment plant is also on the headland with the outflows into the water which might explain the abundance of crazy vibrant things growing in the pools of water.

As always any feedback, comment, critique, suggestions, etc welcomed...

The following shot was actually looking south down the coast to catch some morning light hitting the rocks



This was taken (looking north over the main rock wall) right up on top of one of the rock formations where I found this interesting lone plant gripping on for dear life in this harsh environment amongst these great textured rocks



After sunrise I spent some time behind the rock wall photographing some interesting rock pools with the rocks silhouetting the rising sun

Very nice photographs. I like the first one best.
Lovely colours and compostion.

Nice compositions Rodney, I prefer the last two images. Rising early is just not for me, summertime it's too damned early, winter it's too damned cold! The 1 hour drive to the coast doesn't help either.

zafra52 wrote:Very nice photographs. I like the first one best. Lovely colours and compostion.

Thanks Zafra - a little cheating with this one - trying some newfound skills with blending two exposures on layers with a mask - one for the sky and one for everything else.

Geoff M wrote:Nice compositions Rodney, I prefer the last two images. Rising early is just not for me, summertime it's too damned early, winter it's too damned cold! The 1 hour drive to the coast doesn't help either.

Thanks Geoff - Actually the cold isn't so bad - or rather it doesn't really make too much diff between winter and summer (it's often cold during both when it's an hour before sunrise) - but the walking around and concentrating on what you're doing (and trying not to die in the dark ) and you often don't notice or remember - I even find that by the end I'm taking some of the layers off that I rugged up in at the start.

Glad you made it there Ok Rodney.

Its an amazing location which I am very keen to get back to, i definitely want to go from the northern side and scope that area out as well, next time.

I like teh sunburst one, its nicely composed and as of late sun burst have certainly been ringing my bell.

I also like the classic view with the plant included, adds essential and interestign foreground interest.

The colour of the water looks super blue, polarised much? I would not push it much past this since it does tend look electric!

I also like teh contrasty-ness to the images (mainly the first two) however I reckon if your gonna push the contrast i think you need to watch the darker areas to make sure they do not disappear into blackness, even the subtle indication of detail is often enough.

biggerry wrote:Glad you made it there Ok Rodney.

Thanks Gerry - and thanks for the directions

Its an amazing location which I am very keen to get back to, i definitely want to go from the northern side and scope that area out as well, next time.

Agreed - boneyard sounds interesting from my sisters description...

I like teh sunburst one, its nicely composed and as of late sun burst have certainly been ringing my bell.
I also like the classic view with the plant included, adds essential and interestign foreground interest.
The colour of the water looks super blue, polarised much? I would not push it much past this since it does tend look electric!
I also like teh contrasty-ness to the images (mainly the first two) however I reckon if your gonna push the contrast i think you need to watch the darker areas to make sure they do not disappear into blackness, even the subtle indication of detail is often enough.

- thanks for the suggestions and yes - polariser was in use - the water was very turquoise looking tho even in unprocessed shots

I was already in the process of reprocessing #2 to have an even more "jurassic" feel so I took some of your suggestions on board - thoughts?



I also revisited the two HDR's (well sort of HDR's - they are exposure fusions rather than tonemapped) and added a bit more shadow detail back in in some of the blocked up areas - thanks

Here are two more from the mornings take...

The first - a very long (120 secs) pre dawn (6:25AM) exposure - soon after I arrived on the scene and well noticed there was no clouds except for the ugly mess right on the horizon



and this second another of the vertical compo's behind the pillars after sunrise - note I didn't place the weed on the island of sand for effect - it was already nicely placed there for me when I arrived :

I was already in the process of reprocessing #2 to have an even more "jurassic" feel so I took some of your suggestions on board - thoughts?

yeah, i like this better, it still has a pretty intense contrasty look, which mayybe due to LR's clarity as well? The detail in the cliffs is heaps better imo.

Remorhaz wrote:The first - a very long (120 secs) pre dawn (6:25AM) exposure - soon after I arrived on the scene and well noticed there was no clouds except for the ugly mess right on the horizon

I don't mind this either, it is classic bombo compo, i would be inliced to even crop more from the bottom for more pano style, thus leaving the rock on the right intersecting teh water/frame at the middle.

here's one i prepared earlier your shots reminded me of my time down there and this one of the ones that never got processed. The sun would have been in the same spot, roughly..

All of these pics are so alien and that’s a very high compliment from me

The third one in the original set is amazing. Looks like something out of Middle Earth

biggerry wrote:yeah, i like this better, it still has a pretty intense contrasty look, which mayybe due to LR's clarity as well? The detail in the cliffs is heaps better imo.

I don't mind this either, it is classic bombo compo, i would be inliced to even crop more from the bottom for more pano style, thus leaving the rock on the right intersecting teh water/frame at the middle. here's one i prepared earlier your shots reminded me of my time down there and this one of the ones that never got processed. The sun would have been in the same spot, roughly...

Not that the sun actually rose in my case - it more sort of slowly appeared through the dense cloud eventually - but I'm pretty sure it was quite a bit further over to the left behind the rocks/headland which is why I think a summertime shoot would be better here with the sun coming in from further south.

sirhc55 wrote:All of these pics are so alien and that’s a very high compliment from me

PiroStitch wrote:The third one in the original set is amazing. Looks like something out of Middle Earth

Thanks guys

quick update: Suren and Gerry's suggestion to make the sky not grey in #3: