Rodney Campbell's Blog

A couple of snapshots of some of the wildlife at Sea World – all snapped with the very versatile Nikon 70-300…

Note: These images (especially the wider shots) look much better when larger – so click any of the images below to see larger versions in an inline overlay slideshow gallery viewer.

Pelican

NIKON D7000 + 70.0-300.0 mm f/4.5-5.6 @ 98 mm, 1/500 sec at f/4.5, ISO 100

The Polar Bear who looked pretty disinterested…

NIKON D7000 + 70.0-300.0 mm f/4.5-5.6 @ 300 mm, 1/500 sec at f/5.6, ISO 200

and of course from the Dolphin Show

NIKON D7000 + 70.0-300.0 mm f/4.5-5.6 @ 100 mm, 1/2500 sec at f/4.5, ISO 640

Having shot the sunrise at Surfers Paradise up close and personal with the ultrawide I figured I’d give sunset a try but this time from a distance with a telephoto to compress the city scape along the shoreline for a hopefully completely different look.

I’d brought my 70-300 to the Gold Coast so that was the available option – I’d originally intended on heading down to Burleigh Head (because it stuck out to sea and would allow a more angled view along the coastline) and shoot north along the coast but I wanted to make dinner with the family and it was going to take me about an hour to drive through traffic there and back from where we were staying near Main Beach. So instead I drove 5 mins north to the end of the peninsula of land to where there’s a long jetty reaching way out to sea (or so Google Maps indicated :)).

The Gold Coast Sand Pumping Jetty was better than expected – large and sturdy (needed for a nice sharp long exposure with the tele) concrete and steel structure which also reached out well off the shore allowing a good angle down the coast to include a good stretch of skyscrapers along the coastline.

This was also the happening place – there were ballerina’s on the beach (literally – someone was doing a shoot with about a dozen girls in tutu’s), surfers we’re carving up the waves with some photographers shooting them from the jetty, the jetty itself was awash with perhaps a hundred fishermen with their lines cast to each side of the jetty and there were whales frolicking in the waters just out to sea.

Note: These images (especially the wider shots) look much better when larger – so click any of the images below to see larger versions in an inline overlay slideshow gallery viewer.

Just before sunset the lights along the jetty came on and I was able to take a shot looking back down the jetty towards the shore and the setting sun – this one is pretty much straight out of camera, no tripod, no filters… sometimes the photo gods just smile…

NIKON D7000 + 70.0-300.0 mm f/4.5-5.6 @ 70 mm, 1/160 sec at f/9, ISO 100

and one I took a little earlier from further out on the jetty

NIKON D7000 + 70.0-300.0 mm f/4.5-5.6 @ 70 mm, 1/1250 sec at f/11, ISO 320

It was then time to setup for twilight with my camera bag hanging off the tripod centre for some additional weight, the camera locked down as best I could and with the 70-300 and my Lee filter holder on the front (with a 2 stop ND grad and the CPL). There was quite a lot of gusty wind so I had to shield the camera as best I could for the long exposures.

Here is one at 6:07PM (about 20 mins after sunset)

Surfers Twilight Blue

NIKON D7000 + 70.0-300.0 mm f/4.5-5.6 @ 110 mm, 61 sec at f/9, ISO 100

and this last at 6:20PM – towards the end of twilight before the dark night sky took over

NIKON D7000 + 70.0-300.0 mm f/4.5-5.6 @ 125 mm, 120 sec at f/9, ISO 200

… and I was only a ‘little’ late for dinner 🙂

Woke up very early so headed out to the beach at Surfers Paradise for a sunrise session – a little cloud on the horizon but nothing too interesting.

I wanted to include some of the towering monstrosities perched right on the beach.

Note: These images (especially the wider shots) look much better when larger – so click any of the images below to see larger versions in an inline overlay slideshow gallery viewer.

The following is about half an hour before sunrise (4:57AM) so we have a nice long exposure. The lighting and white balance is as shot – the beach is incredibly well lit by strong floodlights all along the beach blasting out to sea – even when I first arrived in the darkness of near total night a torch wasn’t necessary even at the waters edge.

Surfers Dawn

NIKON D7000 + 12.0-24.0 mm f/4.0 @ 13 mm, 120 sec at f/9, ISO 100

The dark band of clouds across the horizon muffled most of the sunrise (it was a non event really) so I spent some time trying some self portraits with the wireless remote

NIKON D7000 + 12.0-24.0 mm f/4.0 @ 12 mm, 1/8 sec at f/11, ISO 100

Headed down to Broadbeach for dinner on our first night on the Gold Coast. The twilight sky was pretty amazing with some interesting clouds and great deep colour in the sky. Normally I’d do a nice long exposure on the tripod but I was just carrying the camera with the diminutive Tamron 17-50/2.8 so I took this one handheld (1/30 sec at f/2.8 and ISO 1600)

NIKON D7000 + 17.0-50.0 mm f/2.8 @ 22 mm, 1/30 sec at f/2.8, ISO 1600

The next night I went out close to where we were staying with tripod and filters to see what we could do

Note: These images (especially the wider shots) look much better when larger – so click any of the images below to see larger versions in an inline overlay slideshow gallery viewer.

This one is just before sunset (5:30PM) with the B+W ten stop ND for a nice long exposure (3 minutes)

Purple Daze

NIKON D7000 + 12.0-24.0 mm f/4.0 @ 12 mm, 180 sec at f/8, ISO 100

and one much later (6:20PM) towards the end of twilight – another long exposure (3 minutes) but just with a CPL and 2 stop ND grad

NIKON D7000 + 12.0-24.0 mm f/4.0 @ 13 mm, 180 sec at f/9, ISO 100

Took my Tamron 90mm macro for a spin on the beach (sand and all :)) for some up close action at the seaside

Note: These images (especially the wider shots) look much better when larger – so click any of the images below to see larger versions in an inline overlay slideshow gallery viewer.

Emerging

NIKON D7000 + 90.0 mm f/2.8 @ 90 mm, 1/250 sec at f/16, ISO 100

Sand Blasted

NIKON D7000 + 90.0 mm f/2.8 @ 90 mm, 1/800 sec at f/9, ISO 100

Curls

NIKON D7000 + 90.0 mm f/2.8 @ 90 mm, 1/640 sec at f/9, ISO 100

Finer Intricacies

NIKON D7000 + 90.0 mm f/2.8 @ 90 mm, 1/1000 sec at f/6.3, ISO 100