Rodney Campbell's Blog

This is kind of the composition I was originally envisaging before coming here tonight. The intention was to shoot with this longer focal length (around 60-70mm) for a tighter view of just the island and the bridge which leads to it. We’d then have the sun setting behind the bridge/island and hopefully some really nice clouds lighting up the sky behind

A Bridge Too Far

NIKON Z 7 + NIKKOR Z 24-70mm f/4 S @ 65 mm, 123 sec at f/8, ISO 400

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

Alas in our case all the clouds were up high in the sky at sunset. So all the colour action was occurring way up above where this frame would be (even if shot vertically). My previous vertical frames moments after sunset were at 14mm and still didn’t include all the clouds

So here we are almost 30 minutes after sunset and the cloud colour is mostly gone and I can show you what might have been…

A horizontal composition near the same spot as the previous vertical compo (and not nearly as good IMHO)

Gerry is a blurry mess over in the right of frame (he’s moving around nicely in this 92 second exposure)

This is 5 minutes after the shot I posted previously but already the cloud colour is fading

Slanted Reality

NIKON Z 7 + NIKKOR Z 14-30mm f/4 S @ 14 mm, 92 sec at f/11, ISO 125

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

Probably my favourite shot of the session

I’d tried processing one of the exposure bracketed sets (of 9 images) of this vertical composition taken whilst the sun was still up in the sky – but well – meh…

I basically couldn’t be a$$ed editing the rest of those bracketed sets I took whilst the sun was up

Bare Claw

NIKON Z 7 + NIKKOR Z 14-30mm f/4 S @ 14.5 mm, 93 sec at f/11, ISO 64

Instead after the sun had finally just dipped over the horizon the whispy high clouds above started to really light up. The best of it lasted only a few minutes. This one’s taken only minutes after sunset

Here I’ve dropped in an ND64 (6 stop ND filter) stacked with the 3 stop reverse grad and the CPL. The effect of which drags out the shutter to a minute and a half. This allows the churning water and waves to render as smooth milk (and reflect the cloud colour). It also drags out the moving clouds creating this giant red claw in the sky. (actually it looks more claw like in the long exposure frame I took before this – but that was started right on sunset and the clouds hadn’t turned red yet)

The result… almost perfection on a very pleasant evening

We’re out of lockdown and we’re back…

It was great to finally catch up with Gerry for a shoot after what must be a two year hiatus due to covid

We were originally thinking of a sunrise shoot but the cloud predictions looked bleak. A sneaky Sunday sunset did look at least possible however. So we headed out to this spot near Congwong Beach which lines sunset up nicely with the bridge that heads across to Bare Island at La Perouse in Sydney’s Eastern Suburbs

Gerry @ Work

NIKON Z 7 + NIKKOR Z 14-30mm f/4 S @ 14 mm, 1/800 to 1/6 sec at f/11, ISO 64

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

The sun was still up when we arrived on location. Even with a 3 stop reverse grad trying to hold down the sun it wasn’t possible to do a single shot without the sun blowing out the frame. I didn’t have a 6 – 10 stop reverse grad 🙂 so I took about a dozen multi shot (anywhere from 3 to 9) bracketed sets of a few compositions whilst waiting for the sun to set

This is one of the first of those just to set the scene and show Gerry working away on his “crack” (in the rock… seriously… no really!!… :)) up front

You can see my basic compositional thesis here. I’m liking the idea of that very cool windswept coloured sandstone. I’m also keen on that lone green shrub with it’s solitary pink flower on the left. Lastly all those rock and other lines leading towards the sun

Shiver

NIKON Z 7 + NIKKOR Z 14-30mm f/4 S @ 14 mm, 50 sec at f/11, ISO 64

I was looking to get a nice simple shot with just a lone rock looming close in the frame. With a long exposure to turn the surf to mist to simplify the rest of the image and hide all the flaws :). Alas no lone rocks so this is the best I could do… last shot (with the “real” camera at least) of the morning…

I’d mentioned in my previous post that I’d recently picked up the new Kase 100mm filter system (the Master Kit). For this image I’m using the Kase K9 100mm filter holder along with the Kase magnetic CPL and stacked the Kase ND64 6 Stop Square ND filter and the Kase Wolverine 3 stop (0.9) reverse grad ND filter

Pretty happy with the setup so far

• everything appears to be extremely high quality
• the magnetically attaching polariser is genius and will likely prove to be very convenient
• as will the 90mm magnetically attaching lens cap
• there’s no crazy colour cast (like I’d get with my Formatt Hitech reverse grad or the Lee BigStopper)
• even with the CPL and two slots of 100mm filters I’m getting no vignetting even at 14mm. I’ll have to try the full three slots sometime and see how that goes

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