This is a revisit of some images I made on a trip with some good friends to Coalcliff one evening over a year ago 🙂

Plasma Reptile

NIKON D750 + 16.0-35.0 mm f/4.0 @ 19 mm, 204 sec at f/8, ISO 100

Plasma burns were really on the cards since Vonny was going to be playing with fire (literally). More on that in the next post 🙂

First up tho I had a play with some of my EL wire with the landscape showing the remnants of twilight (and some light pollution) in the long exposures.

Cosmic Spew

NIKON D750 + 24.0-70.0 mm f/2.8 @ 24 mm, 197 sec at f/8, ISO 100

The shot here is actually a blend of a couple of exposures. A shorter wide open high ISO shot to try and capture the stars (which actually turned out a lot better than I’d hoped). Mixed with a couple of exposures for the light painting. The end result a Cosmic Spew :).

Some mornings are not quite so spectacular, but there’s just something there to peak the interest.

The Dolphin

NIKON D750 + 28.0-300.0 mm f/3.5-5.6 @ 116 mm, 1/500 sec at f/5.6, ISO 1600

So it was this morning with some OK pastel colour but what really drew my attention was this cloud formation. It totally reminded me of some huge Dolphin swimming across the sky above the cityscape in the distance.

It must have been a very still morning this morning – even after having a shower the cloud formation was still almost in the same place.

I took a couple vertical panoramic compositions of the milky way streaking overhead above this basalt spire at Bombo quarry. This one with more of the water coursing over the rock wall after the waves have crashed on the other side.

One more look before we leave…

Galactic Falls

NIKON D750 + 14.0 mm f/2.8 @ 14 mm, 30 sec at f/2.8, ISO 4000 x 5 Frames

Some mornings are just spectacularly amazing – with blazing red skies and perfect cloud structures.

Red Dawn

NIKON D750 + 28.0-300.0 mm f/3.5-5.6 @ 112 mm, 1/50 sec at f/8, ISO 400

It’s a very rare occurrence that the weather gods align and you get amazing light, perfect clouds and spectacular colour when you are out landscape shooting. Sunrises especially are teasingly difficult to predict. You’re normally travelling to location in complete darkness and arrive and setup an hour before the sun is to rise. So basically you really have no real idea what it’s going to be like when that golden few minutes arrive when everything is at it’s peak. Or as is much more typical – nothing really happens.

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.

NIKON D750 + 28.0-300.0 mm f/3.5-5.6 @ 122 mm, 1/30 sec at f/8, ISO 400

You wish for conditions like these but really I’d say it’s like once in every hundred outings that it’s really what I’d call “Epic”!.

So what is worse is when you wake up one weekday morning and look out the bedroom window only to see THIS!. I mean what a complete waste – why isn’t it like this on the weekend when there’s some chance I’d be out there shooting a sunrise.

Ah well, might as well document the infinite red to prove it actually existed even if it wasn’t put to good use… :(.

Handheld and purposely underexposed to make it more “silhouetty” and pretty much SOOC :)…

With the sun now set it was time to switch to “real” landscape photographer mode…

Actually – sadly – pretty much all my shots with the D-SLR this evening were rubbish.

I’ve Been Here Before

NIKON D750 + 16.0-35.0 mm f/4.0 @ 18 mm, 134 sec at f/11, ISO 100

This one is the pick of the bad. A two plus minute long exposure towards the end of twilight with Sydney’s fabulous cityscape on the other side of the harbour. Looking down Bradley’s fantastic old stone jetty towards the famous harbour bridge and Opera house. I know I’ve been here before…