Sunrise at Little Bay in Sydney

Being a landscape & seascape photographer we are looking at the skies during the day & weather forecasts to see what might be happening.

Clear skies aren’t good for us as we would like a bit of cloud around to be able to get those amazing colours that fire up the skies.

Sunrises are more of a gamble as you never really know what you are going to get until you get the first light in the sky about 45 mins before sunrise to see if there are any clouds or how thick they maybe.

Of course if it is raining that is never great but sometimes it can break & you never know especially if you never go.

So when I woke up early last weekend looking at the dark sky I could see some thin clouds around the moon which was promising going with the weather forecast which was for some thin clouds.

As the sky got a little lighter this looked like being a good one so driving to the coast getting my camera ready at the lights thinking about where I would like to shoot, always important to have a catalogue of places to shoot in your mind.

And it turned out the skies were amazing that morning which was the last day of winter & Mother Nature gave us a show to remember.

Light painting in Canberra at Parliament House

Some long exposure fun can be had doing some light painting in front of land marks with your tri-pod & quick hand writing.
I set up my tri-pod in front of Parliament House in Canberra doing some long exposures at sunset, no problems from the security people which was nice, & looking at my image the bottom of the frame was quite dark.
So I thought it might be nice to tag the image of where I was.
Have done this previously in Adelaide, link below.
It can take a few goes to get these right especially writing backwards or getting in the frame in a good place that looks nice.
Check your spelling too as it is hard to change!
I have a small LED torch (flash light) which I carry & sometimes us to light painting in an image where it might be a little dark.
Very useful to have too for when you are walking in the dark.
Point the LEDs towards the camera so that it is shining into the barrel of the lens to get the brightest lines.
I turn the torch off between the letters too or hold your hand over the front.
If you keep moving & wear dark clothes you will be over written on the sensor as you aren’t standing still enough to be recorded.
The secret for this image is that I wrote CANBERRA the way I was facing & not reversed, which you normally have to do, as the building behind is symmetrical so I could easily flip the image in post.
A little tip.
You will be lucky to get it right the first time & practice makes perfect.
Also check your frame & see the limits as to where you can write too.
Pick out some markers on the ground & go for it.
Hope you might get something out of this post & please leave any comments or feel free to share.
More tips, tricks & techniques soon!

Canberra hot air balloon festival 2013

Took a trip to Canberra on the weekend to see the annual hot air balloon festival at the nations capital.
Canberra had also just celebrated it’s 100th birthday.
On Saturday morning the weather conditions didn’t suit flying balloon so they stayed grounded tethered to vehicles which gave us the chance to get some closer shots.
We were invited to go inside the local Scout groups balloon as they started to inflate it which was an amazing experience, very lucky.
The balloon is first partially inflated with cool air that is pumped in to get some shape, when we were then allowed in, before they fill it with hot air.
Thanks to the Scouts to allow us to do this.
Fellow G+ Sydney photographers +Stephen Godfrey  +Ana Andres +Jason Baker & +Jason Ruth  were also in Canberra that morning & joined in.
Made for some great images especially with the fish eye lens that I took in.