Ocean

All posts tagged Ocean

A Walk Among the Beaches

Posted by morealtitude on December 12, 2012

Posted in: Adventure, Photography, Travel. Tagged: Australia, Beach, Beautiful, Cliff, Coastline, Darby Saddle, Fairy Cove, Hiking, Ocean, Rocks, Rugged, Sea, The Prom, Tidal River, Tongue Point, Trekking, Victoria, Waves, Wild, Wilsons Prom, Wilsons Promentory. 3 Comments

Around Easter, A. and I took a long weekend in Wilson’s Prom. The Prom, as it’s known here, is one of Victoria’s little secrets. Well known in Melbourne as a getaway and a gorgeous spot for camping, quiet beaches and rugged hikes, it’s little heard-of outside of Australia- and I’m okay with that.

We were blessed with beautiful weather- neither too hot nor too cold, and (a rarity in Victoria) no rain to speak of. Patches of cloud made photography a little more interesting, and we spent several days exploring beaches, cliffs and walking trails up and down the coastline. We also got to know the local wildlife a little better- here, A. made friends with a Crimson Rosella, but the campground at Tidal River is also known for its population of semi-tame wombats, and there are roos and wallabies up and down the length of the trail. Not to mention Tiger Snakes. Oddly enough I didn’t pause to take a photo of the one I nearly stepped on, as I was busy scooting back down the track in a hurry, looking for a large stick.

Wilson’s Prom has been struck with a series of natural disasters over the last few years, including devastating bushfires that damaged much of the park and made many tracks unsafe to walk on. Flashfloods more recently have equally left much of the park’s infrastructure in disarray, and when we were there, many walks were still closed to the public and under repair. It was somewhat disappointing, and we were unable to walk some of the trails we’d been hoping to, but we still found some gorgeous scenery and some great hikes, so we can’t complain. Really, it just gives us something else to go back for. Not that we need the excuse.

I have to confess, we were a little cheeky. Some opportunities were too good to miss, and we ended up scrambling up a couple of closed tracks to find ourselves on secluded beaches and little coves that we had entirely to ourselves. The Prom isn’t exactly crawling with people outside of peak season, but it’s still a popular destination. However, being the only people in some of these spectacular spots was really quite special, and we relished it.

The coastline at the Prom is rugged- rocky and wild, with coves and beaches interspersed by tall cliffheads and rocky outcrops. It’s a dramatic landscape, and one of the most beautiful along Victoria’s southern ocean shore. The Prom juts out into the Bass Straits, a long and jagged peninsula that is one of the most exposed parts of the state. Once upon a time, a land-bridge joined Tasmania to the rest of Australia, and the Prom is its last vestige. When you look at some of the rocks around the Prom and compare them to, say, the rocks of northern Tasmania, you can see the similarities.

Our favourite walk was the one that led from Darby Saddle to Tongue Point. It’s listed as a moderate hike, which is a fair assessment- lots of ups and downs. Starting well inland at the high point of Darby Saddle (always ominous, because it means you need to end the walk with a climb back to the car), it took us a good chunk of the day to complete- five or six hours, when we factored in the exploring. The views along the way were magnificent, however, and it was well worth the effort.

Towards the end of the walk, the path splits and there’s a little scramble down to Fairy Cove. We were pretty much the only people on the track that day, so we had the spot to ourselves, and it was magnificent- a glorious and footprint-free beach where we could scramble onto the rocks and watch the breakers dash themselves against the headlands, and even a little tidal pool we were able to take a little swim in- still freezing cold, but not as hostile as the ocean itself.

One of the loveliest things about the Prom is the constant drama. With the winds coming off the straits, the clouds are ever moving and shifting the light on the scenery. The sea is restless, and you can sit for hours just watching the waves pound the base of cliffs or swash up around fallen rocks in great foamy charges.

Three things I’m keen to capture on my next trip to the Prom. First off, the night skies are magical out there, so taking a tripod to do some starlight photography is a must. Second, a spot of time-lapse to catch the movement of waves and clouds would be magical. And third, I am busting to get myself a nice telephoto lens and do some nice wave photography. The above shot is about the best of the bunch I was able to get, but I’m only shooting on an 85mm, which doesn’t really have the reach necessary to get those lovely creamy breakers at their best.

Next time.

Seriously, it’s a spectacular spot, and I can’t recommend Wilson’s Prom enough. If you’re coming through Victoria as a tourist, or if you’re just a local Melbournian with a weekend to spare, make sure you get down there.

A Short Year in Photos

Posted by morealtitude on October 18, 2012

Posted in: Photography, Travel. Tagged: Africa, Altha, Arizona, Australia, Baobab, Beach, Bridge, City, Daylesford, Downtown, Florida, Flowers, Georgia, Grey, Highway, Kenya, Landscape, nature, Ocean, Outdoors, Phoenix, Rocks, Rural, Savannah, savannah ga, Scenery, Sunset, Tree, Trentham Falls, Tybee Beach, Tybee Island, USA, Victoria, Waterfall, Wilsons Prom. 4 Comments

The year isn’t over yet. Not by a long shot. But by the dearth of fresh photos going up on this blog you could be forgiven for thinking I’ve hung up my lenses and called it a day. In fact, by the dearth of fresh anything going up on this blog you could be forgiven for thinking I’ve hung up my keyboard, too.

Happily, neither one is the case.

I have, however, been a little overwhelmed with the inconvenience that is real life, and it’s taken me a little time to get through a backlog of photos for processing, and eventually, writing some of them up. I’m hoping to remedy my general neglect of this site recently over the next few weeks. Which I’ve said before. But I do actually have a little free time coming my way. So, maybe…

At any rate, as a taster here are a few of my favourite pictures from the last ten months or so, from a few different spots round the globe. Some of these locations I might flesh out a little more as time goes on, but for now, I hope you like this little collection of images.

Top: A muggy and overcast day on Tybee Beach, Savannah, GA. Overexposed in-camera and processed for low colour and emphasizing highlights focuses on the texture and an almost dreamlike view of the ocean. Shot using shallow depth of field means the foreground is soft while the waves beyond are in sharper relief.

Above: A baobab tree rises from rusty soils and a flowering ground creeper in fields outside a village in rural South-East Kenya. I was struck by the lovely contrast between the spray of white flowers (actually weeds), the red ground and the blue sky- all nicely lit on a fresh morning. Baobabs make for a fantastic photographic subject- stark, dramatic and instantly recognizable.

Above: Rounded rocks on a beach at Wilson’s Prom, on the southern coast of Australia, give testament to millenia of weathering at the hands of the relentless ocean. Shot in overcast light and exposing to darken the sky with some differential exposure in post-processing has kept the rocks in low contrast, emphasising their smooth shape and texture, and emphasising form over colour in the muted palette. Wilson’s Prom remains one of the prettiest corners of Victoria in my playbook.

Above: Downtown Phoenix, seen from the air coming in to land, with the high-rise central business district just off-centre and Chase Field, home of the Diamondbacks, off to the right. The way the grid of small streets and roads lead in converging lines take the eye through downtown and on to the hills in the background, and the effect makes this one of the only shots I’ve taken from a plane window that I actually like.

Above: Trentham Falls, outside Daylesford, Victoria, Australia, as viewed from behind the falls themselves. Hand-held at slightly long exposure has given the falling water a slightly silky texture. Among the challenges of taking this image were the issue of shooting from a darkened vantage against a lighter sky and trying not to allow much of the image to burn out. Additionally, several plebs managed to find themselves in the frame, so I removed their pesky presence in post-processing to give the image a more serene look. I actually had to wait up here for a good six or seven minutes for a couple of kids to step out of the frame at bottom, where they had been chucking big rocks into the water. Overall I like the quiet scene and the relatively soft palette of greens and earthy tones.

Above: Highway bridge, Savannah, GA. You don’t generally get many good shots through a car windshield, but this spur-of-the-moment snap-shot (I use the term to refer to how quickly it had to be lined up and taken, not the camera it was taken on) works for me. Again the lines of the bridge struts give a great sense of motion, leading the eye into a contrasty late-afternoon sky, and a broad horizon giving the feeling of wide open spaces. It’s a shot that captures movement and an enjoyable juxtaposition of dramatic engineering and natural beauty.

Above: The sun sets directly over an intersection on a steamy panhandle night near Altha, FL. The warm tones and striking position of the sun are nicely led to by the wires of the phone lines, and I like the faint splash of reflection coming off the road.

The Tasmania Tour, Gate 6: Bay of Fires

Posted by morealtitude on April 23, 2010

Posted in: Photography, Travel. Tagged: Aborigines, Aqua, Australia, Bay, Bay of Fires, Beach, Beautiful, Birralong Bay, Bloody, Blue, Clear, Coast, Cold, Empty, History, Landscape, Light, Ocean, Photography, Pristine, Red, Rocks, Sea, Shells, Smoke, St. Helens, Tasmania, The Gardens, Tour, Tragedy, Travel, Travelogue. 3 Comments

The sleepy port town of St. Helens was our jumping-off point to explore the highly-regarded but relatively-little-known (until recently) Bay of Fires. St. Helens itself is a sweet, inoffensive little place, with a a few nice cafes along the main strip selling local produce (mmm… local produce…) but not much to hold your attention for more than an hour or two. The waterfront is a little plain, and to hit the good stuff, you branch north along the coast, towards Birralong Bay.

Birralong Bay is the southernmost point of the stretch of coastline known as the Bay of Fires. A series of headlands of harder rock seperated by wide sandy beaches, the coastline was named by early explorers who saw smoke rising from the many campfires of the Aboriginal inhabitants- an indicator of how densely populated the island once was. Perhaps the darkest tranche of Tasmania’s history is the effective annihilation of its Aboriginal population in the early years of its settlement- a source of deep shame for Australia’s past, and one that gets little talked about. It has left a scar on the collective memory of the people and, dare I say it, the island itself.

The landscape, however, gives away little of this sadness. Birralong Bay is a delightful cove of crystal-clear seawater and gentle waves lapping onto a sandy beach perfect for a swim and a play. Accomodation options in the little village are limited, but would be my first choice for any future visits. It’s a delightful location.

From there the simple road follows the coastline north, with the beaches off to the right (and periodically out of sight), skirting saline lagoons set back from the waterfront. There are multiple access tracks down to the beaches themselves, and many locations for camping as well- another awesome accomodation option.

The bays are simply wonderful. Sandy, pristine, and largely devoid of people, they are a beach-lovers dream. The water is cold and the only drawback is that many of the bays have rip-tides that inhibit swimming. None the less, for gorgeous seaside views and a quiet time on the coastline, you’d be hard pressed to beat the Bay of Fires. The aqua colour of the water there simply has to be seen to be believed- it is eye-popping.

The access road peters out at the sweet little hamlet of The Gardens. From there, it’s possible to scramble among the rocks and even explore further north on foot. The rocks, as in many parts of coastal Tasmania, are scored with a red algae that contrasts beautifully with the blue sky under a polarized lens, and could well be another source for the Bay’s name. This next photo is one of my all-time favourites from this trip.

It’s worth noting that the Lonely Planet mentions the Bay of Fires at the top of its list of top 10 travel destinations for 2009. While I’d hesitate to put it at the very top of my personal list of have-seens (and want-to-sees), it certainly ranks up there in the memories as a beautiful spot. It has clear water, clean unspoilt beaches, is easy and cheap to access, and is not overrun by visitors. Bay of Fires comes highly recommended from Yours Truly, and if you’re visiting Tasmania, do put it on your itinerary. As elsewhere in Tasmania, it’s natural beauty at its best.

The Tasmania Tour, Gate 5: Wineglass Bay

Posted by morealtitude on April 6, 2010

Posted in: Photography, Travel. Tagged: Aqua, Australia, Azure, Bay, Beach, Beautiful, Clean, Clear, Cold, Coles Bay, Freycinet Peninsula, Landscape, National Park, Ocean, Photography, Pristine, Road Trip, Scenery, Sea, Swim, Tas, Tasmania, Tassie, Travel, Turqoise, Viewpoint, Waves, Wineglass Bay, Wineglass Beach. 2 Comments

I’ve already introduced you to the spectacular Wineglass Bay here.

The bay itself is one of several renowned beaches on Tasmania’s Freycinet Peninsula, a narrow elbow of coastline jutting out into the southern ocean on the island’s east coast. Accessible from the settlement of Coles Bay, Freycinet is a National Park, with fees applying for entry. There is a well-trod path that leads up from the parking lot to a viewpoint, and from there the option to return to the vehicles, or continue down to the beach itself. Walking tracks and even campgrounds give access to Wineglass and other beaches in the area.

The main viewpoint is a moderately easy 30-40 minute uphill walk following a clearly marked trail- also clearly marked by the long string of tourists making their way to see the vista. One of Tasmania’s best-known beaches, Wineglass presents a visually appealing sight, a wide gently-curving strip of white sand against an azure sea. The viewpoint itself is spread out over a series of adjutting boulders and bare rocks, although while I was up there the wind made taking even simple photographs quite an obnoxious experience. The day, which had started overcast and spotty with rain, developed into one spotted with white fluffy clouds, and eventually, a cloudless afternoon, perfect both for enjoying the scenery, and the photography.

A large number of travellers appear to be content with the walk to the viewpoint. However another 45 minutes down the other side gives access to the beach itself. We visited it mid-week after schools had gone back, and there were still people on the sand- but not many. Clustered where the path empties onto one end of the beach there averaged a dozen or so mostly-backpackers having a snack and a paddle before returning over the hill. We wandered along the sand for ten minutes and found ourselves almost completely secluded- there were maybe ten other people spread out over the mile+ of sand around us. A little slice of paradise.

At the end of the day, Wineglass Bay is just a beach. But it’s one heck of a beach. The sand is white and naturally clean, almost completely free of debris and in no way articifical. The water has to be seen to be believed. An exquisite turquoise colour, it is achingly, almost glacially clear (yes I know that glacier water is not clear at all but filled with minerals and sediment). I would dare to say possibly the cleanest, clearest seawater I have ever swum in.

And swim we did. Let’s get one thing clear. Tasmania, for all the beautiful sunshine we had, is not renowned for its weather. Well, actually, it is. It is renowned for being cold and wet. We lucked out with a string of beautifully sunny days, but even with the sun out, it’s hardly very hot compared to Australian norms. The water, by contrast, is frigid. With no landmass between the Tassie coast and Antarctica, the water feels as though it didn’t long ago melt. The icy bite only added to the sense of cleanliness, however. The swim was bracing, and we loved it for the experience, not just to be able to say we’d done it.

I spent a while snapping shots along the beach. A long while, in fact. It remains one of the prettiest and most photogenic beaches I’ve ever been on, and it was hard to stop. The colour the water appeared through my polarizing filter was simply eye-popping, and not done justice here on the pages of this blog. Something of a connaisseur of beaches (I’ve explored attractive beaches on at least five continents), I’d have to rate Wineglass Bay both as one of the most memorable, and one of the most simply beautiful. Additionally, the fact that, despite not being tropical, it was nearly empty, leant it a nearly mythic status which places it right up at the top of the must-see places to visit in Tasmania. Natural beauty at its best.

I trust the images speak for themselves in encouraging you to pay it a respectful and environmentally courteous visit.

Photo Notes: Sorrento Beach Beach

Posted by morealtitude on July 6, 2009

Posted in: Photography. Tagged: Australia, Beach, Mornington Peninsula, Ocean, Photo Tips, Photography, Sorrento, Victoria, Wide Angle. Leave a comment

I went down to Sorrento Back Beach with some friends this past weekend. The weather wasn’t entirely cooperative. The clouds were lovely but kept obscuring the sun, which meant that the foreground never really took off. Photographing landscapes is a balancing act. The landscaper’s dilemma is that by exposing for the ground (which is naturally darker), you blow out the sky. By contrast if you expose for the sky to capture colour and contrast in the clouds, you tend to overdarken the foreground and lose detail and light. A perfect scenario is a sun above or behind the photographer lighting the foreground so that you can lower the overall exposure value of the shot, allowing you to darken the sky at the same time and capture the depth of the skyscape. But that depends on factors beyond your control. Namely, the climate.

No luck today.

So I had to cheat a little on this shot and used a graduated neutral density (GND) filter in post-processing. When I say ‘cheating’ I should really say ‘lazy’. When it comes to post processing I try and keep things fairly realistic and limited. I don’t use HDR or any of its cousins. The GND allows me to put a horizontal line across the image and apply slightly different exposure values above and below the image. I’m okay with doing this because you can in fact get GND filters that fit onto the camera itself, like a polarizer or a UV filter, and I generally consider anything I can do ‘in-camera’ as legit in post (but admit that it’s a tad lazy). However the cost of getting a Cokin or similar filter set to fit the ginormous filter-ring (82mm) of my yawning 16-35mm wide-angle, not to mention the fiddle quotient, really makes a few careful clicks in Lightroom a much more preferable option. I do want to get into the habit of using GND filters at some stage, however, as I find the art of capturing as much of the image as possible at the time I take it immensely satisfying. And the GND function is pretty indispensible for a landscaper like me.

Sorrento Ocean Beach is one of my favourites around, with a lovely arc of sand and lots of interesting rock formations stacked about. There’s also lots of fun to be had scrambling over the rocks and exploring the tidal pools. Admittedly walking around with a Canon 5D and 3 L-class lenses stuffed in various pockets made me a little cagey while crawling over sharp rock outcrops. A slip could get expensive.

The shot was taken on the aforementioned Canon EF 16-35mm f/2.8 L II USM. It’s a behemoth of an ultra-wide-angle lens, an absolute beauty when it comes to landscapes, and I love it to pieces. You could park an Airbus A380 on the field of glass that makes up the front end, but by the same token it lets in so much light that I could almost shoot hand-held in moonlight. For any aspiring landscape photographers out there, it’s a beautiful piece of glass and a gorgeous addition to my lens collection. In this shot I really like how the wide angle of the lens has bent the bay around to give it a half-moon-esque curve to it.

That was a lot of words just to talk about a photo.

Note: Do click the photo to see it bigger than you can here on the page…

Sorrento Back Beach

Posted by morealtitude on July 1, 2009

Posted in: Photography. Tagged: Australia, Bay, Beach, GND, Graduated Neutral Density, Lightroom 2, Melbourne, Mornington Peninsula, Ocean, Peninsula, Photography, Sea, Skyscape, Sorrento, Victoria, Waves, Wide Angle. 3 Comments

I went on a little weekend away this past Saturday and Sunday. Some friends from the little small-group I’m a part of decided to rent a holiday house for two nights down at the end of the Mornington Peninsula. Like a crooked finger, the Peninsula arcs all the way down the eastern edge of Port Philip Bay, until it’s just a narrow ridge of land a few miles wide. Because my folks live on the Peninsula I feel that it’s really just an extension of Melbourne, but in perspective the end of the peninsula is a good two-hour drive from downtown Melbourne. Perhaps because, in true Melbourne fashion, the suburbs barely seem to break on the way down, it feels part of the GMA. Nonetheless, the atmosphere down near Sorrento is totally different- a relaxed, pretty, beachside ambience that during the summer is festive and joyful, and during the winter is a little cooler, but still somehow uplifting compared to the spreading expanses of the bungalow’d Eastern Suburbs.

On Sunday I joined a couple of friends for a walk along the Sorrento back beach. This end of the peninsula, there are bay-side beaches, and back beaches. The former are sandy, gently-sloping strips often many miles long, relatively underpopulated and opening onto the calm, clear waters of the bay. Yachts are moored at jetties and during the summer, kids splash in the shallows while parents watch patiently from laid-out beach-towels. The latter, however, are a lot more fun. Facing onto the southern Ocean, they are steep and rocky, lined with broken cliffs and washed-out stacks, wave-cut platforms and crumbling stumps, all being gradually swallowed by heaving breakers. On a calm day, the waves break onto the jagged coastline with predictable regularity, foaming where they strike outcrops. When the weather is up, the back-beaches offer some of the most exciting seascapes in the area.

Sorrento is one of Victoria’s posher seaside resorts and so the back-beach is usually pretty populated. In fact there was an open-topped Porsche Cayenne in the parking lot that morning. Alright for some. But the place still manages to feel rugged and just a little adventurous. A scramble along the rock-pools offers a certain nostalgia, the simplicity of the seaside offering an almost Victorian experience (the era, not the State). Sadly for me, the winter light was variable and largely uncooperative, and the sun slipped behind a bank of cloud about a minute after I pulled into the parking-lot, foiling most of my subsequent attempts at capturing the landscape. I swapped lenses out (gingerly in the brisk sea air) and replaced my 16-35mm with my 85mm f/1.8 portrait lens and shot some candids of my promenading companions instead, chosing to practice my portraiture skills and expose them to the intrusion of a paparazzo. They were very patient with me, and I got a few snaps I was pleased with which I might share on another post.

WanderLust

Notes from a Global Nomad