Chasing Light by Chris Lane

Photo’s:Sydney’s Best Day Trips

By far my favourite thing to do is to go on a mini adventure and take some pictures. I’ve been doing it since a teenager and I’ll continue to until I can’t hold a camera.
These lockdowns we have been through and are currently in has definitely put a dampener on that, and it’s the thing I miss the most during these Covid times.

So I’ve done a little reminiscing about some of my favourite Sydney day trips and put my top ten together to hopefully give a little inspiration to the fellow adventure seekers out there for when we can get back to normal life. I’m not counting my hometown in Sydney’s South as I can’t really count them as a day trip. I’ll save them for another day too.

So in alphabetical order as I love and recommend them all.

Blue mountains and The Three Sisters

Located around 2.5 hours out of Sydney and in the heat of Katoomba. The Three sisters is just a remarkable sight to see. With multiple viewing platforms it makes for a great photograph at any time of day. This was at sunrise but just as good at any time it’s that beautiful.

Bondi

It’s one of the worlds most famous beaches for a reason. Located in Sydney’s Eastern Suburbs it can be pretty busy all year long but in summer it gets packed so you really need to time your run. My favourite view is of the iconic Bondi pool, right on the waters edge and it’s just a great looking pool.

Coogee Beach

Just south of Bondi lies Coogee beach, it has more of a casual vibe to it then Bondi and with a shorter coastline it makes for great viewing. A couple of nice vantage points on the hill make for some great pictures.

Figure 8 pool

Located in the heart of the Royal National Park in Sydney’s south. There’s a few ways to access it, but my favourite way is via Orford train station end. With around an hours walk down to Burning Palms beach then a further 20 minutes trek along the rocks. It’s a perfect rock pool shaped in the number 8. A natures miracle really and cool to shoot. You need to be there for low tide tho, so check on the National Park website in advance for information.

Freshwater

Freshwater beach in Sydney’s Northern beaches and just North of Manly beach. It’s less famous then then more popular Manly beach, but I love a beach with a small coastline and a high vantage spot on a hill. It also has a awesome ocean pool to that is well worth the trip.

Inner West Sydney

Sydney’s Inner West has so many great locations. But my favourite spot for a view of the perfect Anzac Bridge and with City skyline is in Blackwattle Bay Park in Glebe. This was shot right on sunrise and with a awesome view of the Bridge and the city it is well worth the trek out.

MacArthur Park in Camden

I spent many a days of my childhood at this place, the beautiful MacArthur Park in the heart of Camden, NSW. Located about a hours drive from the Sydney CBD, Camden is one of my favorite places in Sydney. Surrounded by Churches and Cafe’s MacArthur Park is a great place to visit whether it be for a photography tour or just a quiet place to sit.

It really comes alive in Autumn with a rainbow of colors as the tree leaves start to fall for winter. All year long it looks great but for a few weeks in Autumn it is really at it’s best.

Newtown

Newtown in Sydney’s Inner West is only a short drive or train ride from the CBD and really comes alive at night time.

It’s a pretty unique part of the city so so many cafes and pubs to keep you entertained it’s really a great place to explore. But right on twilight is the best place to shoot some pictures and the streets really light up well.

North Sydney

North Sydney is one of my favourite places in Sydney to do a little photo wandering. The North Sydney Pool shown here is just a place place to be and the view of the Sydney Harbour Bridge is just awesome. There are so many great spots around the area to explore and most of the have the view of Sydney’s great bridge.

The Rocks Sydney

One of Sydney’s oldest sights The Rocks is just full of great photography opportunities.

With a cool mixture of old Sydney and new Sydney and some of the best views of Sydney Harbour Bridge you can find. There are plenty of great pubs and cafes there but the location itself is just awesome. So many cool things to see and photograph and being so close to the CBD it is really easy to get in and out of.

Once we get back to some normality I’ll be getting back out to all of these great places and more. The longer I think about it there are so many other great spots I’ve left off but I’ll save them for another post.
I’d love to hear other people’s suggestions too as I’m always looking for some more great spots to travel and photograph.

Til next time!

Chris

Luc Longley, Andrew Bogut and The Boomers

As a lifelong basketball fan it’s been just awesome watching our latest Australian team The Boomers play in the Tokyo Olympics at the moment.

I grew up playing basketball in South Western Sydney back in the 90’s, during the peak time of basketball in our country Michael Jordan was a global superstar and locally it was the great Andrew Gaze.

It was easy to fall in love with the sport back then with basketball taking off across half courts across the country.

I guess the biggest moment back then as a young fan was watching our Australian Boomers with Andrew Gaze taking on the great USA Dream Team. That famous moment of a young Shane Heal chest bumping American Charles Barkley pretty much sealed The Boomers as my favorite sporting team and I’m sure it had a similar effect on many other young hoopers in Australia.

Since then I’ve been lucky to become a photographer and shoot many great Boomers players past and present during their time in the NBL. One of my big bucket list items is to one day photograph the Aussie team in action and hopefully I’ll get the chance one day.

Until then these are some of my favorite pictures of some of the current and former team members including Andrew Bogut and Chicago Bulls champion Luc Longley during his time at the Sydney Kings.

The future of Basketball is bright in Australia and hopefully I’ll get the chance to shoot more of our Boomer players in time. Until then Go Boomers!!!

Til next time

Chris

Photo Tips: Shooting a Perfect Sunrise Everytime

With the tight restrictions going on in Sydney at the moment, there’s not too many opportunities to get out and take some pictures. So I’m fortunate enough to live so close to the beautiful Royal National Park in southern Sydney and shot s few pictures of a early morning sunrise during the week on my morning walk.

As great as a sunrise is, they can also be a little tricky to shoot, with low light and focusing making things harder than daytime.

I find the best pictures of a sunrise actually come around 30 minutes before the actual sunrise. More of a dawn time as the colours are a little more softer with the purple hues.

Once the sun comes up and sneaks over the horizon it’s pretty much all over in a few minutes then it turns to daylight. So I find being out and ready to shoot a good 30-40 minutes before sunrise gives you a good amount of time to shoot in the dawn light with the purple and blues then into the reds and orange of the actual sunrise.

All of these pictures were taken in under an hour so if you are out and about early enough you get get quite a variety of differnt shots with different colours in the same location, making it a great use of your time.

So a couple of main keys about sunrise shooting would be

Be on site around 30-40 minutes before the scheduled sunrise.
It’s going to pretty dark at dawn so you’d want to have a high ISO of at least 1000 to avoid any camera shake from a low shutter speed.
Try to find something interesting to shoot through, maybe some trees or anything that adds a bit of interest to the scene.
Experiment and have some fun with it while you’re there, shooting a great sunrise pic really is a cool way to start your day.

Til next time

Chris