The Stages of a Sydney Sunrise

It’s something that’s been on my list on things to shoot for a long time. The Sydney Skyline as the sun rises.

Having grown up in Sydney and spending most of my life living and working here, I have a great love for our city and everything about it.

In particular the City Skyline. Every city has it’s thing but because of the Sydney Tower it really has quite a unique view that really stands out in photographs.

My plan was to shoot in winter as I find there is always a clearer sunrise with less clouds, so it’s really the best chance to get a cool series of pictures of the morning. Shot from the Southern side of the City in Ramsgate, around a 20 min drive from the city. It’s a really nice clean angle of the Skyline. Shot with a 400ml lens, which really gives a bold look at the frame.

Sunrise on this day was at 6:45 so my first shot was at pre sunrise at 5:45 and I continued to shoot until the sun was completely up and that was around 7:15.

It definitly showed some cool stages as the light changed throughout the session. I’m keen to take on the project again from some different angles around the City and in hindsight I wish I started a little earlier when the City was in complete darkness. But with a even earlier wake up that might never happen haha. So time will tell.

Til next time

Chris

Bulgo Beach Track in the Royal National Park

The Bulgo beach track is a awesome and a relatively easy hike in the National Park. Off Lady Wakehurst Drive just south of the Royal National Park in NSW. It’s about a 2 hour return trip from the road and much easier than the Burning Palms and Figure 8 pool track that is just to the north of Bulgo which can take up to 4 hours.

The entrance to the track can be tricky to find, but its just to the left of the Otford bakery on the other side of the road.

It’s a bit on a windey track but as you emerge through the trees to the open beach side it’s definitely an amazing view of the ocean and the old beach shacks the are on the coastline of Bulgo Beach. There’s plenty to explore with a mixture of clifftop views of the ocean on the high side and on ground level with the beach and the shacks. It’s definitely worth the trek and it’s one of the more interesting tracks in the Royal National Park.

Til next time!

Chris

Sunset over New York

It was summer 2012 and a heat wave ripped through New York. I was only there for a few days and had a few must shoot locations on the list.
One of them was the famous Empire State Building, made even more famous at the time due to the Jay Z song Empire State of Mind. So there was a little extra incentive to get it.
The trick is to not take the tour up the Empire State Building because it’s pretty hard to photograph a building that you’re standing on. But to go up the adjacent Rockefeller Building, which gives you a perfect shot.
So I hit the Rockefeller building in the afternoon, you pay a fee and you can get to the viewing platform on the roof. A great idea for tourists like myself with a camera.

I wanted to shoot the afternoon light into the nighttime so I was prepared for a few hours up there.
It got quite packed as you’d imagine and the heat and humidity was just awful. Made worse by the shoulder to shoulder that was going on. But I managed to grab a great view of the skyline and despite the uncomfortableness held my ground during the duration of the natures own light show.
It was was of the best experiences of my life to be there during sunset into twilight, and the series of pictures here will hold a special place in my heart for the rest of my life.
If there’s a place of something out there you really want to photograph I can’t recommend it enough to just go for it. The satisfaction on the day and many years later is just amazing.

Til next time!

Chris