Behind the picture #1 Cronulla Reflections

My first of the Behind the picture series and I hope to add many more over the years. So here we go.

It can normally be quite hard to get a perfect reflection photograph when shooting in the ocean.


The beaches in Cronulla are a surf beach which means it has a pretty steady stream of waves coming in. So with the waves it pretty much cancels out and good reflection photo as you need the water as still as you’d see in a lake or a rock pool. So you need some lucky to get a nice break in the waves and also having a cool sunset or sunrise at that same time.


But on the 16th of January 2013, I caught a lucky break and in a few moments the water turned to glass. So I hopped in the ankle deep water of Wanda beach and carefully crouched down mindful to not disturb the waters, and aimed towards the southern end of Cronulla and the beautiful red sunset.


Shot on my Canon 1D at f/22 and 1/6 sec 100 ISO.
By closing down my aperture to f/22 it allowed for a slow shutter speed, which tends to add to reflection as opposed to a faster shutter speed that would freeze the water.
Sometimes you get lucky and on the 16th we did just that.

The famous Wanda Sandhills and Arthur Ave

The famous Wanda Sandhills in Southern Sydney. Just a little north of Cronulla beach, Sydney, NSW

In the the NRL off season you’ll find many a player running up these hills. Athletes both professional and amateur look to destroy their legs and lungs by running up these mountains throughout there year. But it is also a photographers paradise with many a beautiful backdrop, as long as you can handle the climb, it can make way for a photo shoot like no other in Sydney.

2013 was the year and I had the privilege to photograph the super talented Natasha Dwyer’s label Arthur Ave alongside the stunning Katherine Soames with hair and makeup by the lovely Amy Cain.

A pre sunrise start was needed to use the sandhills to their full effect as the light moves pretty quick out there. In the space of 60 minutes you can go from glorious yellow and reds of sunrise to the hard blue skies and bright reflective sand.

I used a mixture of flash and no flash as the light changed throughout the shoot, and alternating between the two we were able to achieve some different looking pictures in a relatively short amount of time.

It takes a lot of things to go right on a shoot like this and we were lucky that everything came together just perfect and it still remains one of my favourite ever shoots. I thank everyone who came together to make a cool piece of history for us all.

Til next time

Chris

Grand Canyon USA and a lucky ride

Back in 2012 I was in Las Vegas and had some time to kill.


After spotting a street vendor on the famous strip selling a night time tour of the Grand Canyon I was debating whether it was real or not. Trusting my hard earned cash on a guy on the strip felt like a bit of a gamble but I was in Vegas and on holidays so we let it roll.

A limousine arrived to pick me up from the hotel, which wasn’t the biggest surprise. I’m was more shocked that it was happening and seemingly not getting hustled by the man on the street. All seemed to be legit and with a limo full of sightseers and some wine we headed to the chopper.

I’ll be forever grateful to the kind family who let me sit up front so I could shoot on the way out to the Grand Canyon and we were due to land at the Canyon and stop for dinner and a break.
Once we landed for dinner, I took off and started shooting as much as I could as everyone sat down.
Anyone who travels with me knows I’ll take off at any chance and go take some pictures. Annoying I’m sure, but the pilot must have thought I was doing a runner and wasn’t too happy at my wanderings. It’s not the first time a photographer has been yelled at and it’s apart of the occupation. But I shot some cool pictures so as always it’s worth it!

The deal was tho that I’d sit in the back on the return trip, fair deal I thought. But with some luck on my behalf and some bad luck for them as they happened to all suffer from air sickness on the way out, and were more than happy to sit in the back on the return leg too.

With the best pictures coming on the way back into Vegas as the sun set over the Canyon and the lights of Vegas. Their unfortunate sickness was a blessing to myself and I was lucky to shoot some super cool pictures as the magic of the sky made for some awesome sights and some memories I’ll never forget.

Flying back through the famous Las Vegas strip on sunset was worth the price of the ticket alone. Such a cool experience and can’t recommend it enough, camera or not.

Til next time!

Chris