Chasing Light by Chris Lane

The spectacular Burning Palms Beach.

Burning palms is one of the best beaches in Sydney. You might just don’t know about it yet.
Tucked away in the royal national park it’s pretty hard to get to, but mostly secluded due to the effort to get there.
It’s right next to the more famous firgue 8 pool and I’d say because of that it is overshadowed in fame but it shouldn’t be as it’s a awesome place to hike to and plenty of great locations to take some cool pictures of.
The nature of the landscape because of the high cliffs allows you to get various high points both north and South and with the beautiful sand it makes for a great scene.

Getting there
There are a couple of ways to get there.
The fastest one is to get onto Sir Bertram Stevens Drive in the Royal National Park and then immediately turn onto Garawarra Farm Road and park in the the carpark. From the car park it’s around a 20 minute easy walk to the beach.

If you’re looking for more of a challenging hike, head to the Otford Lookout (overlooking the coast) which is a short walk north from Orford train station.

Then follow the signs to the track in the Royal National Park and its about 2 hour hike in to the beach.

Once you’re on that track you’ll hit a fork in the road, take the one going right to the challenging but spectacular hike the Jungle Loop track.

Going down is pretty easy as it’s downhill with a few stairs along the way. But coming up can be brutal so be prepared and wear appropriate shoes and clothing.

On my latest trip I came across a lady in jeans and heals. I’m sure it took her 4 hours to get back to Orford like that. So best to be prepared for the actual terrain not not plans after.

Once you get to Burning Palms Beach if you’re up for it you can get to the Figure 8 pools. It’s just another 20 min walk South along the rocks. Again it can be a be dangerous if you’re fitness is not the best. So follow the advice on the Royal National Park website as a safe bet.

But it’s a awesome beach and a great hike to get there, and with so many great spots to photograph. So have fun and get out there!

Til next time

Chris

Mastering Silhouettes

There something pretty cool about a silhouette photo. When done well it can look awesome and leave you feeling like a hero.
But done poorly it can look off and leave you feeling your photography has gone backwards.

It’s kind of like a painting that’s hanging on the wall but it tilts too far to the left. If you have a little OCD in you like me it can leave you with a sore head.

So here are a few tips to get the best silhouette possible.

1) The first thing you really to focus on is getting your exposure right. You want to make sure you are exposing for the brightest part of the picture.

Generally it would be something in the background such as the sun or the brightness part of a blue sky.
Otherwise if you expose for the darker areas, the background could be too bright and your cool silhouette can turn into a bright mess.

2) Framing is key as far as you want your cool silhouette unobstructed by something else in the background.
So you may have to lay on the ground or move a little to the left or right to get some great separation of the shapes.

If not, it can give you the unstraightened painting kind of sore head we spoke about. So keep your shapes separated. A good and bad example just here.

3) Lastly you want to have fun and experiment with things you enjoy to photograph. When you nail a good silhouette picture and it’s something you enjoy, the hero feeling that you’ll get can become addictive.

I’ve always been a big basketball fan, so I really enjoyed shooting this basketball ring right on sunrise over Cronulla beach. If I wasn’t into basketball I’d probably keep walking straight past it. So it definitely helps if it’s a subject you enjoy.

Photography is the best hobby in the world so I hope these tips help you to enjoy it a little more too!

Til next time

Chris

https://chasinglight.photo.blog/2019/11/30/newtown-and-the-great-escape-grand-final-2019/https://chasinglight.photo.blog/2019/11/17/lamelo-ball-v-andrew-bogut-hawks-v-kings/

Sydney, Melbourne and the Great Andrew Gaze

It was game 2 of a 3 game semi final series. The Sydney Kings needed to win to keep their season alive against the old foe Melbourne United.

A loss would not only end the quest for championship glory, but it would also be the last game as coach for the great Andrew Gaze, who as a player was a five time Olympian and two time Championship winner with the Melbourne Tigers.

It was somewhat fitting that Melbourne would take the win and finish off the the Kings and one of Melbourne’s greatest sons in Gaze and thus ending his time as coach with a 76-90 final score.

I always knew when I started taking photos as a 14 year old in suburban Sydney that one day I’d end up shooting the Kings games.

Before it was love at first sight with photography my first love was basketball.
My older brother started playing first and it wasn’t long after that I started too.

I would have been around 10 years old at the time and was hooked straight away, and if you were a basketball fan in the 90’s a mix of Michael Jordan in the NBA and Andrew Gaze in the NBL it was just a great time to find to sport of Basketball.

It was only a matter of time before my two loves came together and to be a witness to one of my heroes in Gaze as a coach for The Kings just a privilege.

And to be there during his final game was bittersweet, as I would have loved to have shot him and the Kings win the Championship but that’s how sports go.

It’s not always a fairy tale ending but a piece of history happened and it was a honor to be there, camera in hand and still chasing my own dreams.

My favorite sequence of pictures from the season was at the end of the game when Melbourne’s Chris Goulding and the Sydney coach shared a beautiful embrace. Two basketball and Melbourne legends who knew the significance of the moment. Sport at its best.