If you enjoy photographing cool things in Sydney or just like a good hike, it’s hard to ignore Eagle Rock in the Royal National Park, Sydney,NSW. From the car park at Wattamolla Beach it’s around a 3 km easy walk and about a 2 hour return trip back to the car. It’s mainly flat with a bit of a incline and it’s apart of the Royal Coastal Walk so the scenery is awesome.
There are plenty of views to shoot along the way but they play second fiddle to the highly picturesque Eagle Rock. It’s not hard to see why it has its name as it’s a near perfect replica of a Eagles face.
There are a few great angles to get of it all, and best to play it safe as there is no fence around the cliff face. My favorite spot is here where you can see both the face and the Curracurrong waterfall. And if you’re there in the early part of the day you’ll get some nice light hitting the scene just beautifully.
You could shoot it any way you like but as always I prefer to use my 16-35 mm lens to really capture to wide landscape.
It’s one of my favorites in Sydney and well worth the photo trek.
It’s not every day you get to shoot someone who has 5 million Instagram followers and a possible future No.1 NBA draft pick. But that’s what happened when LaMelo Ball came to Sydney to take on the Kings with his Illawarra Hawks in the NBL. A NBL record crowd of 17,514 came out to support basketball and I’d say a fair % of them were there to see the younger brother of NBA player Lonzo, who now plays for New Orleans after leaving the Lakers and Lebron James in the offseason. With 16 points and 6 assist LaMelo and Hawks came pretty close to beating the top of the table Kings. But Sydney was too strong in the end and no amount of Ball fanfare could have stole the win today.
It’s great to see basketball booming again in Sydney and with big name players such as Andrew Bogut and Melo Ball in the mix only great things to come for the sport in Sydney and Australia.
Shot with my Canon 1D and the usual 16-35 mm lens and 70-200mm lens for the close ups.
A big day in Sydney and more to come by the looks of it.
It’s been four years this weekend since the MMA world was rocked. It’s star athlete and the reason why women have been apart of the UFC in the first place, Ronda “Rowdy”Rousey was brutally dethroned by the Preachers Daughter Holly Holm.
It was a world record UFC crowd at the time, only recently beaten by the latest Rob Whitaker fight. Some 55,000 spectators packed out the then Edihad stadium now Marvel stadium. In a bid the change an AFL oval into a UFC masterpiece, they turned to the biggest star of the time in Rousey to headline the main event. And bring the crowd she did, and the noise. A bucketload of noise in fact. There is something just both eerie and powerful of a Ronda Rousey walkout, she emits a insane degree of confidence and intensity on the walk. After watching most of her fights on TV I knew it was well worth a picture and with some lucky timing and a good angle I was hoping for something like this. Sometimes you have an idea in your head before an event and it was my mission to replicate it on game day. I think this shot sums up her intensity and it’s pretty satisfying when a plan comes together on the day!
The excitement was crazy high as it all kicked off, would the undefeated champion continue her impressive run or would the challenger Holm use her superior striking to take down the UFC’s biggest star.
Shooting a cage fight is just about the hardest thing I’ve ever had to shoot. The nature of the cage really limits your angles and depending on where the fight goes you either have the worlds best angle or you can’t see a thing and turn into a spectacular(with the worlds best seat).
The fight didn’t exactly go to plan as Rousey struggled to take Holm down in the opening round, and was quite easily picked apart by the sharper and fast moving challenger. I had some good pictures of the fight so far but nothing spectacular. But what was to come next was a moment the will stand the test of time.
At the start of round 2 it was all pretty much the same as the first. Rousey unable to do any damage on the feet and Holly Holm simply too good in the striking department. With a left high kick to the Champions head it was the shot heard round the world. Bang! Rousey was down and as Mike Goldberg says, “it is all over”!!!
A new champion emerges and lucky for me I had a pretty good angle of it all and was able to get a series of pictures including the shot that ended Rousey reign. The feeling of getting the “shot” is hard to describe. A combination of relief as you know you didn’t stuff up and miss it and of victory as you know you got it! It’s definitely a amazing feeling when you do nail it, but it’s equally depressing when you have missed it. The beautiful mix of highs and lows of this amazing craft, is what I love and endeavor to try my best every day. The fight is over and history will show that Rousey lost and Holly Holm won. But they stats won’t show the effect that Rousey had on millions of people around the world and the inspiration to girls all over. A icon who crossed over to the mainstream, no easy feat and a once in a lifetime athlete. It’s a privilege to do what we do and to capture these images is a dream and a responsibility. An old photographer friend of mine used to say, “have fun, enjoy yourself! Just don’t f…. it up! Wise words.
Chasing Light by Chris Lane 