Saturday 30 July 2011

Sea Bow

Took this shot this afternoon south of Kiama. I saw this rainbow in the car on the way to the beach. (I always seem to be in the car when a rainbow appears) It stayed for a little while then disappeared of course as soon as I pulled up. Luckily it gave me a second chance about 20 minutes later :)



Thursday 21 July 2011

Tsunami Sunrise

This is an older shot taken with the D80 near Cathedral Rocks, Kiama, Australia.
On this particular morning I left home earlier than usual so when I got to this location it was still pitch black. Shortly after arriving I received a call from my wife "Come home there is a tsunami warning for New Zealand and the east coast of Australia!"

I very briefly checked the conditions around me (don't ask me how you look for a tsunami in the dark, but I'm irish, so yes I did attempt to squint through the blackness searching for a giant wave on the horizon)
"Nah it seems fine here, I'll risk it and stay"
she replied with "You idiot!" and hung up assuring me she'd ring back.

Then the paranoia kicked in. You can see in this picture there is a long dark cloud band on the horizon. In total darkness that cloud was the only thing I could see and I convinced myself that it was a tidal wave slowly moving towards the coast ( I swear it was getting closer!) adding in the sound of the waves breaking on the rocks all around me, it would be safe to say I was pretty freaked out!
Why did I stay and not hightail it? The chance of getting a shot of a Tsunami, that's why! (My wife is right, I am an idiot)
As the sun got out of bed and crept over the horizon my fears faded and I concentrated on taking home some visual memories from that morning, the morning the Tsunami never came..



Saturday 9 July 2011

Winter blues

Due to the terrible winter we're having here, I haven't set foot on a beach for at least 2 months, for me that is almost an alien reality. Obviously the chilly mornings are enough to keep any photographer warm and safe in their own beds in the wee hours of the morning ,but if it's not howling winds and complete blue skies, it's howling winds and complete grey skies!
I'm itching to get back onto the sand but at the moment I'm very unmotivated and lacking any form of inspiration. The good news is, Spring isn't too far off and even with a 2 legged tripod you can be sure I'll be out with bells on :)

The upside I guess is I still have a large backlog of photos to share during the miserable months of winter. This photo was taken 1-2 years ago at Kiama one afternoon before a storm. The sky exploded very quickly with some deep red and orange only lasting a very short time. The red hot cloud grabbed my attention as it cast an eerie soft glow over the scene. In less than a minute it was over.