Dawn - Lighthouse Point
Took this on my Australia Day 2009 weekend sea kayak trip around the Prom on our first morning. This was one of those cloudless and very intense summer mornings when the sun just catapulted up above that horizon becoming too intense and bright for good images almost instantly. This particular spot is away from any designated walking routes so is no doubt experienced only very rarely.
I got up before dawn and before any of my buddies were even thinking of saying hello to the new day. So I got this beautiful sight all to myself and additionally didn’t have the worry of unthinking friends stomping their footprints straight through the middle of my compositions like happened the previous day. It’s funny I just walk around beaches very carefully these days totally aware of the impact my footfalls will have on any composition but of course this is not normal with others oblivious to such aesthetic considerations. The great looking lichens on the foreground rock were certainly a big bonus.
Took a few of this one and the only way I could get any colour in the sky was to piggy back a 2 and 3 stop neutral density graduated filter (i.e. 5 stops) and then I had to make sure I placed them perfectly so I didn’t darken the headland (close but not perfect, good filter use is invisible and I haven’t quite succeeded in that here, I think I prefer winter sunrises). Fortunately my test shots were done pre-sunrise so I was all set up when the moment came. Amazing how much jiggery pokery it takes to get something to look the same as you see it.
One of my companions had hiked the north end of the Prom years before, walking almost 60km in stifling heat on inland viewless tracks in two days with very heavy packs, there destination Lighthouse Point. When they got there he was bitterly disappointed to see a small light on a stick atop a short metal framed tower and not the impressive round stone building they had envisaged. I think Russ enjoyed this trip much better certainly gave us a good laugh to reminisce about his younger gung-ho hiking days.
Camera: Canon EOS 5D mkII
Lens: EF24-70 f/2.8L USM @ 30mm
Filter: Cokin P121M 2 stop ND Grad and P121S 3 stop ND grad
ISO: 100
Shutter Speed: 0.8 sec
Aperture: f/16
WB: Auto
Exposure Compensation: minus 1/3rd stop
Post Capture: Levels, hue saturation, dodging & sharpening in PS4
For more shots from this area check out my Wilsons Promontory gallery.
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Dawn - Lighthouse Point belongs to the following groups:
5D Mark II, Canon DSLR (One Image Per Day & A Canon Camera Must Be In The Description Before It's Accepted), Dawn and Dusk Light, Landscape Photography, SEA and Wilsons Promontory Available for sale asGreeting Cards, Matted Prints, Laminated Prints, Mounted Prints, Canvas Prints, Framed Prints and Posters
kathy s gillen...
beautiful image
dinghysailor1
wonderful depth from the stunning lichen throught the white sand to the great sunrise!! great job!
Alison Scotland
So peaceful looking, love all the textures and coloures on the rock in the foreground.
Andrew Widdowson
Stunning shot Travis. Love the lichen on the rock.
The sand looks nice and soft too :-)
John Shortt-Smith
Lovely photo Travis, echoed circles traced through into the closing light…
ElRobbo
Gorgeous view you lucky fellow!
Curtiss Simpson
Very pretty and such a soft lovely pastel sky !
Neil Boucher
Just stunning Trav, beautiful!
Garth Smith
Magnificent Travis. The exposure is perfect. I think you hit the nail on the head when you said “Amazing how much jiggery pokery it takes to get something to look the same as you see it.
”.
A lot of people just don’t realise that.
Travis Easton replied
Na you’ve got it all wrong Garth I would of thought that you’d have that one sussed by now. I think the comment goes like this “Man you must have a good camera!”. haha thanks mate.
Robert Mullner
Superb Travis…in every way…love that forground detail and exposure to die for…So very nice..
Travis Easton replied
wow thanks for the fav man, appreciated.
solo75
Wow….what a shot….nice foreground and lighting. I’m an early riser myself so I can appreciate what you were saying especially about footprints caused by others.
Travis Easton replied
I’m usually hopeless in the mornings but either end of the day is photography time so I’ve learnt to adapt, thanks bud.
Lenka
Beautiful sunrise in the background, lovely detail in the foreground, great rocks in between… oh yes, of course I like it a lot :) Most of all, I like the greyish-green lichens in foreground, they break the otherwise warm tones usual in sunrise shots in a beautiful way :)
Travis Easton replied
wow thanks mate, certainly was a nice morning in a magical place, and yup when I climbed up this rock to find this cool lichen I was pretty happy.
Annette Blattman
great foreground interest to add to a lovely sunrise
Donna Chapman
excellent, i know exactly what you mean about unthinking friends footprints!!
Travis Easton replied
It’s just so frustrating, but you can’t get frustrated because they just don’t realize. I’ll train them all up eventually (OK that’s wishful thinking, but I’ll try ;-) , thanks mate
LindaR
this is so beautiful Travis ~ the lichen add so much interest & appear almost as if like large fat raindrops (lichen drops ;) and the sunrise softly coloring the sky ~ just so well comped and captured…I too love the times when the sandy beach is untouched and trackless allows a feeling the world anew ~ you show this every time ~ so very well xx
Mike Stone
Very creative composition. Love the depth—gives so much to look at. Incredible that so many different “subjects” are so perfectly exposed. Beautiful photo.
Rosalie Dale IPA
Travis there is so much to look at in this tranquil shot – beautiful
Richard VanWart
Wonderful ancient rock forms—great image, mate!
Peter Hill
I’m intrigued by the use of 2 Grad NDs. I can understand wanting a combined ND factor, but I see the second Filter is a different one – P121S v P121M – or are they graduated versions of the same? Whatever, the neutralisation certainly worked! Another astounding composition Travis, I’m nowhere near this with my 24-70.
Travis Easton replied
Hi Peter, Cokin label there ND grads P121L, P121M & P121S which I presume stands for Light, Medium and Strong equating to 1, 2 & 3 stops. Of course I only have one of each so… thanks bud
STEPHEN GEORGIOU
Great spot Travis, sometimes people don’t appreciate the effort you go to.
I certainly do!
Lovely lichens on the foreground rock.
Jared Revell
beautiful Travis !
I know what you mean about the summer sun lately, there hasn’t been any clouds in the sky and it makes it so hard to shoot, but you’ve done wonders here.
I love your composition by the way.
Travis Easton replied
I recently read a comment by Joe Cornish (Scottish Photographer) that he didn’t like sunrises any further South than 35 degrees (I think). Certainly an easier job in winter when its shallower path through the sky extends the golden moments a bit longer. Would love to experience the hours long sunrise sunset light at the poles.
linifer
this is amazing image. wonderful work!
PigleT
Lovely – like the tones a mile off :)
Jonicool
Beautiful work!
Jen Millard
Stunning…just stunning.
John Pitman
Magic detail throughout the whole scene. Well composed Travis.
Geoff Coleman...
Really excellent exposure control Travis – the combination of the clarity of the lichens on that rock and their colour against the dawn is really striking. Beautifully composed too.
Golduser
Well worth the early rise! Love your work as usual
Globalphotos
Beautiful comp Trav, this is lovely :-))
Luka Skracic
Amazing detail and natural texture here Travis. The exposure is perfect and really brings the interesting foreground to life.
Jason Chetwynd...
wow – just amazing. congratulations Travis
Donovan wilson
love this shot Travis the rock and the lichens ..
bevanimage
A lovely soft sunrise, Travis, and gorgeous tones and textures in the rocks. It looks so peaceful. I took the liberty of reading your quote from Joe Cornish, about not liking sunsets further than 35 degrees south. Assuming that the two hemispheres are symmetrical relative to the sun, he should have the same objection to the distance north. Strange, coming from a Scottish photographer – Scotland’s latitude is in the 50s!
Travis Easton replied
Hi Bevan, Thanks for kicking me into action to quote properly rather than from memory, I was close. This quote comes from the book ‘Working the Light – A Landscape Photography Masterclass’ (really excellent book accept for the distracting amount of spelling and grammatical errors, edited was a moron which for an English publication is even more annoying, got even worsa Engwish then me).
“Develop a positive latitude
Anywhere nearer the equator than 35 degrees North or South is impossible. The sun rises and sets too quickly. Therefore the light can’t be that photogenic, or if it is, I don’t want to know! High latitudes nearer the poles have both clearer air and a shallow solar path (so the sun rises and sets slowly) beloved by landscape photographers, especially by slow-moving, large format ones. Too bad the weather if often rather dodgy.”
bevanimage
Thanks for making that clear, Travis; it makes much more sense. Lower (in numerical terms) latitudes closer to the equator don’t make for such interesting sunrises/sunsets. The book must have been “edited” by one of my (university) students!
Sue Nueckel
YUP….This is certainly ADORABLE!!!!
Deirdre Brockl...
The combination of textures and colours is exraordinary. The lichen carried my eye right up through the rocks to the beautiful sky.
Pamela Inverarity
Really stunning, fantastic composition, worth all the effort. I’ve just about trained my 4-year-old to not put footprints in my composition, so you might have success with your friends :)