I had a suitable morning to get up early so decided to head to good ol' Turimetta to catch the sunrise. I always feel getting up for sunrise is a gamble as you never know what the clouds are doing when its dark. This morning a bank of clouds sat just above the horizon, enough for a bit of sky interest. Scouting for locations, and trying to work with the little pre dawn colour I did have I found myself drying my gear (filters, camera, lens) more than I was taking photos. The waves were slapping against the vertical rock shelf that make Turrimetta so photogenic and dousing me in sea water. Retreating and dying my gear I would go back only to get wet again. Lesson learnt, take something more substantial to soak up water and a couple lens cloths for fogging/cleaning. Thankfully I managed to come away with one keeper. Due to the dynamic range of this shot and the wetness of my filters I actually took several different exposures and blended them in Photoshop.

Last night I spent a few hours playing with lighting at Silverpixel, Newtown. Here's a photo of me messing around taken with a Hasselblad H3DII, a 39Mp back, and an 80mm F2.8 lens. I didn't want to give it back but considering it's worth about $20K I felt obliged to. Obviously the detail is outstanding....I may just have to rent one and photograph some landscapes!

Good looking gent

100% unsharpened crop

Thanks to David for the lighting, Fiona of Polly Street for the photo and Jess for the retouching.

I was out teaching time lapse last night at Long Reef and decided to stick around for sunset. It gets very windy out there and last night was no exception. I decided to seek some shelter walking to the Northern side, my camera/tripod was getting blown over making it impossible to take long exposures. As I walked around the headland I saw what I first thought was an upturned boat or a small whale. I approached it from behind so it was really hard to see what it was being round and nondescript. I soon discovered that it was actually a turtle and its fins and back legs had been eaten by sharks. Its not a nice thing to see but as the turtle was so big (about 6ft in length) I can only assume it died of old age. I hope by now it has been returned to the sea by the incoming tide.

Long Reef

The quaint Italian town of Alberobello, famous for its conical roofed white buildings (trulli) found in this region. A popular tourist destination, I spent half a day here on my way through to Bari before catching a boat over to Croatia.

Plitvice Lakes was one location that I was desperate to visit. Of course I wasn't disappointed, I loved every minute of it as I trekked around the several miles of rickety walkways (much to the delight of my partner, Jess). Being there in Autumn made it all the more special, the leaves were on the turn and there were less visitors (so I'm told). Having said that shooting with a tripod on walkways is never easy at the best of times...any photographer that has been to Great Ocean Road will testify to that. You are at the mercy of your patience as crowds of heavy footed tourists traipse by. None the less I got a great selection of imagery from this truly special place.

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Plitvice Lakes National Park

An early morning visit to Long Reef didn't result in the colourful sunrise I had hoped for. Instead the sun didn't even make an apperance. Seeing the large band of cloud sat on the horizon most photographers would have given up favouring more sleep. A reassuring lesson on my part, good photos can be taken in any conditions.

Waves crash and poor over this interesting rock formation, the slow shutter speed gives the image a feel of movement and ferocity.

Photographed on the outer rock shelf, Long Reef as water pores over the step like formation.