Earlier this month my girlfriend, Allanah, and I were fortunate enough to spend a little over a week visiting various locations around South-East Queensland. For the first 4 days we were based on the Gold Coast staying in the amazing Q1 Resort and Spa, and for the remainder of the trip a good photographer friend of mine, Simon Beedle, was kind enough to let us crash on his sofa in his apartment at Dicky Beach on the Sunshine Coast.

We kept busy during our quick trip to the East Coast and managed to visit a heap of locations around the Gold Coast and the Sunshine Coast. One of the first evenings of the trip we shot down to Byron Bay and managed to capture some nice light from The Pass at sunset which you can see in the photo below.

I will be posting more regularly here from now on, hopefully including some tutorials, hints and tips style blogs, and also sharing more of my new photographs with you all.

2011 has been a busy year for me with many photography trips around the country, and print sales increasing and surpassing previous years.

I visited the South West region of Western Australia several times early in the year which rewarded me with some of my favourite photographs, including “Meelup Sunrise“, “Enchanted Skies“, and “Sugarloaf Rock“.

By far the biggest trip of the year began in July and came to an end in November. Over these few months I circumnavigated the country via road visiting, and photographing, many of Australia’s iconic landscapes.

Karijini National Park turned out to be my favourite location of the year. What an incredible place it is! I spent a week camping in the National Park with photographer friends, roaming through the gorges, cooling off in the many streams and pools found throughout the area, navigating precariously through mass amounts of spinifex, and of course photographing (a lot).

Pictured above is an example of the kind of landscape you should expect in Karijini; red rock, lush greenery, and very deep cracks in the earth. The photo pictured was taken at Oxer Lookout, a truly breathtaking lookout, which is atop the junction of 4 of Karijini’s main gorges.

Photo Details: Canon 5D Mk II + 17-40mm F4 L USM @ 35mm, 1 Second, f/14, ISO125

A few nights ago I witnessed one of the best sunsets I’ve seen for a long time.

Simon Beedle and I noticed some nice cloud in the sky a bit earlier in the afternoon so we headed towards Cottesloe Beach – taking an extremely long scenic route along the coast. We arrived at Cottesloe shortly before sunset. Initially we were unsure whether or not the sky was going to light up. There was some fairly thick cloud cover where the sky met the ocean. But, as the sun got closer to the horizon, the lower cloud burnt off and the sky turned a fiery red colour. Smoke from a nearby fire also caught the suns last light and helped us out a bit.

The light was gone as quick as it appeared, so I only got to fire off a couple of shots. It was extremely cold and windy so I tried to keep the exposure as short as possible, while still capturing a bit of motion in the water. I also had to underexpose the scene a bit to make sure I didn’t blow out the red channel.

Photo Details: Canon 5D Mk II + 17-40mm F4 L USM @ 40mm, 2.5 Seconds, f/18, ISO50

A couple of nights ago Simon Beedle and I took a drive around the Swan River and ended up at Matilda Bay to shoot the sunset. We had been watching these amazingly large, puffy white clouds all day, and new that we had to be in the right spot to photograph them.

We were not the only photographers with the idea that Matilda Bay was the right spot, as there were a few of us around with our tripods and large cameras. One of the other photographers turned out to be Mark Stothard, someone whose blog I have been reading for a while, so it was nice to meet him.

It was a tough composition, trying to capture the clouds in frame, while still having some kind of foreground interest…

As always, I’d love to hear your comments!

The jetty at Deepwater Point in Applecross is a subject I have been trying to get a good photograph of for some time. After many attempts, I quite like the way this one has turned out. A 3 minute exposure has smoothed out the water and sky, leaving only the jetty and the iconic Perth skyline in the distance to stand out.

“Colours of Cottesloe” (click on the image to view it larger)

Attention!

Tony Middleton, a fellow landscape photographer of mine, has had his home broken into and all of his photography gear stolen, including several thousand dollars worth of camera equipment, and hard drives with over 10 YEARS WORTH of photographs, amongst a few other things. Unfortunately, Tony is not insured.

Ben from Team Digital has agreed to offer a good price to Tony on the gear he has lost. Mark Stothard has opened an account for donations. Email him at mark@northstarcruises.com.au to make a donation.

I really feel for Tony, as I would be absolutely distraught if the same happened to me.

I am offering a hand signed and numbered 40” print of my latest limited edition release, “Colours of Cottesloe”, up for auction. 100% of the profit will go direct to Tony to help him get back on his feet and shooting again, hopefully sooner rather than later.

Bidding will start at $100. Please email me, or reply below with your bid. The highest bidder by the end of next week (Sunday 28th) will receive the print.

This will be a neat way for you to help out an amazing photographer, and add some colour to your home or workplace. Alternatively, you could purchase it as a gift for somebody as Christmas is only around the corner.

Good Karma will come your way!

Highest bid is currently at $150
and a donation of $15 has been made

Canon 5D Mk II + 17-40mm F4 L USM @ 30mm, 120 Seconds, f/18, ISO50

A couple of nights ago I was showing Simon around to a few of the popular local Perth photo locations along the Swan River. We decided to stop by the Matilda Bay Boatshed to take a few photographs at sunset. The clouds in the sky had been quite promising all day and we knew that light was going to be pretty good.

Simon set up his Fotoman 617 and shot a few frames, and when he had done, I took a couple of longer exposures to capture the last light of the day.

Canon 5D Mk II + 17-40mm F4 L USM @ 30mm, 0.6 Second, f/16, ISO50

In 1935, the SS Maheno drifted ashore on the coast of Fraser Island during a strong cyclone while being towed from Melbourne to Japan to be pulled apart for scrap metal. 75 years later it is one impressive piece of scrap metal, and also one of the main tourist attractions along the east coast of Fraser Island along 75 Mile Beach.

The light on this particular morning was brilliant, illuminating the left side of rusting ship perfectly, without being too harsh. Nobody else was around. The tide was out just enough to expose a lot of the ship, but also in enough to create the leading line I had in mind. There were low clouds and high whispy clouds both catching the soft warm light. This was one of those times when you’re out shooting photographs and you just know that you’re going to come home with something satisfying. The conditions couldn’t have been much better.

As always, I enjoy reading your feedback, so please leave a comment below.