Mother Nature's Son

I thought it would be worth sharing a bit about a landscape shoot I did a couple of days ago. I’ve always been a fan of astrophotography but due to COVID restrictions hadn’t been out too much for this season. This time of year is great for astrophotography. The Milky Way rises just after sunset so you don’t have to sit up all night to get the best shots. Even better is that the Milky Way sets to the South meaning that there are opportunities to shoot it in that perfect arc across the sky.

Seeing a favourable weather forecast I booked myself a campsite and headed up to Putty Beach on the Central Coast. Unfortunately, a huge band of cloud rolled through which meant that I wasn’t going to be able to see the milky way rising. The clouds did lend themselves however, to a dramatic sky and a fleeting but glorious sunset.

I took pictures at a few locations around Wagstaffe, Killcare, and Hardy’s Bay.

Boat tied up at Wagstaffe Jetty with dramatic clouds

B&W image of the Jetty at Hardys Bay with dramatic clouds

Hardys Bay jetty taken from the mudflat with tide out

It looked for a moment that there would not be much of a sunset but there was a small gap in the clouds at the horizon and so for a couple of glorious moments the sky was turned several shades of orange.

Glorious Colour Burst at Hardy’s Bay for Sunset.

For the stars an alarm was set for 3.30am, I ventured round to the end of the Putty beach to shoot the milky way to the south. Unfortunately the other main thing south of Killcare is Sydney and so there was some unavoidable light pollution on the horizon. But I think it was worth it.

From Putty Beach The Milky Way sets over Killcare with Sydney lights on the horizon

I was awake now so headed up the Bouddi Coastal Track to get some shots of the sunrise (not much of one I’m afraid due to the clear skies, you cant have it all), the tessellated pavement and I was lucky enough to see a number of whales swimming by.

Sunrise over Maitland Bay on the Bouddi Coastal Track

look closely, theres a couple of humpbacked whales on their journey north

The tessellated pavement at Bouddi Coastal Walk on a winters morning

Easter fun

With Easter and Anzac day being so close together this year there was the opportunity to take an extended break and I was able to get away with friends and family to see some of New South Wales prettiest parts.

For the first part of the trip a group of us ventured to New England National Park. Its a 7 hour drive from Sydney and sits on the Waterfall Way between Armidale and Coffs Harbour. We stayed in a couple of cabins high up in the rainforest at nearly 1500m altitude. A beautiful place but we did spend most of our stay living in the clouds. However that lent itself to some beautiful rainforest scenery and atmosphere.

And outside of our little cloudy cottages the scenery was also stunning and it made the trip so worthwhile. All along Waterfall Way there are national parks and waterfalls and vistas galore, its well worth the visit.

---

For the second part of the trip Truc and I took Alfie for a few nights camping at Chapman Valley near Putty. This vast piece of farmland is home to a horse riding centre and is also used for cattle. The real pleasure here though is that they allow camping on very remote parts of the farm. This means that we were able to camp miles away from anybody else and enjoy nature at its very best. There are many hiking and riding options on the property itself and we were a short drive away from the wineries in Broke and the beautiful Cold River.

From photography point of view we were blessed with clear skies and an opportunity to watch the millions of stars. We also were spoiled with gorgeous countryside and panoramas.

The remote campsite

All Images on this trip were taken on the Fuji XT-2 its a great little mirrrorless DSLR which is great for travelling. Its packed full of features too and extremely versatile in all conditions. As ever all images here are available as limited edition wall prints. Available in a range of sizes and finishes.

Seeing Stars

I was very lucky last night to get a couple of decent shots of the milky way before the rain rolled in. This was taken up at Barrenjoey Lighthouse in Palm Beach on Sydney's northern beaches.

Thanks to Jay Evans and the Night & Astrophotography group for having me.