The nature of my trip to Sydney has meant that while I was able to go out and take night time photographs, possibilities for getting day time photos were more limited. I had four days to myself during my 11 day stay here – the day I arrived (which was spent outdoors, but with the camera back at the hotel), Saturday and Sunday of the weekend (where I did get some photos, but none too close to the centre of Sydney) and today. So I was looking forward to today as being an opportunity to get out and explore Sydney and the Eastern beaches, and the weather didn’t disappoint.
The last couple of days here weren’t the best weather wise (but, I gather, nothing like was being experienced at home) so it was with much relief that I opened the shutters of the hotel room this morning to see blue skies and clear sunshine. My schedule for the day was to head towards Bondi beach, walk the coastal walk that runs from there to Coogee, stopping for lunch along the way, and then head back to the Botanic Gardens and on to Macquarie Point, just outside them, for sunset.
I know – it was a tough day!
In terms of photographs, with the strong sunshine and my timing which saw me get to Bondi at about 1pm, I didn’t really have high hopes, but I must say my camera continues to impress with its ability to handle strong sunlight. If only we got that at home regularly I’d be sorted.
One thing I’ve noticed is that the light here seems different than at home – maybe it’s the better weather, or maybe it’s that Sydney is less far South than Ireland is North, or maybe it’s the time of year – it’s probably a combination of all three in fact – but scenes just seem to photograph better.
The dusk-time photography that I’ve been able to do in the last 10 days has given me the inclination to try more of that when I get home, and I guess now that the clocks have changed it may be more feasible to do so during the week. It will be interesting to see if Dublin’s urban landscape – at the docklands for instance – photographs well at that time of day.
The photo above was the second I took at Bondi today, and illustrates how well the D700 handled the strong mid-afternoon sunlight, with lots of contrast and colour saturation. I haven’t touched the colour in this – the sea really was that blue. It prompted me to later try a tighter crop of the beach, looking a little more down from above. That shot is below. I like both shots as a frozen moment in time of many people on the beach doing their own thing.
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