Photographing the Groyne at Balnarring Beach

A Groyne is "a low wall or sturdy timber barrier built out into the sea from a beach to check erosion and drifting."

I'd seen photographs of this one on the internet. So it's quite popular. I scouted it once before and found the tide too far out. With more clouds than sky and high tide falling in the middle of today I made the one hour drive to this fairly secluded beach.

Photographing a structure like this is much more difficult than it looks. Thank goodness we have digital cameras these days so each click is free. I took >150 today and I only really like a few. Finding the right focal length, position (from left to right) and height is tricky. The water seemed to be full of little scraps of seaweed leading to a messy shore line every time the water receded. That makes some of my favourite 'minimalist' shots messy. So I cropped the messy bits out of my favourite shots and then wished I'd known to zoom in more... not as many megapixels in the final image as I could have had... oh well... just have to get used to going back because perfection is elusive. 

Fifteen seconds gets one a clean minimalist take. Tide was on its way in at about 2.5m

No clever post-processing here. The sun literally poked its face through a small gap in the clouds and shone at my feet and I grabbed the shot before the rest of the sea filled with light. Amazing moment.

Water lapping and pounding the Groyne. I liked the patterns. But you can see on the bottom left scraps of weed literally washed up with each incoming wave. The top of the shoreline is ankle deep in seaweed. Weird!

Swirls. Actually it is surprising these structures endure the ocean for any time at all!

A larger square-crop of my favourite 20s exposure.

Returning to London Bridge

They say you should go back. And practice makes perfect. I don't know about perfection. But I'd like to think I get better... and it's fun. Once again I was alone on this beach. That's a surreal feeling. It's such an extraordinary place. And a mesmerising place to be alone. Tonight my favourite shots were taken a few minutes before and a few minutes after sunset. It's officially Autumn. The leaves are beginning to fall in my street. But it was warm enough on the beach. Even the water lapping around my feet was... lovely. Anyone want to dust off a camera and join me next time?

Five minutes after sunset. So calm. 16mm 6s F8 ISO64 & a 6-Stop ND64 Filter

Sunset at 19:57 21mm 0.5s F16 ISO 64

The light! 19:48 22mm 1/15th F11 ISO64

The sea is a savage! 19:36 21mm 0.5s F18 ISO64

SUNSET AT MORDIALLOC

We've been blessed with a few beautiful sunsets recently. So at the last minute I decided to have a go at getting one in a new location. Not necessarily a good idea. 

It takes 27 minutes to drive from my house to Mordialloc Pier. That's what Apple Maps said. But then I needed to track further along the bay to locate an ideal vantage point to capture the sun setting behind the Pier. Once I'd found said spot I had about 2 minutes to whip the camera from the bag and land it on the tripod. The first shot was my favourite because of how the water/waves 'fell'. But it's hard to choose. Anyone who's tried photographing water knows every shot is different and unique and you may need to take quite a few to get one that feels just right. Ideal shutter speeds range from, maybe, 1/5 to 2/3 of a second. So here are 3 shots taken within seconds of each other around 20:41pm just as the sun reached the horizon. And one or two taken a little later.

Sunset behind Mordialloc Pier 28mm F16 1/5s ISO64

Seagull makes a cross (top left), Sunset behind Mordialloc Pier 35mm F16 1/8s ISO64

Sunset behind Mordialloc Pier, 35mm F16 1/6s ISO64

Sunset behind Mordialloc Pier, 24mm F16 0.4s ISO64

Gulls swimming at Mordialloc Pier, 24mm F16 1/6s ISO64

Dreams begin, Mordialloc Pier, 24mm F16 1.6s ISO64 GND3Stops

Darkness falls, Mordialloc, 17mm F9 2.5s ISO64

Brighton Beach - 18 November 2017

So I went back to Brighton Beach this evening because we'd enjoyed a repeat of the previous afternoon's thunderstorm. Except today's was borderline epic. And I had a hunch the evening sky would be too. So I returned to the beach, arriving about half an hour before sundown.

I was rewarded with a marvellous sky that kept transforming from tone to tone as the sun worked its way first out and then back behind various clouds before eventually setting beneath the horizon shortly after 8pm. But the magic continued. They always say you shouldn't give up on a sunset too soon. Just like you shouldn't be late for the sky.

"Schoolies" week officially began yesterday (Friday 17th) with the year 12 exams all finishing by now. It seems I'd chosen the best vantage point (just in front of a fence behind the bathing boxes) to enjoy the sunset and the colourful bathing boxes because a small group of youngsters gathered behind me. I hadn't even noticed them until one said "excuse me, would you like an ice cream .. we've got one or two too many!". I politely refused. Would feel like taking candy from... oh, well. Still their simple generosity surprised me and they were genuinely interested in seeing some of the pics of the sunset because they'd arrived (no doubt train) too late. One even asked what the square (graduated) filter was for and quickly understood when I told him it's to help balance the sky vs the darker land below. Wow, there's hope for the future after all!

Anyway, back to the pics. I was blessed to get some of the best beach pics I could have hoped for. I've put two in the "Beach" gallery. And i'll put an abstract and one of silhouetted photo-taking strangers enjoying the atmosphere without realising what great silhouetted subjects they were for my point-and-shoot.

Everyone enjoys an epic ending.

Brighton Beach - 17 November 2017

It stormed this afternoon and hailstones pelted down. After the rain the sun came out. And I decided to take a chance on an evening sky. I made my way to Brighton beach thinking of photographing the famous boxes set against a sunset sky.

It's hard to go wrong photographing Brighton beach. There are so many multicoloured boxes. Always people about having fun. Drones in the sky. Pro-photographers photographing clients. Ok, it gets a little busy, but it's still hard to come away without at least a couple of shots.

Here are one or a few from this evening.