Alarm went off at 5am to get ready to meet the bus at 5.30am to head to Gibson's Steps for the dawn shoot. The steps are a bit wider than normal so going down is not as easy as it should be. We had about a 500m walk thru sand on the beach, so I kicked off my boots.
I had packed a shoulder bag with what I need for this morning's shoot, as well as tripod and umbrella, but I did neglect to pack my remote timer (doh), so I was committed to shooting nothing more than 30 seconds for the long exposure shots. I'm so glad I packed the shoulder bag instead of lugging the 10kg backpack along the beach in that soft sand. As it was the arches of my feet are so sore from the sand being so soft and non supportive.
Dawn broke with no light at all, but it was great for long exposure shots. I'll have to come back next day for another go. We have several mornings here so we can crack that PO dawn shot of the light on the rocks and the cliff face.
By 8.15am we packed up, plodded up the beach and made our way up the steps. I had thought I'd be absolutely stuffed and wheezy when I got to the top, but that was not the case at all. The steps up and down were the easy bit. And I'm really pleased that I didn't have the slightest hint of a wheeze. Giving up the ciggies cold turkey a year ago is paying dividends now!!
We met the 2 older ladies that chose not to come for dawn (good choice in hindsight as it really was a no show and they would have really struggled in the sand and steps) back in Pt Campbell and went out for breakfast. I was famished and thought I'd earnt myself a breakfast of champions!
Those of us who were up early were feeling rather weary, so we had a little bit of down time (nap) while Pete took one of the senior ladies out for a one on one session on camera settings and basic instruction. She came back so fired up and felt like she had learnt so much. She was rapt. So were those of us that had a snooze. We were fired up and ready to get on out there.
Our first port of call was to the Grotto. Fascinating little place. Pete, Jaime and I were in stitches of laughter taking shots of us as a group with the iphone. There was a fair bit of rib tickling, belly button digging, grundie incidents. I had the sorest tummy muscles from laughing.
If nothing else this trip has a big time fun factor.
After The Grotto we headed to The Arch. We had two locations to shoot the arch from. The first was quite close but with a bit of foreground to contend with, and the second was further back that need the 300m lens on the 50D to zoom in with. The 50D has the crop factor of 1.6 which in effect makes the 300 into a 480mm zoom lens. And that's the reason why I'm lugging around 2 camera bodies ;-)
While at the second location shooting The Arch, I slapped away some sort of insect without looking to see what it was, and was promptly stung for my reward. One of the girls pulled the sting out of my hand. It did burn for a while, but didn't swell at all.
We had a late lunch a Peterbourgh and went to Wild Dog Cove. While the rest of the group headed left on the beach, I went right. And I was really pleased that I did. A couple of the others that came up later said that this end was much more photographically pleasing.
Back to Pt Campbell for tea at one of the restaurants before heading to the 12 Apostles for sunset. There was potential for a sunset PO, but there was also a cloud bank that could take the light before the sun went down for the night. 4 chose to stay up on the lookout (me included as my feet were so sore and the thought of walking on that beach with those sore feet was just a bit too much) and 4 went down the Gibson's Steps and on that beach again.
The last light of the day lasted about 5 minutes before the cloud took it away, and all around us on the lookout the shutter action went nuts for that whole 5 minutes.
After getting back to our rooms Jaime, David and I headed to the pub with laptops and cameras in hand to check out the days work over a beer or two!
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment