Bells, water, and ice

Bells

Three things led me to take this photo:

1. I've been reading a story about a (ficticious) woman painter during the Dutch Golden Age (mid 1600's). I really like the way painters during this period used light. Looking at some of their paintings reminded me how much I love side light and the contrast between light and dark. The book, by the way, is The Last Painting of Sara de Vos by Dominic Smith.
2. At this time of year (early winter) the light from the setting sun shines briefly through the window in our back door. It's a soft, golden light that angles it way into our kitchen.
3. We have some clay bells hanging in our kitchen that happen to get touched by this wonderful light. The warmth of the clay (I'm talking colour, not actual temperature) and the accumulated dust make them a perfect subject that, for me, recalls images from an age long ago

Clay bells, Blacktown

I've had to create a new gallery just for this photo as it doesn't fit into any of the categories of my existing galleries. You'll find it in splendid solitude in the Others/Miscellaneous gallery.

Water

Encouraged by the clay bells photograph, I went into Sydney early in the morning looking for more opportunities to experience great light. On the way there I was captivated by the silhouette of the Anzac Bridge against the dawn sky. Whilst I was taking the photo, I realized that there was another potential photo if the rising sun lit up the boats on the marina. Also, clouds were rolling in from the west and turning bright pink. Here are two very different images taken from the same vantage point.

Rozelle Bay marina at dawn, Glebe

Rozelle Bay marina at sunrise 2, Glebe

This last photo was taken only 20 minutes after the previous one. What I really like about this one is that it has a similar interplay between light and dark as the clay bells.

You can find these and other photos in the Other/City gallery.

Ice

With the onset of cold winter weather there were predictions of frost for Orange (about three hours drive from Sydney) so I decided to take a look. I left home at 3:45 am aiming to be at Orange just at sunrise.
The temperature at Lithgow, where I stopped off for a coffee, was -5 C with heavy frost. But by the time I got to Orange, the temperature was hovering around 0 C with no visible frost. So I returned home.
As I drove through Bathurst, which did have frost, some trees in a field caught my eye. In the process of trying to get back to the trees I managed to get lost and then found my way back along a small lane across some fields. That's when I came across the most amazing frost on a barbed wire fence. Needless to say, I never did get back to the trees in the field.

Ice wire parallel, Bathurst

You can see a few more photos of the frost in the Nature/West (of Sydney) gallery.

Autumn leaf

Autumn is my favourite time of the year - clean, cool days with plenty of sunshine and the occasional foggy morning. It's also the time when leaves change colour, drop from trees, and accumulate into wind-blown drifts.
Here's one dried, red leaf backlit by the late evening sun.

Autumn Leaf, Blacktown

Sydney at night

It's been nearly 10 years since I last took photos of Sydney at night from across the Harbour bridge. Here's an earlier photo, taken when people were less concerned about saving electricity and left the lights on over night.

Opera House and night lights reflected, Sydney

And here's one taken this week. I'm not standing in the same place, which is why there's more of a gap between the Opera House and the rest of the city buildings. I also now take long exposures (this was 2 min 20 s), which makes for softer and brighter reflections.

Night skyline, Sydney

Here are two photos of a detail (Circular Quay) of the Sydney skyline taken 1.5 hours apart.

Circular Quay at night, Sydney

Circular Quay at dawn, Sydney

I love the solitude and peacefulness of the city at this time of the day night (an hour or two before sunrise). And I get the pleasure of seeing a beautiful side of the city which you miss if you are only there during the day.
For more photos of Sydney, have a look at the Others/City gallery.

Overcast night

It's been overcast in Sydney for a few days. We normally get rain when this happens, but not this time. The clouds stayed low over the city leading to mild temperatures and fairly still, dry conditions.

City lights tend to reflect off clouds, so these conditions presented an opportunity to photograph Sydney with the buildings against a light background. I was delighted with the results.

Golden city, Sydney

Overcast night, Sydney

Clicking on any of the images above will take you to the relevant galleries where you can seem more photos.

Common and unusual

Common

As you know, I love fog, so here's another image with fog. I love the way the sun shines through the fog to light up the side of the tree.

Tree and fog, Rooty Hill

Unusual

The following images are not common, but unusual.

Firstly, here's a black and white (unusual for me) photo of an unusual event. I was in Mildura and decided to visit Lake Hawthorn (see also this post). But when I got there I couldn't even get out of the car due to the clouds and clouds of midges (small flies). The whole area was covered by them, looking more like smoke or fog than flies. So I sat in the car and shot this photo.

Midge madness, Mildura

Whilst visiting family in Victor Harbor, SA, I took the opportunity to go out before dawn to see if there was going to be an interesting sunrise, and there was. Here's an unusual treatment of one of the images where I've changed the white balance to make the blue-looking clouds grey. I love the colour contrast between the pink and grey.
You can see the the more common or natural looking photos in the Victor Harbor gallery.

Pink and grey, Victor Harbor

Finally, here's an unusual photo in that, at least to me, looks like the stars in the galaxy. In fact, it's the early morning sun shining through our bathroom window!

Galaxy, Blacktown

Clicking on any of the images above will take you to the relevant galleries where you can seem more photos.

Coledale

Google Map link
At the northern end of Coledale beach there's a tidal flat and across it are the remains of an old outflow pipe (sewage?). I first saw it driving back from taking photos at Wombarra (see previous post). What interested me was the morning light shining on the concrete pillars. It created an interesting colour contrast.

Outflow supports, Coledale

To get there you have to navigate a bit of an inlet. When I crossed it going to the tidal flat it was still dark. But on the way back, with the sun now well up in the sky, I noticed this beautiful green-clad rock amidst the surrounding grey ones. Not only that, but there was also a bright yellow reflection off the water and wet rocks - green and gold, a great combination.

Green rock, Coledale

Lastly, here's a very different take on sand lines compared to "Sand lines, Wombarra". A small creek flowing across the sand had carved out it's tracks and the morning sun caught the little ridges making them stand out clearly.

Sand lines, Coledale

Now, I've tweaked this one quite a bit to give it the feeling I like, which is why it's in the Art gallery. Just to give you some idea of what it actually looked like, here's the more "natural" image.

Clicking on any of the images above (except for the last one) will take you to the relevant galleries where you can seem more photos.

Where is that?

I often return to the same locations from time to time, partly because conditions are constantly changing, and partly because my style of photographing changes over time. In the process of documenting where I took the photos, I've learnt the names of suburbs and towns that I didn't know existed.
Here are some photos taken recently from two such locations.

Monterey

Google Maps link
Monterey is one of the Sydney suburbs beside Botany Bay. You get views of Sydney's skyline, planes landing at the airport, and the lights, cranes, and tanks at the Port Botany freight terminal. All of this from just one location - great value for money!

Sydney dawn skyline 2, Monterey

Port Botany tanks at dawn, Monterey

There are also other things that are interesting photographically, such as the groynes (those long fingers of rocks built out from the beach that you can see in the first photo above), and posts used to hold shark nets like the image below.

One post, Monterey

Wombarra

Google Maps link
There are a number of small coastal towns on the scenic road south from Sydney to Wollongong. I'm attracted to the beach pool at Wombarra as the still waters are great for reflecting the sky and the fence line adds an element of interest.
This photo was taken nearly an hour before sunrise. The colour of the sky isn't what you would have seen if you had been there, but the camera picked this white balance setting and I like the purple/yellow combination better than the blue/orange of the actual colours.

Pool at dawn 3, Wombarra

There's also a place where water flows across the sand into the sea and this leaves interesting patterns in the sand. The next image shows this, though I've changed the contrast and exposure quite a bit to give it the feeling I like.

Sand lines, Wombarra

You'll find these and other images in the Nature/Coastal, Others/City, and Others/Art galleries.