Port Kembla

Steel works

I did my degree in Chemical Engineering and one of the courses involved a visit to the steel production facility at Port Kembla. I decided to go and visit the site to see if there was anything that would grab my photographic interest. I knew that I would be limited to what I could see from the perimeter of the site, but it was worth checking out. I discovered that the coke production plant is readily viewed from the street and I was taken with the steam and lights and colours and shapes.

Steel works at night 2, Port Kembla

Steam plume 2, Port Kembla

Windows at dawn, Port Kembla

Hill 60

While I was in Port Kembla looking for steel works photos I took the opportunity to drive around the area looking for other interesting places. I came across Hill 60 which has a lookout that provides a view of the coastline north and south of Port Kembla. I like the misty views that nearly blur the line between sea and sky.

Misty coast, Port Kembla

You can see more like these in the Others/City and Nature/Coastal galleries.

A year flies by

It's been more than a year since my last post. I've wondered if I was done with photography, but it seems I'm not. I'm just on a slower path. Here's what's caught my eye over the past year.

Beach

I like taking photos at beaches (see Coledale and Where is that? posts) and I especially like the beaches just north of Wollongong because they are nestled agains cliffs and they are an easy drive from where I live.
Visiting Austinmer just before dawn, I was attracted to a surf life saving hut on the empty beach. The lights from the car park lit up the sand making this an interesting colour contrast. I ended up visiting this scene three or four times before I was able to get the composition, lens selection, and sky all to my satisfaction.

Beach hut at dawn, Austinmer

On the northern end of Austinmer there's a cliff which provides an interesting silhouette against the early morning sky and sea.

Beach hut at dawn, Austinmer

You'll find these and other beach scenes in the Nature/Coastal gallery.

City

My wife and I occasionally go for drives around our area just to see what's changed (there's continual development going on as there's lots of empty spaces). On one of these drives I came across a new road that provided a clear view towards the Blue Mountains, so I visited at dusk to see how things looked photographically, but I couldn't get a photo that appealed to me.
However, I did notice the street lights which stood out clearly against the skyline. So I returned at dawn to get the lights against the dark yet lightening morning sky and, hopefully, with little traffic on the road.

Street lights at dawn, Schofields

Playground

In one of the new development areas there's a playground that had plenty of things that attracted me. I love the patterns, contrasts, and textures on some of the things I found there.

Yellow dots box, Arndell Park

Sandstone 1, Arndell Park

Coloured blocks, Arndell Park

You can see more like these in the Others/Abstract and Design gallery.

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.