Docklands Sunset

Docklands, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
Canon EOS 50D, 35mm f/2 @35mm, 1/160 sec, f/9, ISO400

Here's a flashback to a fantastic sunset at Docklands, in Melbourne, Victoria, from January 2018, when interstate travel was normal. Covid has had a big impact on everyone's lives, and while we have been lucky in Western Australia to have been minimally impacted, a snap 3-day lockdown over this long weekend is another reminder of the potential impact that it can and will have on our daily lives.

Madora Bay beach sunset - 2 January

Canon EOS 50D, 10-22mm @22mm, 1/500 sec, f/5.6, ISO800

While on holidays recently near Mandurah, our accommodation was within walking distance of Madora Bay beach, and I made the most of the opportunity to photograph the sunset at the beach on multiple days.
The first three sunsets of 2021 were all amazing. My favourite of the three is the photo above, from 2nd January, and the photos below are from 1st and 3rd January.

sunset from the top of the wheel

Melbourne Star Observation Wheel, Docklands, Victoria, Australia
Canon EOS 50D, 10-22mm @22mm, 1/200 sec, f/9, ISO200

The Melbourne Star Observation Wheel, located in Docklands, Melbourne, and at 120m high, is apparently the southern hemisphere's only giant observation wheel. Last week, on our last day of a couple of weeks holiday in Victoria, we took a trip on the wheel. We timed our visit so we would see the sunset while up the wheel, allowing me to capture the photo above when our cabin was near the top of the wheel.

sunset at Warnbro Beach

Warnbro Beach, Western Australia
Canon EOS 50D, 10-22mm @18mm, 1/20 sec, f/4.5, ISO640

We decided to make the most of the public holiday today, and I took some of my children, a nephew and a friend of my daughter out for some photography in the late afternoon. After enjoying the golden hour at Lake Walyungup (photos to come), we then headed to Warnbro Beach to watch the sunset and have dinner.
It was a great sunset, with smoke from a bushfire adding some colour and texture above the horizon.

Oelnasi sunset

Homestay, Oelnasi, East Nusa Tenggara (West Timor), Indonesia
Canon EOS 50D, 24-105mm f/4L IS @24mm, 1/15 sec, f/4, ISO2500

While in West Timor in September, we stayed in a home-stay up on the hill above Kupang, and were treated to some fantastic sunsets. This is the sunset from our first evening in West Timor - little did I know that almost every sunset would be as colourful as this! The dead tree provides an interesting silhouette against the great sunset colours in the sky.

This is one of the photos we printed and mounted for the Wings To Work Photo Exhibition last month, and is available for purchase (along with plenty of other photos) via redbubble.
Funds raised from the sale of photos from our West Timor trip will go to Phase 2 of the Elpida School development.

Observation Post silhouette

Point Peron, Rockingham, Western Australia
Canon EOS 50D, 24-105mm f/4L IS @24mm, 3.2 sec, f/8, ISO100

On Christmas Eve, I headed out to Point Peron with a friend and my two boys, to shoot the sunset. Rather than shoot the sunset from the beach or rocks (as we have done several times previously - see here and here), we decided to climb the hill to the old Observation Post from WWII.

The Observation Post provided an interesting silhouette in front of the sunset colours in the sky.

sunset, as seen from inside the Observation Post

Point Peron, Rockingham, Western Australia
Canon EOS 50D, 24-105mm f/4L IS @24mm, 1/50 sec, f/6.3, ISO400

As it got darker, we experimented with some light painting. The photo below shows my attempt at using a torch to light-paint some of the graffiti on the right hand side of the building.

graffiti on the Observation Post

Point Peron, Rockingham, Western Australia
Canon EOS 50D, 10-22mm @22mm, 25 sec, f/9, ISO100

The photo below is from a little earlier in the evening. A random stranger was on top of the Observation Post, and provided an interesting silhouette as the sun got closer to the horizon.

silhouetted stranger on the Observation Post

Point Peron, Rockingham, Western Australia
Canon EOS 50D, 24-105mm f/4L IS @24mm, 1/500 sec, f/7.1, ISO200

post-sunset sky

Point Peron, Rockingham, Western Australia
Canon EOS 50D, 24-105mm f/4L IS @60mm, 3.2 sec, f/18, ISO100

Last night, I went to Point Peron with a friend and my oldest daughter, to photograph the sunset. It was a hot evening, but we witnessed a great sunset, and some fantastic colours in the sky after the sun was below the horizon.

The top photo was taken about half an hour after sunset - one of my favourite times for photography.
The photo below was taken a few minutes later, and my daughter used a torch to light-paint the hearts on the left hand side.

sunset down the road

near home, Western Australia
Instagram | Samsung Galaxy S II

I have had my Samsung Galaxy S II Android phone for over 12 months now. When I bought the phone, I mentioned that having a phone with a reasonable camera in my pocket would provide me with the opportunity to take photos in situations where I previously did not have a camera with me.

In hindsight, I haven't used my phone for photography much at all. I want to use my phone for day-to-day photography, and to make it easier for me to take photos and share them, I have installed the Instagram app for Android.

The sunset photo above is an example of something I wouldn't have been able to capture without my phone. I was walking around the block in the evening with my wife, and didn't have my DSLR camera with me, but I always have my phone in my pocket.

You can view my Instagram photos online by visiting my Instagram profile page or if you are an Instagram user, feel free to follow me.
I will also occasionally repost some of my Instagram photos here on my blog.

This is one of my favourite photos from a photowalk in South Fremantle last weekend.
This is a self-portrait as I'm standing on the rocks at the waters' edge. Despite what it looks like, I am not a smoker, and I'm not lighting up a cigarette. Instead, I am lighting up some steel wool to do some steel wool spinning.

lighting up

South Fremantle, Western Australia
Canon EOS 50D, 10-22mm @13mm, 20 sec, f/9, ISO100

This self-portait was an accidental one. As I was lighting the steel wool with a lighter, I must have accidentally triggered my camera via the Phottix Plato remote shutter release transmitter that I was also hoding in my hand.

On the horizon at the right hand side are the remnants of the cloud that some people thought was a meteor hitting the ocean.