Heaven's Burnout

Heaven's Burnout

It's been ages since my last seascape shoot.  I don't know why this is.  It's probably the weather (winter just past), lack of inspiration / interest, no new places to explore, no new gear or just plain lazy.  Thus, I'm thankful to a friend (Ryan) who invited me to shoot at Turimetta one sunrise.

I've been shooting at Turimetta so many times that I know where to position.  I don't 'spray' my camera anymore hoping I get the perfect shot.  I just look at the scene, evaluate it and decide if I'll take the photo or not.  If it's really bad, I don't shoot.  If it's medicore, I might not take it as well.  If it's already amazing, then I shoot it.  No, I'm not being conservative on using my camera or shutter count.  I just want to train my eye to see beautiful composition.

The photo was taken at Turimetta Beach at Narrabeen.  I arrived pretty late, again.  But I still arrived before the actual 'red sunrise' (where the clouds turn red).  My selected location was already taken by earlier photographers so I just went by walking.  I arrived at the edges of the rocks and decided to shoot there.

This is a long exposure photo on a tripod.  I used 3 filters to control the brightness of the sky and lengthen the exposure time.  I also used a timer since it's beyond 30 seconds.

The photo is already saturated.  I just bumped the saturation a bit in photoshop using vibrance.  I then add an S-curve to increase contrast.  The sun is already blown out - I don't bother pulling in details.  There were no cloning - all rocks as is.  The photo already has a vignette, I didn't add / increase it.

The following are some details:

• Nikon D800e
• Nikkor 16-35mm f/4 @ 17mm, f/11
• ISO200, 122 seconds
• Manfrotto Tripod
• Phottix TR-90
• Lee 1.2 Solid ND Filter
• Lee 0.6 Hard Grad Filter
• Singh-Ray 0.9 Reverse Grad Filter

Location:
Turimetta Beach, Warriewood, NSW Australia