On the rocks

Sydney May-September 2014 (3 photos)

More and more, I find I’m playing with longer exposures, particularly for the smoothing effect on water. This particular shot of a lighthouse was taken with a 6 second exposure. Being an active and working harbour, the main problem was timing my shots to avoid ferries and speedboats coming into frame.

Lighthouses reflect and refract light using glass of different sizes and shapes so as to obtain concentrated bright beams of light from light sources, and give warning to ships. This particular lighthouse also marks the location of the HMAS Sydney memorial. In June 2007, it was announced that all Australian and foreign naval vessels that enter Sydney Harbour will be required to give ceremonial honours to the HMAS Sydney memorial. This means that the men and women who are on the upperdecks at the time are required to stand to attention while a special naval whistle is sounded (Boatswain’s call). This represents a mark of respect and recognition to the Australian officers, sailors and ships lost at sea and in combat.

Standing at the base of the lighthouse, if we turn around 180 degrees, we get a completely different and perhaps more familiar view.

This was taken using a 4 second exposure. And a tighter crop follows…

… but we’ll come back to this view another day.