Crepuscular rays would have to be one of my favourite sky artifacts. Regards of your religious or spiritual persuasions, when such a display is taking place before your eyes, you can’t help but be moved by the vision of light streaming through and ‘touching down’. I love nothing more than to watch gaps in the cloud stream over the ocean in winter revealing patches of silver light on the ocean.
One the purest and simplest joys I take from photography is being able to control the amount of light that the medium (be it film or CCD) absorbs in order to dictate how the scene is represented. As technology advances, there’s more and more ways of ensuring the ‘perfect’ photo. For mine, though, it’s about illustrating the mood of the scene as I felt it in the image that I choose to represent that feeling.
Taken on the same evening as the shots over the last week, the mood of this image is in stark contrast to those, yet, it’s the same beach, same time of day, just a different approach and different set of rules for the light.
And that’s where the magic comes in!
The last smoldering embers of clouds outline an ever darkening sky over the ocean at South Trigg beach.
There’s something almost hypnotic about the relentless ebb and flow of the ocean with each passing wave. As you quickly learn living on the western edge of a continent, no two sunsets are the same and the same goes for each break of the wave; the ocean is sufficiently random that you never quite know where it will go, or what it will do next. South Trigg has a protruding sandbar which ensures interesting patterns and breaks.
A well weathered advisory sign adorns the ocean’s edge at South Trigg Beach. Those playing at home have possibly seen it on this site before, quite some time ago!
For elissa, whose travels will bring her long sunsets and even longer beaches. Good luck!
A copper hued sky fades into darkness around the all conquering glow of the sun descending into night.
The remaining sun seeking souls prepare to farewell the sun as the last faint , orange hued rays of the evening caress the shore at Leighton Beach.
A large sea freighter ready to collect wheat from this year’s harvest prepares to enter a holding pattern around Fremantle port.
The corner of the Leighton Beach footbridge is a wonderful vantage point to admire an ever retreating sun. The wind generally whips up the coast towards the camera’s vantage point and while blustery, is often very refreshing after a long hot summer day.
The flash of colour on the left hand side of the image is not an alien spacecraft and is instead an artifact created by the angle of the sun and the glass of the lens; it’s usually an undesired element, but sometimes I feel it adds to the intensity of the moment. The sun is literally so bright that you’re seeing stars.
