colour of australia Headland, Cellito Beach (300k from Sydney)

Excellent photos, great colors and composition.

I hope to be able to take pictures like these one day.

 

Marcus

 

This is one of the most PERFECT shots I have ever seen, I have been shooting for over 20 years!

I was just wondering what type of camera and lense you were using for this shot.

Great shot! Love the colors

At first glance, I thought "Wow, another nice photo that will disappear into the stock pages somewhere." Then I looked again.

 

The colors are nice, well saturated, but not overdone (Velvia .. ummmm). The jutting cliff adds to some interest to the composition. The breaking wave is both subtle and really adds to the composition by bringing out the dynamic nature of the scene.

 

Nice work!

 

Doug

 

Another wonderful picture by Tony Dummet - clearly a gifted photographer! I especially like the colors, strong but still natural, with a wonderful warm tone in the cliffs. I guess it was shot in late afternoon or morning, which gives the light a nice soft quality.

The strange thing is that the the thumbnail on the photo.net home page looked completely unremarkable, although the photo at this size is beautiful. It happens the other way around, too, that shots will look wonderful as miniatures, but awful at the larger scale.

Tony! You're makin' the rest of us look bad!!! Geez. Too good....again. For everyone else....DON'T LOOK AT THIS GUYS PORTFOLIO! :)

Maybe one day I'll be able to make a picture like this. Superb.

Excellent photo, great composition and colours on the cliff. I like the breaking wave it makes this poster more dynamic. Fantastic place for taking pictures but not for swimming :-) Jan

Tony,

 

All I can Say is simply increditable detail.

Strewth!!!

Incredible photo. Well done. Such an inspiration.

I always end up disagreeing, but this is definitively good in an almost unreal way, seen it many times and always failed to comment. The light, the scene, and specifically the Moment, make this so painfully saturated in every respect of what it could be, it appears from a distance to be a very moving transcendental-style painting, ohohohoh.

I love it. Is it filtered at all? I love the saturation of velvia......

Do you know how EXPENSIVE filters for those Pentax lenses are, Rachel? No, it's not filtered, just very early on a very clear morning. Behind my back is one of the most lovely beaches I've ever been to and, from late January (when the kids go back to school) almost deserted, except for photographers, surfers, warm water and Sam the shark.

I wonder how you feel after taking such a marvelous shot.

I keep thinking it could have been better, and that one day I'll go back and take that better shot. Some of the bracketed shots WERE better, but they were under or over exposed. I'd also like to try this as a panoramic, but can't afford the wide angle lens required.

 

Pretty prosaic feelings, eh?

 

The truth is, the live scene was much better than my picture of it. The morning was warm and the thermos of coffee we drank after the picture was made was one of the best I've ever had. I miss this place and this time.

You not only picked a wonderful composition but you made sure to take it under the best lighting conditions. I'm Overjoyed to look and look and look at all the wondeerful natural form, color, texture and detail. The cliffs are spectacular but I love the low lit foreground as well.

Tony, despite the rain of praise I'm not convinced this is a great image. Technically very good but compositionally I think the image lacks a balance that doesn't feel a bit forced. The headland is so dominant and can't be balanced by either the relatively small wave or the foreground that is struggling for detail. The lines of the headland both at the horizon and the most interesting detail (the rockface with the nice light) lead you off the image. In other words everything seems to force the viewer left with nothing strong enough to bring you back.

 

Of course, with that said, it's still a very nice image but I believe the place (and your feelings associated with it) can yield a greater image. I look forward to another interpretation...

Douglas, I agree the foreground is too dark. This is something to do with the way photo.net displays pictures. They seem to go a bit dark. I think if the foregroun was a little brighter the composition might not look as lopsided as you suggest. I see your point, but I'm not sure how I could have fixed it. hmmm...... I can tell you that I very deliberately chose this composition and took about 20 pictures with the tripod locked off... different exposures and different wavebreaks. So, if it's wrong I can't plead that I had to take the picture in haste. I had all the time in the world to make my mind up.

 

 

I think the dark foreground is not objectionable, although more detail would be nicer. (To beat the dark upload problem on photonet, Tony, just load an image that looks too light on your screen.)

 

I can sense the falling off the cliff idea from having nowhere else to go that I'm reading between the lines of Douglas' comment. I will suggest that it's the white breaking wave that is pulling us Doug's into the surf. The strata in the cliff face is interesting enough to hold my dull attention so I've posted a version that might have happened a few seconds after this one, or before. I've also darkened the right edge, and the water out there, as if I were burning it in the printing room, which is standard darkroom practice that all the masters practiced. I've also dodged the foreground in the same manner.

 

You may now kick me, but while doing so, I am noting that the center of the image is holding my attention, and behold, I see a cave that I didn't see before. That was quite a surprise.

 

This picture was loaded on January 29, 2001. In those times I used different monitor settings - less contrasty, brighter - compared to those I use today - full contrast, reduced brightness. The reason for the monitor change was my finally upgrading to an ICC Profile version of Photoshop, after years of sticking to version #4. It wasn't until I changed the monitor setting that all my posted pictures suddenly became darker than my original intention. So that explains the blacked-out foreground.

 

Thanks Doug for showing it as it really should be. I knew the detail was there.

 

On the wave, I admit it's a cliche, but I wanted some action in the picture besides just swirling water. This is really meant to be looked at in large print form, in which it is reasonably impressive.

 

I wouldn't enjoy the picture so much if the wave - cliche or no cliche - was not present. But it's interesting to see the shot without it.

 

The picture is so rich in detail that it's a shame to have to present it in such a small format.

I feel the wave was great - to methe most interesting element in the original - besides the rock itself of course. Never would I have taken it away. Besides a wave is not more a cliche than a flower or a rock or..............:-)

Main point here for me: there was a dialog between the big rock and the small wave.

Then, what about lighting up the front part ? I would say it is an obvious decision, and it is always the first idea anyone has to get MORE DETAILS... but honestly, I would bare in mind the composition here...

In your upload, Doug, my eye ishalf in front and half on the big rock. It can't decide and therefore it goes and comes back, and that's why, on the way, I also discovered the cave, like you did.

It could seem to be a good thing, but actually I see it as a bad thing. Who cares about the cave ? Who even cares about the dark foreground ? Imo, the original was a strong dialog. It touched me truly and that's why I rated the shot 6 / 7 long ago. Call me a romantic french idiot, but well, that's the way I felt. I see more details in the amended version, but it takes me nowhere further - all the contrary. I used to access directly the big rock at the back, because the front was dark, and now, I'm somehow forced to stop in the foreground, and I see nothing major there. The main subject being at the back, I conservatively believe that's where my eye should go immediately. If this is still happening on a print which has a slightly brighter foreground, then fine. But if my eye stops at the foreground before reaching the main subject, then I rather leave the foreground dark. In the end, all this might very much be a matter of what each of our monitors shows anyway...

Meanwhile, I feel I lost a story, and I want it back...:-)) But again, Tony, Doug, Balaji, bare in mind I am not a landscape photographer, and I care about stories a lot more than details in the shadows. So I may not be a qualified jury for this case...:-)

Surely you are all soused to the gills.

 

The dialogue is not between the cliff and the wave. It's between the cliff and the sea. The wave is but a small part of the sea, but as it is, the wave is too provocative, demanding too much attention. The foreground being lighter, or darker, would be the same for me, and yes, the print would be different to judge than the screen. Tony replied to my post that he wanted more action than swirling water. Immediately I thought: What's wrong with swirling water? Of course, I understand what he meant. There is more action in the wave, and because of it, more of a dialogue between it and the cliff.

 

However, I find the opposite happening to my eye than what Marc described occuring to him. His eye travels aimlessly in the waveless version, finding no resting place, or point of interest. Who cares about the cave, etc, he asked. Now, for me, in the original post, that's exactly what happens with my eye, but relative to the wave. I end up there, but for what? It has very little shape and very little texture, to me a great disappointment. I'm drawn to it, but only for dissatisfaction. The cave, on the other hand, is not only full of mystery, but is at the base of a massive, layered, thrusting cliff, surrounded, assaulted, massaged by the relentless sea. I'm not too interested in whatever the cliff and the wave are saying to each other. Bam, Bam, Bam is about all I can think of. Crash, Crash, Crash.

 

I'm more, much more interested in what the cave is saying to the brine and the foam, to the changing tide, and the surging waters, and what they, in return are saying to the cave. Let us in! Drink this. Fill me up. Empty out from me. Etc. Much more of a story there, in my opinion.

 

I try to think of myself at this location and can only do so by imagining similar locations. What I find more interesting in such places is not the occasional spectacular splash, but the slow, methodical, rhythmic undulations of the surf. I can't safely experience a single crashing wave, but I can (maybe not here, but in general) safely enjoy the ever changing ebbs and flows of the sea itself.

 

 

Action in the wave. No doubt. But, to me, that's where it stays.

 

Action in the area of the cave? The chapters unfold in every reading corner in my mind.

 

No comments for 8 months on a picture posted nearly two years ago and now all the kibbitzers come along and... well... kibbitz...like bees at a honey pot, moths to a flame, scalpers at a Stones concert!... you get my drift, I hope.

 

Unfortunately this is a bit dark. I H..A..T..E great black velvia blobs and went to a lot of trouble to keep the foreground lighter than it wanted to be and all get is criticism because you've all got your monitors tweaked right on the edge (and all because Adobe say "use 100% contrast and 30% brightness"... sheep, that's what you are...).

 

But seriously,

 

I am quite flattered at the attention this hoary old image has suddenly received. The truth was we had to get up early to take the picture and then, finding the gate to the beach locked by the nark ("nark" = Australian word for "party pooper") who owns the road (but not the beach) so we hadda lug the Beast (Pentax 6x7), tripod, coffee thermos and our (ageing) selves three kilometres along the track, across four hundred metres of beach and then up the headland bluff to get to this position. The night before, when we scouted-out the location, it was calm and completely different (and the light was terrible), but I reasoned that it might improve with the dawn glow on the cliff. Well, it really came alive, but also the wind had picked up and it was blowing a gale. Much better!

 

To tell you the truth Doug, I've never vbeen totally happy with this shot either. It begs for the panoramic treatment, but I didn't take up widescreen till well after this time. Maybe I'll go up there and reshoot it as a 180 degree 5-panel pan (it's only three hours from Sydney). The nark has gone, so the road should be open. I may even get to drive my car right onto the beach.

 

Satisfied, all of you???

 

Once again, seriously, it's at the northern end a perfectly lovely beach (behind my back in this shot), one of many along this section of the Australian coast. The water's clear and warm, the sand is a perfect golden color, with schools of dolphins swimming through the breakers (to my eye they first looked like sharks, and you've never seen anyone get out of the water quicker - the beach is totally unpatrolled), there's a subtropical rainforest behind it, along the dune line, and if you feel like a dip you don't have to be Johnnie Weismuller to paddle in the surf (handy, as I can't swim a stroke).

 

Actually, guys with eyes like all of you above are why love this place. You can't get away with anything. All power to you!