Whale Tooth

Awesome shapes and patterns of rocks dipped into stunning lights and colors - especially the "encounter" of yellow-orange-red and these amazing deep blueish hues (which are pretty typical for a 5D MK I and MK II IMO - that's why I love these cameras so much... ;-)) is sooo wonderful. Very good angle of view and highly aesthetic arrangement of all image elements. Don't see any technical flaw - sometimes the illuminated  horizon is readily overexposed under such difficult conditions ("burned" down to pure white and cannot be "repaired" by post-processing...) because of the high dynamic range regarding such landscape pphotography. Needs some further knowledge to cope with (especially when not using a ND filter), and you managed / mastered everything excellently (as always). The title fits very well, too. Is this nearby Sydney? BR / Volker

Hi Volker,

This was taken just as the clouds started to light up and before the sun came over the horizon, there was a red haze on the horizon which fortunately reduced the intensity and created the saturated colors.

I typically use a polariser in most shots like this which further intensifies colors and reduces some of the glare, however I rarely use my ND filters any more.

Post-processing was in CS5, using Camera RAW importing into a16bit ProPhoto RGB colorspace. I try to avoid using Recovery or Fill to increase dynamic range, if I see a problem in the histogram I bracket the exposure and blend this into the photo which gives me a result which is as close to what I remember seeing on the day.

This is indeed Sydney's northern beaches, the south end of Whale Beach to be exact. This was taken at low tide but it is especially good at high tide or with a large swell.

All the best, Brendan.

Very nice colors,  good composition, an  attractive  image.  Well done.

Cheers.

Wonderful image.  "Whale tooth" is perfect.  Was the name your idea?

George,

Not entirely original in that the Beach is called Whale Beach.

If you take a look further back the rock on the left looks a bit like a Whale, not sure if this is the reason the beach was named this way as it could be for other reasons, like the migration of whales that pass this beach each year.

Best Regards, Brendan.