brendan_trewartha

I would not worry about the 3 and 4 ratings, I think you can see from the comments here that everyone considers this an interesting and well captured image, well done!

Zsolt,

This is a great photo. Composition and lighting works well, my eye is drawn to the brightly lit grass in the foreground and then moves accross the water, the nice reflection, line in the shore, resting on the trees in the distance with the mountain as a backdrop.

Well done!

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.

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.

I like the way the lines of the cliffs and water and the lighting in the valley cause your eye to move around this landscape, beautiful photo, well done!