02-03-2026
North Beach Wander
I haven’t felt particularly creative to start the year so after a few terrible nights sleep I decided to make the most of the extra time I was getting. I did what I always do when I’m in that frame of mind, grabbed my camera and one lens and just went for a no pressure sunrise walk to see what I could find. I often go out with no expectations and just wait to see what the morning brings me. This morning brought me a cloudy start but with just enough room for some nice early light to shine through and remind me why I enjoy early starts so much
Intentional camera movement (ICM) is always a great way to try and manufacture some artificial creativity. Even better when the sky has scattered clouds and a bit of colour during sunrise. I started with a few that included the grass area, the fencing and the dune plantations. I then zoomed in for the image shown here, cutting out all of the distractions and keeping it to the ocean, featuring a couple of waves rolling in at the bottom of the frame, and the colourful section of sky.
I continued walking, heading along the edge of the shoreline until I got to the Blue Mile. I’ve always loved the view across to the lighthouses as you walk past North Beach, and at the stairs down to the beach just before the cutting the two lighthouses converge and become one. Aftr getting through the cutting and with the sky constantly changing colours and textures with the movement of the clouds I decided to do some more ICM. These ones aren’t as clean because the rocks in the foreground create dark streaks across the frame but they also help to create a bit more contrast thanks to the waves crashing into the rocks
Continuing to walk along the Blue Mile takes you past the Gentleman’s Pool where I always like to grab a pic or two of the handrails from the walkway above. I don’t know why this angle is so satisfying for me but whether I’m up at road level or down along the Blue Mile I always get drawn to it
Just past the pool I noticed a lady standing on the rocks wrapped in a towel after a morning dip. I couldn’t resist a photo of her taking in the sunrise scene with North Gong Beach in the background as if she was the only person on earth
The next place my walk took me was along the western breakwall, I got to the end and climbed across a couple of rocks turned and was face to face with what I think is a cormorant but not entirely sure. After it recovered from the shock of me appearing out of nowhere from behind a rock it spread its wings to dry off after chasing some breakfast allowing me to grab this and a couple of other images in the gallery below
Today I made the turning point on my walk near the Harbour Front restaurant. As I stood at the jetty and watched the sun shine off the water I played around with some shallow depth of field on this grass like plant. I quite like the result with it resembling a painting with the soft focus across different areas and that deep blue background. I made my way back towards the car but didn’t find a lot of interest besides some more images of the pool handrail from the roadway
As always don’t forget to check out the rest of the
images from the morning in the gallery below
