Nature’s Nightly Show

Sunsets still continue to amaze me – the colours and ever changing nature of the light is a truly uplifting sight. I’ve been fortunate enough to spend a lot of time in some really beautiful locations with amazing light, but I think Queensland’s Gold Coast has to get the award for the best sunsets on earth. It must be something to do with the clear azure sea, nearby craggy rainforest mountains and sub-tropical storm zone that provides a nightly overload for the visual senses. Then there is the shrill cry of hundreds of colourful birds finding a roost for the night as the sun dips below the western Hinterland.

Being out in the Southern Gold Coast surf as the sun sets is one thing that everyone should experience at least once in their life: a warm yellow glow illuminating the high rise towers and headlands as dophins breach the water with their fins glistening gold, then soon out across the eastern Pacific Ocean the reflected sky turns a deep shade of violet while the western aspect is aflame with fiery cloud formations over the mountains.

As Clancy of the Overflow might say if he were a surfer:

And the waves hath friends to meet him, and their thund’rous voices greet him

In the murmur of the breezes and the surf on the bars,
And he sees the vision splendid of the sunlit high-rise extended,

And at night the wond’rous glory of the everlasting stars.

Here’s just a few examples of the “visons splendid” I have trid to capture with my little Sony pocket camera.

Roadtrippin’ through the middle…

After the Oz winter, a literal seachange was in order. My brother, El Rad, had moved down from Brisbane to the Gold Coast and had a spare bedroom…so it would have been remiss of me to not take up his offer of a place to stay 150 metres from the beach and within 15 drive minutes of four world-famous surf breaks! If i could handle the heat, it would be a great time to learn to surf better and generally just enjoy the good life the Goldy has to offer.

So back in early November i packed up the orange beast and headed north up the Hume, Via the Newell Hwy through the middle of NSW and into Qld. It was two days, 1800km and 18.5 hours of driving time according to my dashboard. I had my serious camera gear with me, but i always like the flexibility of small, pocket-sized point-and-shoot cameras. I have a little Sony Cybershot 8.5 megapixel camera, as well as a couple of Minolta film instamatics that i often load with slide (transparency) film and cross-process for interesting and unexpected results. It keeps photography fun!

Here are some of the photos i took of all the weird things along the way… Click the heading to see more:

After the Oz winter, a literal seachange was in order. My brother, El Rad, had moved down from Brisbane to the Gold Coast and had a spare bedroom…so it would have been remiss of me to not take up his offer of a place to stay 150 metres from the beach and within 15 drive minutes of four world-famous surf breaks! If i could handle the heat, it would be a great time to learn to surf better and generally just enjoy the good life the Goldy has to offer.

So back in early November i packed up the orange beast and headed north up the Hume, Via the Newell Hwy through the middle of NSW and into Qld. It was two days, 1800km and 18.5 hours of driving time according to my dashboard. I had my serious camera gear with me, but i always like the flexibility of small, pocket-sized point-and-shoot cameras. I have a little Sony Cybershot 8.5 megapixel camera, as well as a couple of Minolta film instamatics that i often load with slide (transparency) film and cross-process for interesting and unexpected results. It keeps photography fun!

Here are some of the photos i took of all the weird things along the way… Click the photos to see them larger: