What is the best time to photograph?

Most people starting out in seaside photography with any real intent favour either the pre-dawn to sunrise period or the sunset to last light period. Certainly my most dramatic shots are from those time periods.

After a while, it all gets too easy and it is just photography by numbers and it is good to try a bit at those times generally deemed to be less suitable. Yesterday, with storm clouds moving overhead I grabbed my camera and strolled down to the beach. The accompanying photo was taken just before 3pm, almost 3 hours before sunset.

Haywards Beach, Bermagui - taken with an Olympus E-P3 with Olympus 12mm f/2 and 2-stop soft grad.

What happened to March?

I try to post something every month but seem to have missed March.

Well on the very last day of March, I did something I hadn't done before - a bit of light painting with lit steel wool.

I organised a late afternoon/night shoot at Little Bay which is a quiet beach in the Eastern Suburbs that few people seem to know about. After the sun went down, the real fun began. This is a group exercise with one or more people required for the light-works. It was fun and very effective.

Nikon D90 and 18-105mm f/3.5-5.6 VR set to 18mm. Set to f/8 at ISO200 for 26 seconds.