I have been spending a bit of time lately down at Cape Schank in Victoria (roughly an hour and a half drive from where I live) scrambling over the rocks looking for composition and waiting for good light. Its a very primordial place with plenty of jagged black basalt rock that provides a really good contrast to the softness of the water created by long exposures. I have enjoyed the time I have spent down there; although it has been a battle with the elements to say the least. I was blessed with good magic hour colour on several of my sunsets and sunrises – but on almost all occasions the skies have been totally cloudless; providing little of interest outside of the colour of sunrise and sunset. The planets just haven’t aligned for me at Cape Schank as yet; which is really great incentive to keep going back.

On my last trip the skies were again cloudless an hour os so before sunset as I scrambled over the rocks looking for frames and I thought I was going to again be out of luck. However, as the sun began to set some cloud began to build on the horizon and this photograph was the result. I used the LEE 10 Stop Neutral Density Filter to get an exposure time of 181 seconds; which has caused the water to go very milky and soften the harshness of the rocks.

Cloudless skies at sunrise and sunset are not my preferred atmospheric conditions for Landscape photography. In general, I prefer overcast skies (Nature’s Soft Box); or at least some puffy or windswept clouds to pick up the colour of dawn and dusk and add an extra dimension. My weekend shoot at Cape Schank provided only clear skies; which although not ideal for interest in the sky did provide some lovely ethereal golden light, giving the basalt rocks an otherworld alien quality.