Australian Landscape Photography | What's New in March 2024 | Landscape Photos | Nature Photos

Photographer's Blog: Wednesday, March 20, 2024

NSW Blue Mountains To Coast

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Near the beginning of 2024 myself and our young lad made plans to complete a dedicated landscape photography trip, predominantly into New South Wales, with a focus on the Blue Mountains and Newcastle regions. With a few weeks available, the anticipation was palpable, building to crescendo as we finally set off into the dark one fateful evening, spirits soaring with the promise of adventure ahead.

To get our feet wet and photography synapses firing (figuratively speaking) we decided to start reasonably local by heading south to the Warrnambool area of Victoria. Here we walked into the somewhat hidden gem that is Magic Rock lured by a very promising weather forecast. This is a fun little spot, well away from the crowds present at more popular locations along the Great Ocean Road. The oddly balanced rock formation looks like it is about to collapse into the sea from certain angles.

Unfortunately, the sky did not ignite with colour, but I was reasonably happy with my image anyway, opting for a strong foreground leading to the rocky outcrop. The next day, in the Otways I used the same approach at our very familiar local haunt of Hopetoun Falls which was in excellent condition due to a wet start to summer.

We scooted home, got cleaned up, repacked the car, and headed off again with renewed vigour. This time we struck out towards the north-east, crossing into NSW and making a beeline for the amazing Blue Mountains, ever a favourite of ours. Over the course of a several days we shot many scenes, scouted for others, and generally exhausted ourselves hiking into many locations to explore every dawn and sunset.

Having already covered the more popular areas, we were keen on this trip to avoid the crowds. Probably my favourite image of this series, entitled Narrow Neck Sunrise, was captured during one such mission. Turns out it is possible to have a dawn all to yourself, right in the heart of the crazy busy Katoomba region. I was in awe of this landscape as our boy and I stood, cameras at the ready, waiting for the light. The scene slowly came to life as the sun rose, until it suddenly breached the horizon line, penetrating fog and haze to dazzle us with golden hues and light rays. What a morning to share, and hopefully also a worthy photograph.

Whilst in the Blue Mountains we also spent a good chunk of time chasing waterfalls, mainly as means of getting out of the sun and heat, and into some wet, cool valleys. Summer is not generally the greatest time for such photography, but even so some keepers eventuated such as the shots of Federal Falls and Junction Falls (right tributary), near Lawson. Trekking steeply down to Victoria Falls, on one particular day, also proved fruitful, despite the fall itself looking a little drab at this time of year.

With everything going so well it was perhaps inevitable that tragedy would find us. Deep into a gully, with my best tripod submerged to the hilt in an attempt to capture Edith Falls, disaster struck when the centre column decided to give up the ghost. As a happy owner of a variety of Manfrotto tripods, over the last four decades, I suddenly found myself questioning reliability. The centre column, which I almost never use, would not tighten, rendering the whole device wobbly. Fortunately, we had backup tripods, and a trip to a hardware store later even produced a temporary work around in the form of a bolt. A month or so later I decided to obtain an iFootage TC7 at a crazy sale price. Devoid of a centre column, it has been good so far, but I will need a few more months to form a real opinion of it in terms of reliability and stability.

Back on the trip, the coast was calling, so we drove further north. Along the way we had some great light at Berowra Waters north of Sydney. Scouting for views overlooking the Hawkesbury River, we found one that was promising and incredibly the setting sun delivered remarkable results.

Buoyed by this turn of events we journeyed on to Newcastle, and spent the next few days working various nearby locations. Zenith Beach, inside Tomaree National Park gave up the goods one morning. Having attempted to work this beach dozens of times over the course of a few decades, I can attest to the difficulty in obtaining the right combination of interesting cloud, sunrise colour, tide height and lack of visitors.

Finally on this occasion luck was on my side and I came away with something that hopefully shows the deserving little beach at its best. Such a beautiful morning! Undoubtedly I will continue to visit, when time and money permits, as I still feel there is more photographic potential to explore in this cracker of an area.

In Newcastle itself we put quite a bit of effort into photographing their famous Nobbys Head Lighthouse, eventually coming away with two versions, both decent keepers. A little further north at Hawks Nest dunes I found views looking both away from and towards Shoal Bay and again kept both versions. It was great fun exploring the dunes, and certainly way less busy than Shoal Bay, so if you want an experience a little more raw, I can recommend this peninsula.

There are a few more images in this series, but I will only mention one more, to keep this blog short. On the way home, our lad asked if we could do a real hike, by which he meant something that involved overnight camping. He was keen to try carrying his own gear (tent, clothes, sleeping bag, and so on). Not wanting to push either of us too hard, I picked a walk that would take us to Pockets Hut in Kosciuszko National Park. Only 5km in and the same out, over fairly flat ground, it would be a good test of weight carrying ability without too much struggle.

If you have never donned a pack and spent a night out in the semi-wilderness, then I would highly encourage you to do so. Assuming some common sense regarding navigation and carrying enough water, anything within your abilities will likely yield an abundance of peace and soul enrichment. Share this with friends or family and you have a recipe for happiness. Thus was the outcome of our little adventure to Pockets Hut. What is more, I believe I even managed to create a beautiful image, ticking off one more scene for my high country huts project.

That will do for this blog. The next entry will be about more time in Kosciuszko hunting for huts to photograph. Thanks, as ever, for reading and may you find a little slice of nature's tranquillity in your own lives.

Photographic Print Only		US Dollars
8" x 12"	20cm x 31cm	$20 US
10" x 15"	25cm x 38cm	$25 US
12" x 18"	31cm x 46cm	$35 US
16" x 24"	41cm x 61cm	$55 US
20" x 30"	51cm x 76cm	$65 US
24" x 36"	61cm x 91cm	$85 US
30" x 40"	76cm x 102cm	$100 US
Panoramic Prints		US Dollars
8" x 24"	20cm x 61cm	$35 US
10" x 30"	25cm x 76cm	$50 US
12" x 36"	31cm x 91cm	$60 US
16" x 48"	41cm x 122cm	$100 US
20" x 60"	51cm x 152cm	$160 US
30" x 90"	76cm x 228cm	$185 US
Canvas Prints (Standard)		US Dollars
8" x 12"	20cm x 31cm	$75 US
12" x 18"	31cm x 46cm	$95 US
16" x 24"	41cm x 61cm	$100 US
20" x 30"	51cm x 76cm	$125 US
24" x 36"	61cm x 91cm	$175 US
30" x 40"	76cm x 102cm	$200 US
Canvas Prints (Panoramic)		US Dollars
10" x 30"	25cm x 76cm	$150 US
12" x 36"	31cm x 91cm	$180 US
20" x 60"	51cm x 152cm	$310 US
Metal/Aluminum Prints		US Dollars
8" x 12"	20cm x 31cm	$150 US
12" x 18"	31cm x 46cm	$200 US
16" x 24"	41cm x 61cm	$250 US
20" x 30"	51cm x 76cm	$300 US
24" x 36"	61cm x 91cm	$350 US
30" x 40"	76cm x 102cm	$400 US
Metal/Aluminum Prints (Panoramic)		US Dollars
6" x 18"	15cm x 46cm	$125 US
8" x 24"	20cm x 61cm	$150 US
10" x 30"	25cm x 76cm	$200 US
12" x 36"	31cm x 91cm	$250 US
16" x 48"	41cm x 122cm	$400 US
20" x 60"	51cm x 152cm	$550 US
30" x 90"	76cm x 228cm	$1000 US

Timber Framed Prints		Australian
8" x 12"	20cm x 31cm	$172 AUD
12" x 18"	31cm x 46cm	$245 AUD
16" x 24"	41cm x 61cm	$300 AUD
Photographic Print Only		Australian
8" x 12"	20cm x 31cm	$27 AUD
12" x 18"	31cm x 46cm	$33 AUD
16" x 24"	41cm x 61cm	$70 AUD
20" x 30"	51cm x 76cm	$92 AUD
Panoramic Prints		Australian
4" x 12"	10cm x 31cm	$27 AUD
6" x 18"	15cm x 46cm	$33 AUD
8" x 24"	20cm x 61cm	$70 AUD
10" x 30"	25cm x 76cm	$92 AUD
16" x 48"	41cm x 122cm	Please use US Printer
20" x 60"	51cm x 152cm
30" x 90"	76cm x 228cm
33" x 100"	84cm x 254cm	Available On Request (Email)
40" x 120"	102cm x 305cm	Available On Request (Email)
Canvas Prints (Standard)		Australian
8" x 12"	20cm x 31cm	$132 AUD
12" x 18"	31cm x 46cm	$172 AUD
16" x 24"	41cm x 61cm	$224 AUD
20" x 30"	51cm x 76cm	$285 AUD
Canvas Prints (Panoramic)		Australian
4" x 12"	10cm x 31cm	$132 AUD
6" x 18"	15cm x 46cm	$172 AUD
8" x 24"	20cm x 61cm	$224 AUD
10" x 30"	25cm x 76cm	$285 AUD
20" x 60"	51cm x 152cm	Please use US Printer
33" x 100"	84cm x 254cm	Available On Request (Email)
40" x 120"	102cm x 305cm	Available On Request (Email)
Poster		Australian
15" x 23"	39cm x 59cm	$25 AUD
22" x 33"	56cm x 84cm	$40 AUD
31" x 47"	79cm x 119cm	$70 AUD
Postcard		Australian
4" x 6"	10cm x 15cm	$3 AUD
Greeting Card with Envelope		Australian
4" x 6"	10cm x 15cm	$4.50 AUD
5" x 7.5"	13cm x 19cm	$7.00 AUD

Australian Landscape & Nature Photography by Michael Boniwell

What's New in March 2024

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NSW Blue Mountains To Coast

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