Page 6 - Australian Photography - September 2017

GOLDEN LAYERS

PHOTOGR A PHE R : DR E W HOPPE R

Landscape photography would have to be the most challenging I jumped out of my sleeping bag, grabbed my camera bag and
for me due to all the variables such as light, timing, composition tripod and made the short stroll to the lookout platform. By the time
and the patience involved to truly capture the essence of the I arrived the sun was already quite high in the sky, but fortunately the
environment. Fortunately, this image came down to being in the remaining cloud held the colour long enough for me to set up and fire
right place at the right time – dawn at Point Lookout, New England a few shots, this being my favourite from the morning.
National Park, NSW. I shot with my lens at 200mm to help compress the perspective,
My alarm went off half an hour before sunrise, when I unzipped which brought the field of view closer to the mountains to increase their
myself from my sleeping bag and poked my head out of my tent to size within the frame. Using a circular polarising filter helped enhance the
find a dull overcast sky. I thought that the sunrise was going to be a saturation and contrast of the scene, but in all honesty there wasn’t much
no-show, so I closed my tent and snoozed the alarm for another 15 enhancing needed due to the intense golden light illuminating the valley.
minutes. The alarm woke me, so I checked the sky once more and
to my surprise the clouds had cleared slightly, enough for patches Canon 6D, 70-200mm f/4L lens @ 200mm, 1/320s @ f5.6, ISO 160,
of golden light to start appearing towards the east. tripod, polarising filter. Saturation, contrast and sharpening in Lightroom.

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