Part 2

Following on from part 1, I woke up before the sun and drove out to the closest beach to the hotel with the hope of getting some sunrise photos.

There were some nice colours, but it wasn’t that dramatic, not sure it was worth the effort. I went back to the hotel and made a coffee in my Aero Press.

Coolart Wetlands And Homestead

This might be my favourite shot from the trip.

Since this trip I have shoot one other roll of Kodak Portra (Portra 160), and I didn’t enjoy the colours that much. I know it is a ‘low saturation’ film stock, but the look wasn’t for me, this roll of Kodak Portra 400 is more punchy than the Portra 160, whilst still being true to life.

Anyway, the purpose for visiting the wetlands was to try and find some birds. I walked down to the, remarkably dry, wetlands and stood around with a long lens on the Sony.

There was a decided lack of birds, then this fox appeared, unfortunately this was the clearest shot I managed 😒

I gave up waiting around and decided to wander the long way back around to the car. I did then managed to find some birdies.

Toogarook Wetlands

Next stop was a little drive away. I was hoping to find some more birds here. It wasn’t quite what I was expecting. There were some ‘wetlands’ but it was more playing fields and open grasslands.

Some people were flying some model planes around. They weren’t small, over 1m wingspan I’d guess, probably closer to 2m. They also weren’t quiet.

But I had a walk around and evenly found some birds, and by found I mean they turned up.

Gunnamatta Back Beach

Heading back towards my hotel I stopped off at Gunnamatta Back Beach. It was windy. Very windy. I walked up to the top of the dune and had a look at the beach.

No birds.

I spent so long with my home scans trying to get these two images to have the same (correct) colours. So long. So, I went back to the lab scans from Ikigai Film Lab.

The scans are extremely good, but they are JPGs and I did want to take my time with edits and make my own choices on the colours and the final image. I scanned the negatives using a digital camera once I got back to Canberra.

There was a slight traffic jam leaving the car park.

Sunset

I had checked online for somewhere along the coast to watch the sunset. There were a few beaches with good access and views a little way back along the peninsula, so I packed all the cameras and set off.

The first was Diamond Bay, but as a I turned off the ‘main road’ towards the beech it was clear I was not the only one that had had this idea. Instead of failing to find a parking spot for too long and missing the sunset I headed further along to the next beech.

Given someone was having a wedding photoshoot here I think it might have been a good place to watch the sunset.

I set the Olympus OM-10 with the Kodak Ektar 100 up on the tripod pointed vaguely towards the sun. While I waited for the light I took some other photos with the Pentax with Kodak Portra 400, and the Pentax DSLR.

I think this was a good scene for Kodak Ektar. The increased saturation and the blues work really well.

Eventually the sun did start setting.

Bonus Stars

After packing up I drove around to a ‘fast'(er) EV charger not far away. Tomorrow I had a quite bit of driving to do, so I wanted to charge to at least 90%. When I got to the charger there was an EV taxi charging and a large ute parked half way into the charging bay. I managed to squeeze between them. The driver of the ute was skateboarding near by. By the time I had gotten plugged in he offered to move his ute, realising he was parked poorly. I had a chat with the taxi driver I wasn’t prepared for on EV charging before he took off and I sat in my car waiting for it to finish.

Back at the hotel I figured it was a nice clear night and the light pollution here was probably pretty low, so I packed up stuff (again) and jumped in the car. This time digital only.

I drove down to the beach where I had photographed the sunrise. Grabbed my tripod, headlamp, and the Sony a6700.

I am not sure what I enjoyed most about this trip. The sunset photos turned out well. I like how both the Portra 400 and Ektar 100 looked. I think I might have preferred the Portra 400, but I think that might have been down to the lenses I have for the Pentax, especially the 77mm. That lens is magnificent. It is too easy to shoot too wide and the extra length is really good. I remain a big fan of shooting landscapes with a 70-200.