Easter 2022 I had the pleasure of house sitting in the surf cost town of Torquay in Victoria, Australia. The house came with a wonderful host, "Jazz". As you can see she was very excited to see me and put on an outstanding performance to greet me. I took this as a compliment but with dinner not that far away she may have been playing me for a pre-dinner treat.
Torquay is situated at the east end of the Great Ocean Road coastal drive, southwest of Melbourne, Australia most famous for the surf beaches like Bells Beach and Jan Juc. As you'd expect Torquay was busy for the Easter long weekend with many taking advantage of the last of the good weather before the colder months set in.
Photography-wise, I've been to the Surf Coast a few times but haven't managed to bag something special. I've got some solid shots but nothing that is a portfolio image.
There's many options for the photographer on the Surf Coast, including the classic landmarks, spectacular sunrises and sunsets, waterfalls, woodlands, milky way night-scapes and rolling farmlands.
I've shot a few night scapes along the coast and keep searching for the right composition. It's fair to say that the Surf Coast is a work in progress, however with so much to choose from, there is a lot of work to go. Having not spent any time exploring Torquay and with the weather and tides against me, my expectations were for scouting compositions for the future and to test out the recent upgrades to the 4WD and camping kit.
The weekend kicked off slowly with overcast skies and the tides higher than what I was looking for. I headed west of Torquay stopping at every opportunity to search along the beaches for interesting foregrounds that might work when the conditions were better. I'd document them for later on my phone and move on. Mid morning I found a high spot overlooking the ocean and set up my 4WD, cooked a hot breakfast and filter coffee before heading back to be greeted happily by Jazz. The afternoon was much the same with locations documented on my phone for another day. Saturday was much the same and I was sure that would be the pattern for the rest of the weekend. I'd planned for one more attempt on the Sunday morning because I needed to get home early on the Monday to prepare for the week ahead.
My plan was to head to the beach near the surf club at Torquay, well before dawn, to watch the progression of tide and light to plan for the future. I set about planning a nice reflection shot of a brilliant sunrise on the wet sand. The tide was incoming and had at least an hour to run. Getting an image with the tide chasing me up the beach and not much happening in the sky seemed like a waste of time but I persisted telling myself that when it did happen in the future I'd be better prepared.
To make it more challenging, there was a never ending stream of walkers and the dogs but that is to be expected. I can deal with that in post processing. Focusing along the beach, to the north east, with the headland jutting out to sea located in the top third of my composition, I moved up the beach as the tide chased me. I liked my composition, minimal, with lots of negative space in the foreground allowing the eye to drift through the image to the sea fog that softened the background. With the tide constantly pushing in, it was difficult to get any reflections, but there were opportunities and I was trying to make the best of them. At this point there wasn't a lot of cloud above me but the horizon to the east was dark and I didn't expect much. With the sun still below the horizon, I noticed, the clouds showing signs of separating and trailing north west. I might be in with a chance but expectations were still low. I've been in this position many times and left with nothing but a plan for the future on most occasions.
As the sun approached the horizon a glow started to appear in the upper atmosphere and the morning continued to improve. I shot a number of frames, as I scrambled up the beach avoiding the tide, over what felt like an hour.
My goal for Torquay has always been a spectacular red sky with reflections that go on forever. But now I have two images that I am proud of. The conditions weren't spectacular, but what I have is what you think of when you think of the beach. If you ever walk a beach at sunrise you've seen this but your phone doesn't do it justice. I like the middle image the best but I will continue to try to get a spectacular sunrise.
"looking over your shoulder pays"
Mid morning, just after taking that centre image in the set of three, I decided to change filters to suit the changing light and walked up the beach to my backpack. When I turned around to head back to my tripod I saw this scene developing and quickly had to move up the beach about fifty meters, change the filters, recompose and take a few frames, waiting for the waves to drain from the beach. Always hard to do on an incoming tide.
Photographers often talk about the value of looking over your shoulder and not being fixated on a single goal. This is why.