November 4, 2015

Dane Tucker

Golden Minutes

November 4, 2015

Dane Tucker

Life (read - work) it seems, has a habit of getting in the way of things. The last few weeks have typically involved leaving the house by 6 and returning home after 7, leaving precious little time to shoot or otherwise enjoy the great outdoors. It was all I could do to grab a few minutes here and there.

So I awoke last Saturday, and decided to head down before sunrise to see what would happen. And it was epic. And colorful. And after an hour of messing about I was in a great mood. And then, returning to the ramp at the south end of the beach, I realised someone had stolen my thongs. I was crestfallen.

A pair of $20 thongs may not seem like much, but a small part of me was always buoyed by the fact that everyone could leave their shoes unattended, thrown together at the back of one of the most popular beaches in the country, frequented by people from all over the globe, and always have them there when they returned. Its such a small thing, but I did it all the time, and it always made me feel a little more positive about people and the world in general. It may not make much sense, but hey.

So to whomever stole my well-worn in, stereotypical black havianas, may they take you all over the world on great adventures, see some grand things, and then simultaneously blow out and have you fall flat on your face.

Bonus shots at the end of a quick 10 minutes grabbed last Monday morning as the world was waking up.

one flew over the cuckoos nest - cause the place is full of nutbags

September 21, 2015

Dane Tucker

Slowing Things Down

September 21, 2015

Dane Tucker

Necessity is the mother of all invention.

It seems lately that mother nature is out to get to me, or perhaps teach a lesson my somewhat immutable brain is a little slow to learn . The last 3 or 4 times Ive arisen at 5 30 and stumbled down to the beach half asleep, camera clutched in one hand, Ive been met with dull, grey, featureless skies that don't exactly lend themselves to interesting photos and have quickly returned home, feeling a little deflated and defeated.

Last Thursday was one such day. After a promising orange light show off on the horizon as the sun rose, a monotonous grey sky once again dominated the landscape, casting muted boring light over all and sundry.

Determined to not return home defeated once again, I decided to use the dull conditions to extend an exposure a bit to see what would happen , more out of sheer frustration than any creative impulse. I looked at the back of the camera, not expecting anything interesting and instead saw this almost oil-painting like scene staring back at me, so decided to mess around with it a bit more and got some really exciting stuff that I cant wait to build upon.

Some days its all about luck.

Bonus photo at the end of a particularly stunning sunrise seen a day or two after.

the first slow pan that - things improved

lol jks was a pretty good sunrise for a moment there

September 8, 2015

Dane Tucker

Cliffside Wanderings

September 8, 2015

Dane Tucker

What do you do when you wake up on warm, blissful Sunday in Sydney with no plans, itchy feet, and a full tank of petrol? Google trails in the national park and find one you haven't done yet, load up some podcasts and hit the road.

Less than an hour later ALT and I ended up on the Curra Moors track down in the Royal National Park, pounding along pavement and sweating through dense scrub for about 45 minutes when all of a sudden we found ourselves atop kilometres of dramatic sandstone escarpments against the sea, with not another soul in site (unless you count the crows which are as soulless a looking animal as I've ever seen and incidentally tried to steal our popcorn which only proves my point). A tranquil stream and rock pool atop the cliffs fed a waterfall that dropped into an ocean that was anything but.

If the seas are an indicator of Poseidon's state of mind the greek god was clearly pissed - thunderous 10 foot waves (hard to judge the size from atop a 100 m high cliff face, suffice to say they were intimidatingly large) closed out way out sea, eventually crashing against the vertical rock and sending spray 50m up in the air, the sea a mass of constantly shifting foam and currents.

It was an mesmerising sight, and we simply sat atop the cliffs and watched the ocean do its thing for a while before heading down to Garie to relax with a book and an excellently horrible cheese and tomato toasted sandwich from one of the most authentically old school Aussie tuck shops you are likely to come across this side of 1998. Three tiered, chocked full of so many kraft singles plastic sheets the middle was cold, with enough salt to fill the Pacific, I thought I was back in primary school in Matraville. But I digress.

Bonus photo at the end of the supermoon above Bondi as we returned home.

old crow medicine show - cheeky buggers tried to steal our popcorn

this perfectly spherical scrub was almost an optical illusion, and made my eyes spin just looking at it. luckily we stumbled across it well away from the sheer 100 m drop into the raging ocean

old man (super) moon sleeping in the pines where the don't ever shine