Nobbys Head: – The Story Behind – Nobbys Head Moonrise
So this is an occasional series where we give a full account of a particular Australian photography image… in this case it’s all about, well, you wouldn’t imagine for such a serene image there would be music pumping and a whole heap of the Young and The Beautiful, just a stone’s throw away partying into the night…
My original photo story went something like …
I could call this one ‘The Sorcerer’s Apprentice’. Up on the waterfront at Newcastle with the Young and The Beautiful partying into the night… Then there was yours truly standing next to The Sorcerer, Mr Matthew Hudson, with his ‘you can see my lens before you see me in a crowd’ serious piece of gear. And moi with his 70-200mm sans extender. But – The Sorcerer indeed consulted with the stars and the heavens lined up to get this amazing shot.
It’s a poor edit, but I wanted to publish today A very Happy Christmas to you and yours, and thanks for the love this year. Even more thanks and respect to those that thought enough of my art to hang on their walls.
A few more details:-
What you don’t see.
Well. I had left Berowra reasonably early to have a recce around Newcastle – I hadn’t been there for quite a while so was keen to see what was what. Matt and I had arranged to meet around 7:30, I think it was, but I got there, despite major traffic delays on the F3, and detouring via The Entrance, with loads of time to spare. I parked up by the meet spot, and, erm, it wasn’t ‘All Quiet on the Waterfront!’.
There’s one particular Pub that seems to get all the love from the Young and The Beautiful and the music was blaring out. Quite odd given the genteel look (if not sounds) of the rest of riverside. The queue to get in snaked around and people were coming and going, falling over, passed out on the pavement, Police driving and walking by. And there was me, Matt and his Dad, tripods out, and, let’s be honest, not exactly fitting in to the stereotype! I do have to say, they were all happy drunks, so all was good.
Unusually for me I had the telephoto out – I made sure the tripod was steady as can be! More on that here.
The moon-rise came and went really quite quickly, many, many images taken. For those that haven’t ever seen, and really watched, a moon-rise – it comes up much quicker than the Sun.
Then a bit of a film-set moment. A lot of people had left the pub really quite early and were trying to get taxis. It looked a bit like a cross between Bladerunner and Tokyo Drift, with gangs of young girls and guys bidding loudly for the friends cars and taxis as they pulled up. Hundreds of people around, with me looking like a dag, walking through the middle of the melee, laden with not-quite-designer backpacks. Again, all really quite good natured. Then the loooong drive home, ah well…
What I saw Afterwards
For once I really only had ‘one shot’ in the bag from the entire shoot. Nobby’s Head and the moon. I usually come back with all sorts of variants if I have shot before, during and after sunrise or sunset. So for once I was very focused on the job in hand.
All I had to do was to superimpose a correctly exposed moon RAW onto a correctly exposed headland RAW. For some odd reason it took me a while in Photoshop, and I am not sure if I did a seamless job. Then a little blending and a bit of vibrance and that was about it.
I actually tried to edit this and get it socialised on Instagram a little faster than I would normally. Matt had his version out within 24 hours or so and I think I took 48 or 72.
Now – those that have looked at this blog know I am quite big on Composition Rules as part om my photography tips on this site – the Rule of Thirds, Use of the Corners – and this shot breaks all of them – however in my opinion it still works. I tried less sky and it looked unbalanced. I tried to centre the highlights line and it looked plain wrong. One of the advantages of so much time to set up Just One Shot. This is an example of where rules are meant to be broken.
Am I Happy?
A top shot. And not one I could have taken on my own, as I wouldn’t have been able to calculate exactly enough where to be. So a big thanks to Matt for that. It was hugely successful on Facebook and also Instagram – well by my standards anyhow. Hopefully a lot more people now know what a great place Nobbys Head is. And as Australian photographic prints go – it’s quite unusual and not cliched.
EXIF – 0.5 secs F4 ISO 800 200mm blended with 1/250 for moon…
8.5/10
Andrew Barnes
The Berowra Photographer – or the Newcastle Photographer this time
An alternate take – a couple of minutes later – the moon is much brighter and the highlights much more difficult to control
