Description
Naa Badu Spirit, Naa Badu Lookout, Berowra , NSW
The previous day to the day I made this photo, the dawn sky had been an intense red, likely to do with the previous volcanic eruption in Tonga. Much dust in the sky. However the evening sky looked, to all intents and purposes, 100% clear. Except!!! I could see that the sky to the west, the bright area of sun halo, looked just a bit too white, and not blue enough. So I guessed that maybe there were some atmospherics or high clouds I could not see.
The Naa Badu lookout is a reasonable hike from the track entry. Even more so with a backpack and carrying a nice sturdy tripod. But I definitely felt it was worth the risk. Landscape Photography is always about risk and reward.
I arrived just on sundown, and was able to catch a classic sunset sunburst. However, as the sun sets behind a high point of land, you then have a very long wait until the sky actually colours. (It’s about 15 minutes earlier than the stated sunset time, that the sun cannot be seen here). It gave me time to do the ‘Facebook Live’ thingy
And then slowly this happened. Faint shapes of high cloud layers appeared, which had been invisible before. First a golden halo, and a deeper magenta halo with deep blues. Finally a bright strip of orange just above the horizon. What makes it sooo unusual, however, was the area of brightness. Much more contrast in the air colour, I suspect, due to the atmospherics. I shot with many focal lengths – basically one shot re-imagined several ways.
This was the panorama I got from the evening. Four shots merged into one to get the super wide angle.
PRO TIP – Head torch bulbs produce more light when electric current is available to them. If a head torch has not been used, for, say, six months, can you guess what happens when the owner tries to use it?? Landscape photographers tend to walk out in sunshine, back in the dark. So yours truly said a couple of choice words, and stumbled back in the pitch black to the car with about 5% battery in my phone. Live and learn. It was worth it