Not quite willing to wake up at 5am, I'd settle for sunsets, and with just 3 days in Margaret River, I'd basically 3 chances of trying to shoot.
1st day, I dragged my family to Surfer's Point @ Cowaramup Bay - which is the closest beach to where we stayed. The sunset was gorgeous, I snapped, and snapped, and sadly, after over 1 hour, nothing I shot worth anything. The only picture I liked was this of my family, the gorgeous golden light makes everyone look good. But no landscape - the spot was just a plain beach, kinda a cape like pointy beach, with no features. Sigh.
Day 2, we went to Yallingup Bay, there were lots of rock formations, so I thot it'll make great long exposures. Well, the problem was the sun was setting on the beach side, and casting a lot of shadows on the beach side. The numerous pictures I took, were pathetic. I kept moving, shooting, and trying. Finally, whilst my boys were just exploring the rocks, I saw my sons just were the Sun was, and told my oldest to put out his hands, moved to frame the setting sun behind him, and shot. Never tried it before, after my pathetic attempts, I had nothing to lose. At the end of the shoot, I went back quite disappointed. 2 days wasted.
Well, upon post processing, I did find that whilst the landscape shots were bad, this particular shot came out more interesting than I'd thought. My sons in the picture made the difference, in an otherwise pretty boring shot.
Day and last day, after dropping the gals off to shop, I dragged my sons to yet another beach spot -
Gnarabup Beach - with promises of more places to climb/explore! This was my last chance to try and shoot something special. I found a small jetty/pier - and thought perfect for that long exposure.
But people kept using the pier, to hang around. What interested me, was then 3 boys who was oblivious to me, and playing off the jetty. I took lots of shots of them, whilst waiting for the pier to be empty of people - and this, to me, was the most interesting. I love how daring and carefree they were.
Well, the pier never cleared, so I wandered off to the beach. Time ticked, and I could never get that illusive special landscape I craved for. Time ticked on, and this was perhaps the best of the lot. Not a particular fantastic shot, shot with my favorite ND400 (9 stop) filter.
Anyway, I did realize that, good landscape photographers, work hard to get the shot. I strolled up to a spot, and expected to shoot a fantastic shot - and it just doesn't work that way. Good landscape photographers would research where to shoot, what time to shoot, scout around, explore - getting that shot is the culmination of the hardwork - it really takes patience (especially if the photographer has a family in tow), and perseverance to keep trying.
My best photo (in my opinion) for the trip was probably the 2nd picture above with my sons, a shot by accident rather than intent.
And I will get that illusive magical landscape one day.
