Photo Description

Dudley Beach, Newcastle NSW.

The first day of Winter couldn’t have started off any better in my eyes. After the East Coast of Australia had just received a huge southerly ground swell a week prior, the ocean had relaxed back to barely a ripple on the open beaches – more closely resembling a still pond than an ocean. With a forecast of some nice intermediate/high cloud to catch the morning colour and light favourable winds on offer, I had chosen a very specific location to shoot due to the complete lack of swell, but decided to change my mind at the last minute to head to another location.

Dudley Beach in Newcastle, NSW, is not a regularly photographed location from what I’ve seen over the years – a surprising fact to me, as there are some great rock formations and compositions on offer here. I’d visited this exact spot a few weeks ago on a day trip to scout out new locations.

Arriving in the dark I could see the entire beach was empty, although I could just make out a lone fisherman up in the Northern corner where I had planned to go. Thankfully I’d given myself enough time to walk the length of the beach, because not long after setting up and finding my composition the sky began lighting up with some beautiful orange/purple tones – I watched and enjoyed my coffee in silence watching it unfold.