
Australia
I’ve been out of the office the last few weeks in Australia and Tasmania on a workshop. We had an incredible time, you can see our trip report right here. We photographed many wonderful landscapes and wildlife, and I finally got a chance to photograph the Twelve Apostles, something I’ve wanted to do for 30 years…finally!
We explored a lot of locations along the Great Ocean Road near the Twelve Apostles, including Loch Ard Gorge. One great thing about photographing oceanscapes is they look good in the early morning, late evening…and the middle of the day. With high overhead sun the water becomes very colorful, and creates the classic sunny beach shot.
Loch Ard Gorge is one location that photographs great during the day, but has one challenge; a fenced overlook. It’s obvious why the fence was there…if you fell off the edge you would go hundreds of feet into the ocean. But to see the entire sea stack formations, you couldn’t do it without walking to the extreme edge. But there was another way.

Australia
I set up my camera on my tripod, prefocused and set my aperture to F16, so I knew everything from about 3 feet to infinity would be in-focus. Then I hit the self-timer and held the tripod above my head (about 6 feet up) to capture the angle I needed to see the entire formation (see my tripod shadow above). And if you are wondering, no drones were allowed in this area. Using your tripod as a boom arm to elevate your camera works great! And solves the problem of getting a high angle when you need one without standing on the fence or flying a drone. Give it a try sometime…