FUNNY STORY...

What trip to Katoomba would be complete, without a visit to the Echo Point lookout and "the three sisters" - a rock formation over-looking the Jamison Valley?
According to Aboriginal dreamtime legend there were three sisters (Meehni', 'Wimlah' and Gunnedoo') who lived in the Jamison Valley as members of the Katoomba tribe. These sisters fell in love with three men from a neighbouring tribe (the Nepean tribe), but marriage was forbidden by tribal law. The brothers were not happy to accept this law and so decided to use force to capture the three sisters causing a major tribal battle. Battle ensued, and the sisters were turned to stone by an elder to protect them, but he was killed in the fighting and no one else could turn them back. Story courtesy of wikipedia.

I had arrived for a sunset the night before this was shot and it just wasn't happening for me. For one, a rival photographer had parked himself in prime location, and secondly it was hard to take a photo for yourself with every other person asking you to take a picture of them ;P . My wife found it quite amusing, watching from the top viewing platform. In particular she had to laugh at the very rude "rival photographer" who flat out refused to take photos for anyone else. However, there was a very persistent tourist who wouldn't take no for an answer and kept buzzing around like a fly to poo. But as far as we know the rival kept his nerve and won the battle against the tourist. Poor tourist! (I actually took a photo for the guy earlier - he mustn't have been happy with mine haha).

Sunset wasn't the best to shoot on this particular day as there wasn't many clouds to diffuse the light an harsh shadows were appearing everywhere. Unfortunately, I had somewhere to be that night so I couldn't hang around for the after glow.

I returned in the morning to find the valley was covered in fog. I waited for about an hour for the fog to lift until finally I was ready to head back. I took one more look and noticed the fog was all heading away and revealing the rock formations and valley before me. By this time everyone had vanished and I was there on my lonesome. Yeeeewwww! I stayed for about another hour until everyone started turning up and this is one of the images I captured.

It's hard to get a unique shot of this location because there is only so many ways you can shoot it.You will notice the remnants of the fog out in the valley.

The Three Sisters, Blue Mountains NSW © Josh Pitt

TRANSLATE THAT FEELING...

I just wanted to do a quick post of a picture I snapped while away in the Blue Mountains.
For those of you that have visited Katoomba, the first (and maybe every) time you look out across the Jamison valley at any number of lookouts - you get that awe inspiring feeling of the sheer majesty of the scene you are looking at and sometimes it's hard to translate what you are seeing and what you are feeling through your photography.
Sometimes it pays to step back and includes a piece of foreground or a person to show scale. In the photo below I included some people on the edge of the bottom Echo Point lookout, I think it gives you an idea of how BIG these majestic canyons are.
Enjoy!
Catchya
Josh

Echo Point Lookout, Katoomba NSW © Josh Pitt

PLAN B REIGNS SURPREME...

On a recent getaway to the Blue Mountains I was hoping to get "the Three Sisters" at sunrise. Luckily we had booked accommodation in Katoomba so we were nice and close. Even though, I set the alram for 530am to make the 2 mintue drive to the Echo Point lookout. As we got outside there was a lot of fog around! And I mean a lot of fog! I thought "Great!", this would add an interesting effect to an otherwise commonly photographed subject. When we arrived there was no-one in sight. No wonder! You could not see a thing! It was quite a eerie feeling when you looked over the edge only to see a nothingness. It actually made your knees got to jelly.
We waited around for about an hour to see if the fog would lift, but with no luck (it actually took until 3pm). So not to waste our early start, we travelled to nearby Leura - to visit the Leaura Cascades. Only a short walk from the carpark, there are a series of falls. This one is nestled just of the track, before you head around and onto other lookouts looking over the Blue Mountains. 
My wife patiently waited for me to shoot for a good couple of hours and we had a bit of a joke that this image was one of the first half a dozen frames I shot and therefore we could have left and saved a lot of time. Thanks Rachy!
There were a number of things that drew me into this image. One being, the obvious one - the silky waterfall. Another being the great colour of the grreny/yellowy pool and the brown interesting rocks, in the foreground. It was quite slippery around here, so yet again I was paranoid about dropping my equipment.....again.
All in all it was a fantasic shoot and I am really happy with the final capture.

Sometimes your plans don't really go to plan, so you have to improvise and check out new locations. The key is to know your surroundings, even if your an out-of-towner. That way you can make the most of your trip away.

Catchya
Josh

Cascade Cove, Leura NSW © Josh Pitt

THE RACE IS ON...

Recently, I returned to a local beach of which I haven't really explored too much before. Upon arriving there I wasn't really sure where or what I wanted to shoot. The one thing I did know was that I needed to keep an eye on the cloudy sky, because I had a feeling it was going to be good.
I wandered around testing some spots but wasn't happy with anything I was framing. I spotted some rocks on the shoreline that was being pumbled by the surf. The surf swell was quite big and rough, so I had to be careful when I ventured out on the rocks. They were so slippery!
I was trying to find a spot that created some nice lines to add some directionality to the composition, when all of a sudden off in the distance I could see a single beam of light bursting from the clouds. This is where my leisurely sunrise shoot turned into a frantic race against time to capture something different utilising the radiating sky. It was like someone fired the starters gun! The clock was ticking until the light was gone.
I spotted a gap in the rocks where the water was rushing in, but to get there I had to cross a slippery, flowing, little watercourse. Using my tripod as a three legged walking stick to balance me as I tip-toed through the stream, I got where I wanted to go. Albeit a bit wet.

By the time I had made it to this spot, the sun was higher in the sky and luckily for me, the clouds had parted enough to have created multiple fingers of light beaming through. I shot off a few frames, just so I had something to show for my effort (just incase the moment passed). Then I waited for the next lot of sets to come through, so I could have another element to my image - movement. It wasn't long until I had a nice whitewash in my foreground.
Again, a great level of satisfaction was achieved.
I hope you are enjoying my latest shots.

Catchya
Josh :)

Radiance, Wamberal NSW © Josh Pitt

THE DEADLY CAPTURE....

Whilst shooting on Avoca beach the other day, there was some reasonable cloud cover. Which if you usually read my posts, I usually carry on about how good it is to have a bit of cloud cover - 1. to create some drama and 2. to allow a long shoot, because the light stays reasonably neutral and not over exposed. This day was one of those days! After shooting on the beach, the light was still great so I ventured around the rocks to see what was new. On this day there was a bit of swell around and the water had obviously been washing up on the rocks considerably, because they were very wet and had a number of pools around.
One tip I would give (which is pretty obvious) is to watch and monitor what the ocean is doing - how often and where the water is rushing over the rocks. This is particular important if you want to get closer to the edge without getting washed out to sea. I was a little nervous at the point I shot this image because I thought I had misjudged the incoming sets, to the point of getting ultra wet, dropping my equipment, slipping on the wet rocks and being taken out to sea or all four. I stood frozen as the light rays spread from behind the cloud - creating something unusual and breathtaking. I watched as the area just beyond the foreground rock sucked dry and then the ocean began to engulf the rocky ledge. Once. Twice. And finally a third time, which was the largest. Like I said - I was frozen. Intent on making a unique image I held my ground and luckily the swell fell short of me. After checking the shot in camera, I took this as a bit of a warning and vacated the area for dryer ground and packed up for the day.

Upon reviewing the days shoot I was super stoked to see the result of my mornings work. Particularly, because I can still feel the feeling of accomplishment after setting yourself a goal and achieving it.

The Light, Avoca NSW © Josh Pitt

Seeya
Josh :)

I WAS BLINDED, BUT NOW I SEE...

...By the sky that is. Armed with a brand new set of Neutral Density graduated filters (AKA ND Grads), I set off to a location I had been to many times before, to test them out.
For those who are thinking "what the hell are you talking about!", let me give you a quick explanation.
Filters are either circular and screwed onto the lens or square/rectangle and in a specially affixed mount on the lens. There are many types of filters available today and what they are designed to do is - create effects, correct exposures and improve photos in general. The particular set I got are a series of tinted black to clear filters with varying intensities. What this helps to do, is to correct the exposure between the sky and foreground/subject. For example - when the sun rises, to a camera, the sky is a lot brighter than the foreground and needs help to expose everything correctly or as we would see it in real life. Cameras are similar to the human eye in many ways, but one thing it cannot do is compute multiple exposures in one scene. The human eye is so sophisicated it adjusts to the scene depending what we are focussed on. What this filter does is cuts out a % of light to a certain parts of the scene so it comes back into line with the fully exposed (or clear part of the filter).

In the image below I used the filters to tone down the sky so I could have the clouds visable (because they were very cool!) at the same time as the waves. I liked this shot because of the contrast water. Not in colour, but in movement. You'll notice many different things happening - to the right third of the image, the wash is almost frozen, whereas the the mid-bottom left a wave has broken right on the shore and catapulted towards me and drenched my socks you can also see the future breaks slowly moving towards the shore.

Seeya
Josh :) 

Rush, Avoca Beach NSW © Josh Pitt

CHANGING FACES....

Sometimes if pays to go back to locations you have already shot. Because they are always evolving or you may have missed something first time around.

I began this shoot with an idea where I wanted to go, but soon changed my mind because I didn't realise the amount of trees and things in the way. I started to really run late, with a fast rising sun. I made my way down to the surf club carpark at Terrigal, to try for plan B.

I got my power walk on (I really felt the buuurn) and quickly found myself around plan B - the lagoon! After some recent heavy surf it has developed a raging channel - you can see the clean cuts in the sand. It was even collapsing as I was shooting. You can see the big cracks! But what caught my attention was the water going in and out of the channel to go with the shine of the sun across the water.

Again there was a very clear sky, so other parts of the scene needed to capture people's attention in lieu of this. I hope I managed to do this.

Josh :)

Out to Sea, Terrigal NSW © Josh Pitt

SEE THE WORLD DIFFERENTLY (FINAL PART)...

Finally #1. How this was captured will blow your mind!

Truly amazing result!

SEE THE WORLD DIFFERENTLY (PART 4)...

Numbers 3 & 2 from the National Geographic editor-in-chief's top ten of 2009.
Awesome!

SEE THE WORLD DIFFERENTLY (PART 3)...

Another installment in National Geographic top ten photos of 2009. This video contains the 6th, 5th and 4th images, as judged by editor-in-chief Chris Johns.
I hope these are helping you to see the world differently....

SEE THE WORLD DIFFERENTLY (PART 2)...

Two more extraordinary images and their stories.

Josh :)

SEE THE WORLD DIFFERENTLY...

Hi Guys,

The other night I was watching a show on the National Geographic Channel and a show called Most Amazing Photo's. I think the title says it all! Below is a clip of some of the editor-in-chief, Chris Johns' Top ten favourite photos as published in Nat Geo mag.

I think anyone wanting to become a real photographer, needs to watch this and see what it takes to create some of the most emotive images ever.
Nat Geo photographers have a unique skill to be able to look at the world differently to everyone else.

I hope you enjoy! I also hope it gives you some inspiration to challenge yourself with photography.
Josh :)