Greetings from Sydney

This morning, I found myself immersed in a bizarre combination of three unusual circumstances:

1.  I went out for a dawn shoot.  2.  I wanted a plain sky.  3.  I photographed the Sydney Harbour Bridge.

These days, each of these factors on its own is quite rare.

Firstly, I seldom get time or motivation to head out at dawn.  With more or less three jobs, when I get time on the weekend, I look forward to not having to be anywhere, and rising at 3am and travelling somewhere for a dawn shoot is usually far from my mind.

Secondly, I cannot stand plain skies, and generally do not even shoot if there is not good cloud cover.  I keep an eye on weather and sky condition forecasts so I know whether or not it is worth heading out.  Apart from plain skies being very boring, the light is harsh and difficult to shoot, particularly when facing east.

Thirdly, I rarely shoot the Sydney Harbour Bridge.  It is a subject that has been shot to death by seemingly just about every photographer who lives in Sydney, or who has visited Sydney.  It generally bores me in the photographic sense, and apart from one aerial flight during which I captured it from the sky, this is the first time I have photographed the bridge in a good five years.

Because I have not been out for shoots much lately, and with my recent holiday period starting, I felt the itch, and wanted to take advantage of some free time before heading to London late this week.

My original plan was to head out on Monday night and shoot a twilight cityscape, but the weather forecast was for cloud and possible rain, and sure enough, the cloud rolled in and would have ironically spoiled the image I had in mind.

So, I decided to head out for a shoot on the following morning.

Inspired by an image captured by a contact of mine, I headed to Kirribilli, on the north shore of Sydney Harbour.

I had never visited this location, let alone shot from it.

I arrived nice and early, and captured a few images from my location during the morning blue hour before the light became dull and harsh.  Unusually for my morning shoots, I was facing south-south-west rather than eastward.

While this image is what I would call a postcard shot (hence the title Greetings from Sydney) and terribly cliché, I felt the unusual desire to produce such an image, and I am happy with the result.

Published on Tuesday, 7 May, 2013.