I was so lucky to be able to capture this landscape photograph of Cable Beach in Broome.   It was sensational, exciting to watch and even more importantly it lasted for ages.

How many times have you been out for a sunset shoot only to have it disappear often within minutes?

Frustrating right?   It seems like in Perth we get less than 5mins to capture the best sunset light possible before it actually disappears.   This means you have to be super organised and super quick to make sure you get the shot you want.

The flipside is that because we are used to working so quickly here in Perth quite often when we go somewhere else to capture a sunset we are able to photograph lots of different points of views during the same sunset as we can move so quickly.

From memory this sunset seemed to last around 20mins so I was buzzing around the beach catching as many different shots as possible.

What should you do to be organised during short sunset locations?

You have to be organised and really quick.   Turn up to your location at least an hour before sunset and work out two points of view that you’d like to shoot of that location.  Why two?  What happens if the light is better from one point of view?  You want to be able to instantly switch across to the other one without having to think about it.

Take some test shots of each point of view to make sure that you’re happy with the composition, again you probably won’t have a lot of time up your sleeve so pre planning your composition is only going to help you out when sunset happens.

If you do at least those two things you should be good to go when sunset arrives and then prompty disappears!

Any other suggestions?  I’d love to hear them!

Happy Shooting,

Jamie Paterson

Recently I went for a drive from Perth to a place called Nannup as it has some spectacular farmland surrounded by hills.   Its a 3.5hr drive from Perth but I wasn’t disappointed at all, as the hills and light played their part in producing this shot for me.

What really attracted me to this scene was the stunning light poking through the clouds and lighting up parts of the hill.  Landscape photography doesn’t get much easier than this!

How Was The Shot Taken?

To get this shot I took 8 separate images all using manual mode to ensure that I had exactly the same light in each shot.   To work out what settings I needed I put the camera into AV mode and pointed it at the brightest part of the scene in front of me.   The camera then said it would’ve used:

F16, 160th of a second at ISO 100 so I changed my camera to manual mode and used those settings.   Nothing to difficult right?

Manual Settings Worked Out.  Time To Take The Shot:

So now that I knew what settings to use, I placed my camera on top of my tripod and made sure the tripod and camera were level.  I then took 8 separate shots and made sure each one was correctly focused and I made sure that each shot overlapped the other one by about 30%.

I made sure that I waited until the hills were actually lit up before I took the shots as that is what I was after.   Once I had this image in camera, it was time to head home and piece it together in Photoshop, but that is another story.

I’d love to hear any comments you have on this photo.

Thanks,

Jamie Paterson

Ocean Beach in Denmark, Western Australia is a breathtakingly stunning beach and it never ceases to amaze me every time I visit it.

Just look at the crystal clear water in the inlet its just fantastic.   Ocean Beach has some amazing surf and its rarely crowded, on this particular day there were only three people out in the surf having a blast.

Wilsons Inlet which is pictured is also a haven for fisherman and lots of fish can be caught as they run in between the ocean and the inlet.

I’m so thankful that places like this are only a few hours from my home here in Perth and I realise I’m truly blessed to be able to experience places like this and to be able to bring my Australian landscape photography to you.

To get this shot I used the following equipment:

- Canon 1Ds MkIII

- Canon 16-35mm F/2.8 lens

I shot this in manual mode and used the following settings:

F18

ISO 100

Shutter – 125th of a sec.

I hope this helps you in your shooting.  If you have any questions please feel free to ask.   If you would like to see more of my Australian landscape photography please click on the link.

Thanks,

Jamie Paterson

Hi Everyone,

I am extremely proud to be a part of this Art Auction which is being held to raise funds for reaseach into cancer affecting children   As a father of two very young boys and surviving a very brief and lucky scrape with cancer this subject is very dear to my heart.  So when I was asked to donate a photography I had no hesitation whatsoever and provided a 40in print of Cottesloe Beach to the auction.

If you are in Perth and would like to attend the event please do so.   If you are in Perth and can’t make it please spread the word.

Thanks,

Jamie Paterson

I simply love the clouds in this photo so much.  Its what makes the photo for me.   Yes the light is awesome and the waves are pretty cool, but its the clouds and the way that they are lit up which blows me away.   They remind me of the photo I managed to get up in Broome recently.

With Australia being so diverse it all always providing great opportunities for Australian landscape photography.

Taking Photos Can Be Easy

To get this shot I didn’t use any fancy filters or a tripod, I simply set the camera to AV priority F13, ISO 100 and took the shot and as you can see it still turned out to be a really nice photo.   Sometimes you’re better off just heading out and taking shots and experimenting than you are worrying about if you have the correct filter on or if the photo is a little too dark.

Who knows?  You might just suprise yourself and create an award winning photography.

If you like this photo and you want to see more Australian landscape photography please click on the link.

Thanks,

Jamie Paterson

Hi Everyone,

I really like this shot, so many elements in it call out to my senses.   The ship in the background making its way to its next destination, water movement and of course I love the starfish in the photo as well.

Normally I go to a beach called North Cottesloe but I’ve shot there quite a bit recently so I decided to head to another beach.  This beach isn’t one that I’d normally consider shooting at because its quite featureless with just a small sand beach that is normally covered in lots of weeds.

However, we’ve had quite a few storms here of late and most of the sand has been stripped back exposing lots of these awesome rocks.   I noticed last winter that this beach had the potential to provide a shot like this.

If enjoy seascape photography its really important to notice what happens to your local beaches during certain seasons.   If I hadn’t noticed last winter that these rocks became exposed after heavy winter storms I probably wouldn’t have captured this shot.  Its not a bad idea to keep notes on how your local beaches look when you visit them so that you know where to go if after a specific shot.

If you enjoyed this photo and would like to see more seascape photography please just follow the link.

Thank You,

Jamie Paterson