I planned to turn up at Mudjimba beach on sunrise last weekend because we were having a low tide (best for photos) and just because it is about time I got back into the hobby.
I positioned myself inline with Old Woman Island and where the sun was going to come over the horizon. My first photo was at 4:51am and the light was quite drab. It was not until 5am (well after sunrise ) that the sky started to illuminate and look interesting.
At that point I realised that this was going to be a very different sunrise. The smoke haze from the recent bush fires was well out to sea and over the horizon. When the sun started to crest over the island it was a dull red disk. Normally you can only get this effect with a camera’s ND filter, my filter today was nature.
To add to the effect there was one squiggly cloud just over the island, making it look like the island itself was in steaming lava. There were only a few people on the beach and this guy came up to me and said, “Wow, I have never seen that before, could I have a photo?” I got his email address and sent him a couple.
Knowing I was onto something, I sent a couple to the Sunshine Coast Daily and one got published as “Reader Photo of the Day”.
I also sent some to Sunshine Coast Council and a photo got featured on their Facebook Banner.
