2020-02-19 – South Coast Tour and Evening Photo Tutorial

Today we are doing a sightseeing/photo tour along the coast south of Sydney.  The tour left late, and we will be out late in order to take advantage of the softer light in the evenings.  First stop was Sublime Point Lookout where we had lovely views.

We also had good views from the Minnamurra Lookout.

By lunchtime we were at the small, seaside town of Kiama.  While our guide headed out to get some stuff for lunch and started a BBQ we wandered down to the lighthouse…

and the nearby blowhole.

The small bay west of the lighthouse was very pretty.

After a leisurely picnic lunch, we headed out inland through dairy country.  Since the recent rains the hillsides were a beautiful, lush green.

We drove up through temperate rainforest to Saddleback Mountain to get some views of the surrounding hills, the Great Dividing Range, and the coastline. 

Then it was time to start working our way back to Sydney.  First stop was Austinmer Beach.  The surf was very rough so the ‘”no swimming” flags were out.

However, this beach also has rock pools.  These pools are artificial in that they have been carved into the coastal rock right by the ocean edge.  

They are fed/filled by waves from the oceans and with the rough seas there were a lot of waves hitting the ocean side wall.  And lots of kids hanging out on the wall getting really wet by the waves. 

Parts of the coastline were pretty amazing.  We stopped at Bald Hill for views along the coastline.  Bald Hill is a famous hang gliding/parasailing location but there was no one out today.  Probably because the winds were very strong and erratic.

In the parking lot there was an ice cream truck that had a couple of begging birds.  Steve, our guide, said they were rainbow lorikeets.  However, that just didn’t look right and a Google search suggests that they were actually juvenile crimson rosellas (getting pretty good at the birding thing).

We cut the tour a bit short so that we could join the excursion company owner for a technical photo tour.  We joined the group on the far side of the bay near the Harbor Bridge.  There he worked with us on our cameras and we took lots of pictures of the bridge, skyline and opera house as the sun set. 

We got some nice sunsets and the skyline and bridge light up for the night.  

Still have a ways to go on the technical aspects of photography but learning a little bit with each photography tour.  Will look for more photo tour opportunities.