I love Noosa. This must be one of the most picturesque places in Australia. The weather has been perfect in Queensland since I flew here a few days ago, warm and not a cloud in the sky…. until today. I have been soaking up the sun and warmth all week.

Got up early, went for a run around the national park to take in all that Noosa has to offer. I ended up running (well, walking most of the time) with other early-rises, along the beach, boardwalk, footpath….straight to the coffee shop. With the relatively warm weather, there were people out having brekkie and relaxing at the outdoor cafe’s and coffee shops on Hastings Street. You know what they say….”when in rome, do as the romans do” so I had to give one or two of them a try….glad I did:)

Noosa and the surrounding area has been photographed to death, there are postcards everywhere with beautiful images of this area. I wanted to show this place in a different light, using my own style – slow shutter/moody images, most of them shot as black and white in camera. I have included one colour image.

I would love some feedback from the readers of this blog. What do you prefer? b&w or colour? Please add your reply below. I will post more b/w or colour images depending on the response.

Look forward to flying back home to Port Stephens tomorrow. Enjoy. Brent

Steve and Oonagh came to me asking for a panorama landscape image of Salamander Bay, just down the road from where they live in Corlette. I was up for the challenge and whenever I had the chance I would drive there and check the tide, wind and sun direction. It was a lot more difficult than I though to get the tide, wind and sun combination correct for the perfect shot…took me 3 months and about 6 different photo sessions. Below is the result – printed on canvas, hanging in their home. They are thrilled with the print. Soon I’ll put this print on moodsofportstephens website for anyone to order. I’m in the process of shooting my fine art series right now…..stay tuned. Brent

We have just come back from a quick getaway in the blue mountains – west of Sydney. Mid winter in the mountains is really cold, got up to 5 deg in the day but the air is clear and the views are unbelievable. Seeing as the kids are on holiday, we decided to check out a different part of the blue mountains, so we packed in the dogs, kids and all my camera gear and stayed at an Alpaca farm near Bilpin. Well, the dogs were not too impressed with the alpacas (look like Llamas), but the kids were and they loved the farm stay too. We all loved the wood burning fire every night.

I photographed a panorama of the grand canyon from Evans Lookout, and now I know why they are called the blue mountains…see if you notice the blue haze in the distance.

Had to stop and get a pic of the old trucks too. Enjoy. Brent

Over the weekend a large swell hit our beaches, from One mile beach, to box beach, the surf was pumping. After experiencing the force of the waves first hand at one mile, I packed in my camera gear and headed for box beach, where the wave becomes super hollow and is closer to the beach for shooting.

Got there on Sunday morning, the parking lot was full. I passed a few surfers walking off the beach with broken boards. Even thought the surf had dropped in size from the day before, there was still a lot of action to be had in the water. Below are a few images I shot of surfers and body boarders having the time of their lives. Enjoy. Brent

Last weekend the Nelson Bay Hash House Harriers (running group) had a weekend away at Riverwood Downs, between Dungog and Gloucester. We arrived on Saturday afternoon (had a few shoots in the morning) just in time for the main run. Luckily someone had to make sure the fire was OK and watch all the kids….ME. Only 1 injured kid after an hour – no one will ask me again;)

Took some timelapse images and made this movie. I also had a chance to try out my new slider, last two scenes in the movie. Make sure you watch it in high definition…..worth it.

Great weekend away with some crazy people. I did get a few rural/farm landscapes too on the Sunday morning, before the mist dissipated. Check out the images below.

Enjoy. Brent

Sunday was ANZAC day, and I managed to get up really early and experience the dawn service in Nelson Bay. It was totally dark but I managed to get a few images here and there, and the rain held off for about an hour. What an emotional event, can’t image what the diggers went through. I did manage to get some landscape images after sunset at Birubi rocks, while everyone else was playing two-up and celebrating. Long shutter speeds ….5 minutes (see the southern cross).

Below is a little history about ANZAC day from Wikipedia. Enjoy, Brent.

Anzac Day is a national day of remembrance in Australia and New Zealand, and is commemorated by both countries on 25 April every year to honour members of theAustralian and New Zealand Army Corps (ANZAC) who fought at Gallipoli in Turkey during World War I. It now more broadly commemorates all those who died and served in military operations for their countries.

Anzac Day marks the anniversary of the first major military action fought by Australian and New Zealand forces during the First World War.^[1] The acronym ANZAC stands for Australian and New Zealand Army Corps, whose soldiers were known as Anzacs. Anzac Day remains one of the most important national occasions of both Australia and New Zealand.^[2] This is a rare instance of two sovereign countries not only sharing the same remembrance day, but making reference to both countries in its name.

My first timelapse video of Shoal Bay at night. Climbed Tomaree Headland at sunset and setup my canon 5D markII and canon 7D cameras to shoot this short video. Took about 90 minutes worth of footage for this 15 second video. What do you think?

Below are a few stills I shot at the same time, all very long exposures (3-5minutes). Which one is better? Enjoy. Brent

Last weekend we spent 2 nights near Dungog, an hour inland from Newcastle. Dungog is a unique town with it’s historic homes and super wide streets. This is the main settlement for the surrounding farms and the pub I photographed had quite a few farmers and workers (in their high visibility outfits) having a cold beer after work….quite oblivious to the unbelievable sunset taking place above them. Love these old aussie pubs. I took many angles and once or twice I was in the middle of the main road with my tripod setup (not a busy town on a Monday night).

During the day I scouted the area and found this dilapidated old farm house. After a long walk through the tall grass I managed to get close enough to shoot, had to dodge a few cows on the way there.

Still can’t believe my luck with that sunset, doesn’t often do that for me. Enjoy…Brent

I have always wanted to photograph this area around seal rocks, and sugarloaf point lighthouse. We went camping with the family and a few friends for a night at seal rocks holiday park. Didn’t know if the weather would hold out, but it did and we were only rained on in the morning. We hiked up to the lighthouse after 9pm at night, beautiful walk through the overhanging trees, and finally up the hill to where the lighthouse sits. Most of these were shot with an exposure of over 2 minutes, and I had the chance of running down and adding some light to the right hand side of the lighthouse with my led torch (blue light). The full moon illuminated the structure so much that some of these images look like daylight.

Do you prefer the black and white or colour images? I haven’t made up my mind yet? I do like the arty look of these images…more long exposure landscapes will be coming over the next few months.

I did manage to sneak in a surf the next morning in front of the holiday park, really good right hander off the point.

Enjoy. Brent

Image above is backlit by the full moon. The one below is of my friend - Harlan trying to stay still while I took the torch and lit him up from behind the the stair railing, lots of fun!!!

I have always wanted to visit and photograph tropical north queensland in australia and the great barrier reef.

We had family from the usa visiting us, and we had all been working really hard recently with spring weddings and portraits on the beach. This was the perfect time for a quick break up north.

Unfortunately, Cairns and Port Douglas have only had 10% of the average rainfall for this time of the year. This means that the rainforest is not wet, and some of the streams have dried up. I really wanted to capture the running water and moss on the rocks. I did manage to get to Mossman Gorge and photographed this awesome area. The river and gorge are surrounded by rainforests and I was lucky to photograph on an overcast day, that way I could get the “milky water effect” using a slow shutter speed.

The day we went to the barrier reef was one I will never forget. 1.5 hour trip out to the reef from Port Douglas (50km out to sea) was a bit rough with 20 knot winds, but once we got there I realised it was totally worth the ride. The reef looks so unbelieveable from the boat, and even better once we were underwater.

Great Barrier Reef from below

Wild croc

Barrier Reef from above

Mossman Gorge

Me underwater – Thanks Stacy for taking the pic.

Sunrise on four mile beach – Port Douglas