Deep into the l-o-n-g 2021 COVID lockdown, I was very keen to bust out for some shooting.
In the hope of getting some dramatic sunrise clouds, I headed up to Katoomba and Eaglehawk Lookout on Cliff Drive. This is a super easy spot to get to, being only a few metres off the roadway, and it looks southeast. It is fully fenced and even has a bench seat for your gear.
This means in September, the sun rises almost behind the three sisters, and you also get the suns rays off Mt Solitary further to the south.
There isn’t much by way of interesting foreground material, but as it turned out, the crowns of the gum trees just below the platform provided an unexpected delight when the sun hit them.
So the expectation of a dramatic sky was a washout – there was not a single cloud to be seen – but that did not detract from the majesty and beauty of the sun progressively lighting the sky and then the ridges, trees and rock faces.
As usual, make a few errors in the shoot. The biggest challenge was the stiff breeze that picked up just before dawn. Exposing the shot correctly while also trying to freeze the tree canopies in the wind was the biggest issue. Need to up the ISO and then shutter speed in future!