Sydney Harbor Sunset

Here are couple of sunset photos I took last year at Sydney Harbor and surrounding areas in Australia during a business trip there in November, 2010, and these are from my album from that trip:

Sunset view of Sydney Harbor, Australia

Canon 5D Mk II, Canon 16-35mm L II, ISO 100, f7.1, 1/6 sec 

Hand-held, Av Mode, Lee GND filter

Sunset view of Sydney Harbor at Watson Bay, Australia

Canon 5D Mk II, Canon 16-35mm L II, ISO 100, f5.6, 1/4 sec 

Hand-held, Av Mode 

Sunset view of Sydney Harbor at Watson Bay, Australia

Canon 5D Mk II, Canon 16-35mm L II, ISO 100, f8, 1/8 sec 

Hand-held, Av Mode, Lee GND filter

I was lucky that I only had one weekend there to go out shooting photos during the trip, and I encountered a clear sunny days that weekend that ended with some nice sunsets.

True to the moto of "Chasing the Magic Light", I had to do some actual chasing of the sunset to get these photos.  On Saturday, I saw there was some clouds in the sky, and I expected seeing beautiful sunset, so I went to the Macquaries Chair Park east of downtown Sydney overlooking the Farm Cove bay and the Sydney Opera House, and just waited there on the rocks of the beach for the sun to set.  Sure enough, beautiful sunset colors filled the sky by dusk time.  My only regret was that I did not bring my tripod to get higher quality photos that would have better sharpness.

The following Sunday I took a ferry boat ride to Watson Bay, east of Sydney. I spotted the beach area at Green Point Reserve when I first arrived there, and seeing it facing west, I knew it must be a great spot for sunset photos.  I spent the rest of the day went to Bondi Beach first, but by later afternoon, I took a bus ride getting back to Watson Bay in a hurry, just in time for getting ready for the sunset shooting.

I walked around on the rocks at the Green Point Reserve, finding many spots that had sea waters between the rocks reflecting the sky colors.  As soon as the sky started turning red, I started running between these spots and busy with shooting.  The colors in the sky and reflections in the water were just spectacular!  By the time when I done the shooting, it's already dark, and the ferry ride back to Sydney had already stopped running, so I had to take a long bus ride back, tired and hungry. But the photos made all the chasing walk worth it!  Hope you agree.