Afternoon in the Heat!

Newcastle, and the rest of Australia, are in the grip of a heatwave!   Here at Newcastle the temperatures have been in the mid to high 30's (Celcius).  Today it is currently 38℃ (about 100℉ in our backyard) and considering it is 3pm here at the moment, it could climb further!.  For the last week the lowest overnight temperature was 21℃  and  the highest day temperature was 40.2℃ (104.4℉ for my friends who are not metric!)  The constant heat of a heatwave just sucks the energy from you!

I have been basically hibernating in the air conditioning at home when not working; it is just too hot to be out and about with cameras.  Perspiration makes for wet, sticky hands which can ruin the leatherette on a camera.  I had a melanoma removed some years ago and I am a bit averse to go out into a day that will fry you after 5 minutes!

So, when the temperature dropped for a short while last week, I grabbed my gear and headed on out to the beach at Newcastle.

My intention that afternoon was to hang around until Sunset.  The big Aussie sky was filled with Cirrocumulus Cloud (little fluffy ones that remind me of a school of fish for some reason!)  I figured that if I went to the end of Nobbys Breakwall, I would get some lovely Sunset photos with these clouds being present for most of the afternoon!

I arrived a couple of hours early for Sunset and went down to Nobbys Beach to start off the afternoon.  It is a lovely beach and you can see all the way up  the beach to Nobbys Lighthouse and the Meteorological buildings.

A couple of photos there and then moved down to Newcastle Beach.  An obligatory photo of the Ocean Baths Pumphouse and of people wading in the Canoe Pool just in an effort to keep cool.

From there I drove up to Nobbys Beach and began the 1.5km walk up to the end of the Newcastle Breakwall.  It wasn't too bad, about 31℃ but there was a sea breeze which made it bearable.  On reaching the end of the breakwall I turned to see where exactly the Sun would set and how I could work it in with the lighthouse and the water in the harbour.  Uh-oh!  My lovely high altitude Cirrocumulus Cloud, which would've looked great just after Sunset, had been replaced by darker Altostratus Cloud which blocked the Sun as it was going down and put paid to any chance of a golden Sunset!

Now, this had happened to me before and I have learned to stick it out because you never know just what will happen!  I took a few photos from the end of the breakwall but unfortunately, the cloud just got thicker as it moved eastward and blocked the Sun entirely.  No lovely golden Sunset for me on that night!

It wasn't an entire waste of the afternoon.  I did get some good photos of Nobbys Beach and down at the Canoe Pool earlier.

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Here you can see those beautiful clouds that had me all excited about the possibilities of the Sunset!
Nobbys Beach - Newcastle, Australia.

Looking up to Nobbys Point from Shortland Esplanade.
Newcastle, Australia

The Sun was getting low and the exposure was a little blown out.  I took three bracketed shots at +/- 1 EV
to merge for a High Dynamic Range photo which I edited with the Nik Collection HDR Efex Pro software.
Ocean Baths - Newcastle, Australia

The same photo as the one above.  Converted to Black & White in the Nik Collection
Silver Efex Pro software.  It is part of my work flow to see how photos will look in Black & White as I edit.
Really liked how this one has turned out!
Ocean Baths - Newcastle, Australia.

It was much cooler on the coast!  This young bloke had the right idea!

See that 'waterhole' in the middle of the photo?  The water in there comes

in via a crevice in the rock.  Each time the waves crash against the rocks

the water pours in through the crevice and the water level rises.  Mind you

it disappears just as quick too!  This young man spent most of his time

jumping in and out as the water reached its highest point.  The man standing

on the rocks was counting the waves to determine the set for when the

biggest wave would hit.

Rock Pools near the Ocean Baths - Newcastle, Australia.

The leap of faith.  Here we see that young fella jumping in when the water
was at it's peak.  I should probably have changed lenses to get a bit
closer in with this shot but there was a lot of sea spray around and I
didn't want anything to get into the camera!
Rock Pools near the Ocean Baths - Newcastle, Australia.

As soon as I had taken this I knew exactly how I was going to edit it.  Taking the photo directly into the Sun
didn't do much for the exposure and I knew how good it would look with an edit in the Nik Collection
Silver Efex Pro software.  I used the 'Film Noir' preset, which gives a very contrasty finish and added
a burnt vignette.  I think this edit highlights the very mood of the afternoon; everything burned to a
black finish by the hot Sun as the surfer seeks the cool solace of the water.
Canoe Pool - Newcastle, Australia.

Many people decided to just go for a quick paddle in the shallows of the Canoe Pool.
Newcastle, Australia.

This Newcastle Icon is like a magnet for photographers.  The Pump House
of the Ocean Baths.  Every time I see it the light is different in some way and
so I simply have to take a photo.  There was a big blowout in exposure
where the shade from the Ocean Baths wall cut across the Pump House so
I bracketed my shots +/- 2 EV to obtain a better overall exposure after merging
in the Nik Collection HDR software.  Further edited in PS using the Burn
& Dodge tool.
Ocean Baths Pump House - Newcastle, Australia.

So, this is how the lovely high altitude cloud turned out when I reached the end of the breakwall
to get some Sunset photos.  As you can see, the heavier cloud in the west had moved in and was moving
east so it was going to be blocking all that lovely golden light that I had hoped I would capture.
It was still a lovely afternoon out on the breakwall though!
Newcastle, Australia

And this is what was left of the 'Sunset'.  I was lucky to capture that little bright gold hint of colour!
Nobbys Lighthouse - Newcastle, Australia