Hi all,

Another extreme adventure on the Great Ocean Road last weekend. A couple of nights over at Aireys Inlet. This particular evening was very special indeed with rainbows, sun glows and dreamy reflections on the glistening sand.

3 days of rain and cloudy skies, things were looking fairly bleak as far as photography goes, fortunately one of the evenings produced a little magic for me to work with. Throughout the day we had rain with the occasional sunny break, rainbows were prevalent and the clouds had a little bit of substance about them.

Whilst scouting around the local beach area in Aireys Inlet l stumbled upon a small rocky outcrop, the tide had been out at that time, therefore l was able to have a good look around and decided that l would do my evening photo shoot there.

At 4pm the tide was forecast to be relatively high, which meant that l would have some water motion in and around the rocky outcrop I intended to photograph. The rocky outcrop was somewhat cluttered, therefore my objective was to isolate one or two larger rocks and use them as foreground interest with the receding water creating lovely patterns around them (when using slower shutter speeds, it helps to create lovely streaks in the water patterns).

Generally, l slow my camera shutter speed down to 2 seconds or less. The tide was now on its way in, l wacked on my waterproof shoes and started shooting. The water rushed in and around my tripod and legs, at times the water level reached above my knees, l grasped onto my tripod and stood my ground, waiting for the water to recede before moving from my current spot.

Its vitally important to wait for the incoming water to recede as it may be quite high and the visibility around your feet is blurred with water, making it nearly impossible to make out small rocks which may cause you to trip or lose your footing.

There was a lovely golden glow emanating from the clouds above, reflecting lovely golden hues back onto the wet sandy beach, the colours were rich and vibrant and the glow was superb. A few drops of rain threatened to ruin the light parade but soon dissipated and another rainbow set the skies aglow.

Evenings like these are few and far between, I’m so happy to have been there as a witness to the beautiful spectacle. Please enjoy the images.

Darren J.