Winter is a great time for landscape photography in Tasmania. The sun is quite low in the sky for most of the day meaning that the light is much softer at this time of year. Another advantage is that sunrise is very late in midwinter, with the sun rising after 7:00 am for quite a number of weeks. I took advantage of this late start a couple of weeks ago with a visit to the Friendly Beaches at Freycinet National Park. The Friendly Beaches is quite popular with photographers as it faces east, making it great for pre-dawn skies and long exposure seascapes.

Photographing this Friendly Beaches Sunrise

This morning was very clear, and the pre-dawn light lasted for a long time. My general rule of thumb for sunrise photos is to be in location one hour before sunrise, and this morning I didn’t have to wait long before the horizon was tinged with colour. I took the shot below just after the sun came up, but while the overall scene was still dark enough to allow a shutter speed slow enough to smooth out the ocean surface just a little. I even had a couple of curious gulls keep me company on this shoot – they were there for most of the time I was actually, and upon reviewing the photos from the morning it was interesting to see how much they hopped around on the rocks out there.

Sunrise over the Friendly Beaches, Tasmania

The Friendly Beaches is a lot more accessible than most of the National Parks that make up the Tasmanian wilderness, so one problem I often come across in areas like this is footprints in the sand. In winter there are far fewer visitors, so even though this area is easy to get to, photography trips at this time of year will still reward you with images of isolation and peace. The clear calm conditions of this morning were in fact a stark contrast to the dark and stormy afternoon of my previous visit a year or so ago – Friendly Beaches.

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