It’s hardly the world’s best kept secret so I don’t think I am letting any cats out of any bags by saying this, but the Tessellated Pavement really is a great spot for photographing the sunrise!

Sunrise Tessellated Pavement

I have been re-visiting a few locations with my new Pentax 15-30mm and the accompanying monster Nisi filter kit and this sunrise went off like a bang. There was already colour in the sky as I arrived so I hoofed it down to the pavements and fired off a couple of test shots (eg the shot below). By test shot I mean the first few shots I do are shot at high ISO and wide open aperture for a fast shutter speed so I can review the composition etc straight away, then switch to my proper settings – ie low ISO and stopped down aperture – once my composition is sorted.

Sunrise Tessellated Pavement

Interestingly enough, after the very early colour, everything went a bit grey and uninteresting, but I needn’t have fretted, as the sky again caught fire and this was the real show for the morning.

Pre sunrise grey. Tessellated Pavement at Eaglehawk Neck.

Beautiful fiery sunset at the Tessellated Pavement

My thoughts on the Nisi filter kit – it has actually taken a bit of getting used to, but I am well and truly in the swing of things now. It is very big, but the 15-30mm is a great lens and ND filters and landscape photography go hand in hand so it is an important bit of gear to have. It will take some serious thinking the next time I do a long walk though…

It is interesting to see Pentax building giant lenses now too. As the photographic industry tends towards smaller and lighter, Pentax are releasing giants of lenses which are really quite heavy. The 15-30mm is close to 1kg, but it really is a good lens. The star shots (utilising the unique astrotracer function) I have been getting lately are very impressive, as are starbursts in lights. All in all, I am very happy with the new set up 🙂