I shot the sunrise this morning, which is a pretty rare occurrence for me – usually I’m not much of a morning person! But I’m glad I made the effort today as the sunrise was spectacular.
The dawn sky was already glowing red as I left home at 6 to walk up to the Swansea RSL and the colours just kept getting deeper and more vibrant from there until the sky exploded.
It was a great way to start the day. Definitely helped to make the morning feel a little less cold!
Photos © CJ Levinson 2022
The full moon rising over Nobbys a couple of weeks ago. I shot this from Stockton Beach; it ended up being a bit of a mad dash as I was running late and thought I was going to miss the moonrise entirely for a while, luckily I had just enough time to make it over to near the breakwall to take the shot. Really happy with how it turned out in the end.
Photo © CJ Levinson 2022
My photography group met again last Sunday in Newcastle. Originally we were going to make our way out to the breakwall at Nobbys but we decided to go for a walk along the foreshore instead as we thought we might run out of time.
It was good we did too as the sunset was spectacular over the foreshore. The colours were amazing and kept changing constantly. It was a great end to a fun day.
Photos © CJ Levinson 2022
Amazing sunset at Belmont last Sunday. The colours were amazing and just kept better and better the longer the sunset went on. One of the best sunsets of the year so far.
Photos © CJ Levinson 2022
These are from a few weeks ago in Newcastle. It was a bit of a drab, grey day but I thought the conditions would be great for some black & white shots.
Photos © CJ Levinson 2022
My photography group met again last Sunday at Speers Point Park.
Unfortunately the conditions weren’t great so it was definitely a bit of a black and white day.
It was good to see the new Multi-Arts Pavilion mima though; it was the first time I’ve seen it and the lights made for some interesting shots right at the end.
Photos © CJ Levinson 2022
I had a little time to kill in Newcastle the other evening so I thought I’d do a little night photography and try to get a shot of one of the light rail trams.
I was lucky enough that this tram was due to arrive at the Queen’s Wharf platform not long after I arrived so I was able to set up and get this shot before it departed again. I like how the colours pop against the night.
I got this one of the empty platform with car headlights streaking past which I like as well.
Photos © CJ Levinson 2022
Lovely sunset from Squid’s Ink Jetty in Belmont last night. The clouds were very dramatic and then the sky caught fire, creating quite a moody contrast.
Photos © CJ Levinson 2022
My 5 favourite photos from 2021 and a mix of my other favourites below.
2021 was a year of two halves for my photography. Australia’s isolation from the rest of the world and success in suppressing Covid led to the first half of the year feeling somewhat normal and I felt more comfortable doing some animal and portrait shoots again.
Then the Delta outbreak hit in the second half of the year and we went back in to lockdown. All my work dried up, including my food shoots (my main source of income), and I couldn’t leave my local area for months.
I also moved just before the lockdown but that worked out well in the end as it meant I had a new area to explore for my photography during lockdown.
The lockdown was difficult; I found it much harder than what we’d been through previously and going for a walk along the foreshore with my camera each day was one of the things that helped get me through it. We had some beautiful sunsets during that period and focusing on the natural beauty of the lake really helped to keep me sane.
Once the lockdown lifted things picked up a little; I was able to resume some food shoots but a lot of the restaurants I had shot for before didn’t survive this lockdown unfortunately. It took a big toll.
Towards the end of the year my photograhy group was able to start meeting again which was fun and it’s continuing to grow. And despite work drying up, I still managed to sell a number of my calendars and prints throughout the year which was good as well.
Here’s hoping 2022 will be a better year all round as we start to move in to a new stage of the pandemic.
