Bare Island, Sydney, Australia

Bare Island, La Perouse.

Ever since I saw the movie Mission Impossible II (that’s the particularly crap one, IMHO), I had made a mental note of visiting Bare Island. It’s about a 40 minute, traffic riddled, cross-town drive from my place but that’s no excuse for taking so long (actually, years) to finally venture out there.

A few weeks ago, I noticed the potential for a really nice sunset –  blue skies interspersed with layered clouds of differing volumes. I thought I had an absolutely ripe photographic opportunity to finally shoot Bare Island. Well, as so often happens, the weather gods conspired against me and by the time I arrived at La Perouse (the suburb which encompasses Bare Island), I had almost totally overcast and featureless skies. Cheated again! 😦

Despite the familiar disappointment, I scampered around the coastline in the quickly fading light and grabbed a few long exposure shots. What surprised me was the amount of tourists and wedding parties (with large photographic entourages) who where  also there; particularly considering it was a Wednesday?! Long exposures were really the only option in order to minimise the amount of people in the images I took.

Oh, and a note about Bare Island – apparently the fort that was built there was designed to prevent any back-door seaborne invasions into Sydney harbour in 1885. These days it serves as a tourist attraction and historic site. The waters surrounding the island are also a favoured scuba diving site as the reef plays home to number of colourful Australian marine animals.

Anyway, as Arnie says… “I’ll be back”

Canon 5DMIII | EF 24-70 f2.8L | Tripod | ND Filter | Post: Lightroom 5

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Bare Island, La Perouse

Bare Island viewed from the northern rock shelf

Bare Island viewed from the southern rock shelf

Looking across Botany Bay