Day 2: Terry and chasing the light
The second day of our Syndey adventure began with breakfast and a bit of exploring in “The Rocks” area of the city. Tara did some research, and found a lovely café that served brekkie al fresco. We also got our first taste of the Australian delicacy, Vegemite. It is not nearly as bad as some people might lead you to believe. It is plenty salty, and a little goes a long way. We both enjoyed it, and I look forward to trying it again.
After brekkie, I talked Tara into walking down the street, so I could buy a new filter for my camera. Along the way, we passed many fancy schmancy designer shops (think Louis Viton and the like). Tara took a detour to the Nike store to see if there was anything that she couldn’t get back home. Spoiler alert: it was the same shoes and clothes, but with higher price tags.
After food and window shopping, we went to our rendezvous point for our photography tour. The location was in “The Rocks” and under a clock tower. We got there a few minutes early and had an exquisite time watching fellow travelers. The highlight was probably when a small group of teenagers decided to cram themselves into a small red phone booth. Fun Fact, Australia still has pay telephones and phone booths. And, they’re all begging to be crammed full of hormonal teenagers. Honestly, they might as well have large neon signs stating as much.
Right on time, a gentleman came up to Tara and introduced himself as Terry. Terry was our local photographer and tour guide for the day. We shook hands, jumped into his van, and headed off to the Blue Mountains. Terry started by letting us know that the other couple scheduled to take the tour had cancelled, and Tara and I had him all to ourselves. What luck! As he was driving, Terry filled us in on a little trivia and history factoids while taking back roads through the city to avoid traffic.
Terry was kind enough to keep us entertained, and had plenty of stories to fill the hour and a half drive from Sydney to the Blue Mountains. I suspect he had enough stories to fill at least a six hour monologue. Terry took us to a few different locations and at each stop, we had a short hike and a view of a waterfall or a new perspective of the Blue Mountain valley. We were lucky enough to catch these large, majestic vistas with some clouds for interest, and Terry was kind enough to provide suggestions with regard to composition and camera settings to make the most of it.
The thing about clouds is that they add texture and interest to many landscape scenes making for creative compositions and beautiful photographs. The other thing about clouds is that they are full of water, are constantly growing, shrinking, or moving. There were just enough clouds at the first few stops to really punch up some of the wide angle photos, and to lend depth and scale to the scene. As the day went on, more clouds until the sky was one large grey mass.
By the time we arrived at our last viewpoint of the day, Cahill’s Lookout, the sky was a mess. It was raining off and on, and the temperature had started to drop. This was supposed to be our money shot – the sunset casting warm glows over the Blue Mountains. We risked it, walked down to the lookout point to wait, and hoped for a small break in the clouds that would paint the vista with the warm pink and orange hues of a tranquil sunset. The closer it got, the less hopeful we became. The rain started to pick up, and the direction the weather was coming from seemed even darker and more ominous.
Suddenly, the sun broke free and the sunset was upon us. We scrambled to get the angles and composition just right. It was a good thing that our tripods were already up and we had been waiting at the lookout for 20 minutes, because we had precious moments from the time we saw the sun start to poke through the clouds until it had gone down and the last vestiges of the warm glow was swallowed by the rain pregnant clouds. Terry’s insistence that we stay vigilant paid off. Tara and I have some great memories of the day and also some vibrant sunset photos to memorialize our last full day in Sydney.
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