Jack Be Nimbus, Jack Be Quick

Jack Grab The Camera, And Just Go Click

Photograph copyright: DAVID McMAHON

This shot was taken at St Kilda beach, here in Melbourne. Despite the blue sky, it was practically blowing a gale and so the light conditions, as well as the cloud, were changing constantly. I was concentrating on the sky to see if I could get any special images and I shot a lot of silhouettes and skyscapes. I was also shooting fairly quickly. Later, I looked through my camera data as I always do - and I was interested to see that I had shot about 120 frames in about 40 minutes.

In that time I walked probably three or four kilometres as well, so I was shooting three frames a minute (or one every twenty seconds) even taking into account the fact that I was moving about constantly, looking for new vantage points.

But halfway through the session, I noticed this glow of the sun through the cloud. I was very lucky. Not only did I get a frame of translucent cloud, but I was in the right spot for some other add-ons. A pure skyscape is one thing, but when you can add certain elements to the frame, you have hit the jackpot. I was able to get the palm trees in silhouette, as well as the graceful light poles and even the head-and-shoulders profiles of a couple of beach walkers.