The Great Ocean Road

G’day everyone, so this year I’m going to attempt to write a blog about my photography expeditions when I head out for a shoot.

If you know me well you will know how scary this is for me - my whole life I have struggled with spelling and grammar so please forgive me in advance for any mistakes I make!

Ok now for the first shoot for 2025:

It’s already the 6th of January (my full-time job as a chef at Southwest Healthcare keeps me fairly busy) so my shutter-finger had been itching to fire off some images in the New Year. The summer Holiday season is always so busy along The Great Ocean Road, so this is where my local knowledge of the area works in my favour to go to the secret or lesser-known beaches and viewpoints with no crowds of people.

On Friday afternoon, Kylie and I decided that after dinner I would take her out to a beach near Childers Cove. This is one that she had never been to before, and in my opinion this beach is better than Gibson Steps with three big rock formations. After walking down a sandy track we were greeted with an almost empty beach with only three or four other people. The smile and wonder on Kylie’s face as she scanned the area is why I enjoy showing off these places to people.

At one end of the long beach is a beautiful rugged and crumbly sandstone cliff with some low rock stacks at its base. The other end of the beach is the magic spot that is hard to see until you walk about 500 meters along where the three limestone sea stacks then reveal themselves. I’m mesmerized by them every time I see them up close.

I spent 20 or 30 minutes running backwards and forwards as the waves crashed on the beach trying to capture the image I wanted all with this big grin on my face like a little kid running away from the waves.

Feeling very lucky that I captured such a beautiful image as you here, I would have been happy if this was my only image for the week.

After a relaxing day on Saturday, Kylie and I then decided to have another day out on The Great Ocean Road.

This time we picked a challenging location for Sunday’s trip with 350 steep steps leading down to a beach called Wreck Beach not far from The Twelve Apostles. This beach got its name because of the shipwrecks that happened here; anchors of the Marie Gabrielle and the Fiji make for great subjects for photography (this beach can actually be very dangerous with large waves and tidal changes - it’s best to visit at low tide when the waves aren't too big and are much easier to monitor).

Once down on sea level, we then walked along to the right and there was so much to look at with the impressive cliffs featuring the patterns that the massive waves and the howling winds have made in the sandstone over hundreds of years.

When we finally reached the anchors I was relieved. Not from physical exertion, but to see that the sand that had almost covered the anchors on my previous visit had since been washed away to reveal the beautiful rock pools that the rusted structure lays in.

The image below is from that previous visit

This time however we didn't have the beautiful sunset sky but instead we had dramatic moody clouds above that I think works well to tell the story of a shipwreck

Kylie also got many great images on the day and I managed to capture this one while she was working her magic

When we spent time exploring the rock pools Kylie pointed out some fish that were swimming round and waiting for high tide to set them free

This here is my favourite image from the trip and also shows how unpredictable the ocean can be

I always try to be as safe as I can, constantly watching what the tide and waves are doing … only to end up knee-deep in the water as this particular wave caught me completely by surprise while I was shooting. Beforehand the water was only just reaching the anchor but this wave covered it completely.

Knowing not to panic or to attempt to run out of it with the deep rock pools around my feet now covered in whitewash, I stood my ground. Once the water moved back out I simply walked away with my hiking boots full of water back to the safety of the beach.

That said, my hope is with every blog post in 2025 I can share more of my images and the experiences behind many of them with you.

Thanks for stopping by,

Craig