Mona Vale Ocean Pool, NSW
Cambo Actus DB-2, Phase One IQ4 150MP, 240mm f9 Fujinon A, f5.6 @ 60 seconds, ISO 50

I’ve photographed Mona Vale ocean pool many times – from the beach, from the rocks, from the air and from Bungan Headland, looking back over The Basin to the pool itself. I like this view because the pool sits off a pointy peninsula of bright orange sand, which you can just see on the right. It looks like an island in the middle of the ocean. So, with all this ocean around, isn’t it a little perverse to drop a pool into the middle with its surrounding concrete walls and the light pole for evening swimmers.

But I think it makes a great subject, especially with the rock platform surrounding it. And the key to creating interesting images is spending a little time discovering interesting angles.

To get the high key tones in the ocean above and below the pool, you need lots of swell. With a long exposure, breaking waves foam from left to right, creating the blurred effect with light tones. Without the breaking waves, the blue water is a much darker tone, no matter how long you blur it. It’s still a nice shot, but not what I wanted, so I keep an eye on the weather forecasts in order to time my attendance.

The water washing over the rock platform also creates a beautiful sheen on top of the darker browns below. And there’s a wonderful contrast between the natural rock shapes and the rectangular structure with its chain fence and nuclear green waters. Yes, the green water has been introduced during post-production.

Also in post-production, I’ve picked up the oranges in the sand on the right and warmed up the concrete edges of the pool, plus a rock shelf on the far left. These patches of warm colour lead the eye from side to side, and the warm colours together contrast with the cool blues of the surrounding waters, yet another device to bring the viewer’s eye to the main subject.

And the square format? The pool itself has been ‘squished’ in post-production. When processing the raw file in Capture One, the aspect slider when pushed to its limit turns the horizontal frame almost into a square, so I trim it to a precise square. It also distinguishes the photo from an in-camera capture – whether this is necessary isn’t really the issue, it’s just one of many little tools we use to try to separate our work from all the other amazing images we see every day.

You can see a selection of other images taken on Sydney's Northern Beaches on my personal website: https://www.petereastway.com/portfolio/explorations/australia?ct=2