Landscape Photography Compositions At Pulpit Rock On The Mornington Peninsula
Pulpit Rock Landscape Photography
Explore This Incredible Photography Location At Cape Schanck On The Mornington Peninsula
My Favourite Landscape Photography Location Just Outside Of Melbourne
When it comes to landscape photography locations the Mornington Peninsula has plenty to offer. The whole peninsula is within 1.5 hours driving distance of Melbourne and is full of wonderful beaches and rocky coastal features - not to mention the wineries if you fancy some pre-sunset shoot drinks!
My favourite location to visit on the Mornington Peninsula is a sea stack called Pulpit Rock, located at the tip of Cape Schanck. If I’m in a rush to decide where to head out for landscape photography I am usually drawn to this location. Whether it’s sunrise or sunset (or pitch black for my astrophotography shoots) I always have fun and usually come away from here with an image I’m happy with.
Where On The Mornington Peninsula Is Pulpit Rock?
Finding it is easy. First head to the Cape Schanck Lighthouse car park and then head to the clearly marked footpath which takes you down towards the southern tip of the peninsula. After about 15 minutes of boardwalk, which will provide you with glimpses of Pulpit Rock along the way, you’ll hit a black, pebble beach at the end of which is your destination!
Be careful of the tide and climbing over the rocks when you’re down there but apart from that it’s a relatively easy location to visit.
Is It Best To Photograph Pulpit Rock At Sunrise Or Sunset?
I really dislike hearing the phrase “this is a great sunset OR sunrise location”. It sounds restrictive and discourages photographers from visiting a location until the perfect time and conditions. I agree that there are benefits to photographing locations at a particular time of day but generally I try not to be biased towards sunrise or sunset.
What App To Use When Planning Photography Trips?
I use PhotoPills to help plan my photography trips. Within the app you set the map pin to where you want to shoot and can then overlay where the sun will rise and set. It also lets you change the date so you can plan ahead to a particular time when you will be visiting a location. If you intend on doing some astrophotography it will also let you check on the position of the moon and Milky Way at your chosen location. It’s a very powerful app and quite simple to use.
As you can see from the screen grab I took of the app, Pulpit Rock is located at the southern tip of Cape Schanck therefore both sunrise (yellow line) and sunset (orange line) are unobstructed. The light direction will obviously change but all that means is you can get creative with your compositions.
This is one of the reasons I like Pulpit Rock as it allows for photography opportunities all year round and the area is equally stunning at both sunrise and sunset.
Which Compositions Work Well At Pulpit Rock?
Whether a composition works well or not is very subjective but there are a few that I really like and would highly recommend taking a look at on any visit to Pulpit Rock.
Pulpit Rock Water Flow At High Tide
The basalt rock ledge surrounding Pulpit Rock is appropriately named the ‘Devil’s Desk’. I think this has a lot to do with the black colouring of the rocks but it also reminds me that care is needed when photographing here. I’ve seen some very large waves crash over the ledge so you really need to keep an eye on the tide and watch out for any freak waves when composing your shots.
This composition is one I keep going back to and works best at high tide and when there is a bit of movement in the water. Wait for the sea to recede before opening your shutter so that you get nice streaks as the water drains away from you. This works really well at relatively slow shutter speeds like 0.3 or 0.5 seconds.
Algae And Rock Pools Create A Stunning Foreground During a Sunrise Photography Shoot At Cape Schanck
Unlike the first composition this second shot is only possible at low tide. At high tide this area is inaccessible plus the algae and the rock pools are mostly submerged by the sea. When the tide is low however, a whole new area of Devil’s Desk is revealed and allows for a slightly different perspective of Pulpit Rock itself. Notice on this image how much thinner the sea stack looks compared to the first comp?
Whilst Pulpit Rock is the main subject of this shot, a good foreground is really important to add extra interest and help draw you into the image. As I walked across the rocks and saw the sun rising above the horizon I noticed lots of vibrant green algae leading toward a rock pool with Pulpit Rock standing in the background. I didn’t need to look too long to know that I liked this composition!
I wanted to smooth out the water but liked the detail in the clouds so I ended up taking two images. For the water I used a shutter speed of 30 seconds and then took a second shot at 1/50th for the sky. A simple blend in Photoshop resulted in an overall image that I am really pleased with.
How To Create Golden Sunstars In Your Landscape Photography
This shot of Pulpit Rock wasn’t planned at all but ended up as one of my favourites. After the previous image was taken I had started walking back to my backpack (safely kept away from the water!). As I clambered over some rocks I noticed a large, clear rock pool with an algae covered rock visible just below the surface. To me it resembled an eye but this might have just been my tiredness after the early start. The sun was peeking above the horizon by now so I didn’t have much time to find a good position to setup my tripod.
Happy with my composition I thought it’d be good to try and capture some sunstars to balance out the left part of the image. They’re really quite simple to create and can be quite visually appealing.
You need to set your lens to a fairly small aperture. I find about F11-F16 works nicely but each lens is different so it’s worth experimenting with YOUR setup. Different lenses also create slightly different shapes and lengths of star depending on the internal construction of the lens. You also need to catch the sun when it appears to be quite small in the sky, such as just after sunrise (using a rock or other landmark to hide a portion of the sun can help with this). Finally you need to ensure you don’t blow out the highlights so I expose for the brightest part of the image and if necessary I’ll bracket the shot to ensure I have a few exposures to work with.
This shot was a single exposure taken at F11. I was able to bring up the shadows in Lightroom enough to avoid needing to blend multiple exposures together. The rock pool and its submerged ‘eye’ make a great foreground and draw the viewer toward Pulpit Rock. Balancing the left of the image with the sunstar is a finishing touch that I’m really pleased with.
Astrophotography At Cape schanck
Astrophotography can be quite daunting for beginners just starting out in photography. I know I initially thought it was something that required me to have specialist equipment for a realistic chance of capturing the stars and Milky Way. I was wrong. All you need is to plan properly and know how to use the gear you already own. After my first ‘successful’ astrophotography trip to Cape Schanck I wrote this dedicated beginners tutorial which hopefully dispels some of the myths around this photography genre.
More Landscape Photography Locations On The Mornington Peninsula
If you have a few days to spend on the peninsula you’ll probably want to venture beyond Cape Schanck. Luckily there are plenty of other fantastic locations to discover, each as stunning as Pulpit Rock. On the northern coast you have the bayside beaches and piers to capture. Shelley Beach Pier in Portsea is a wonderful example and a lovely place to relax and enjoy some landscape photography. On the southern coast you have Dragon’s Head Rock, Hastings, London Bridge and Bridgewater bay to name just a few. Mornington Peninsula really is a fantastic place to visit with your camera, I hope you have as much fun there as I do.
