Mindil Beach Sunset, Darwin NT

There is nothing quite like a Top End sunset. If you ever want to capture images of dramatic skies, storms, lightning, amazing colours, you should definitely put Darwin on your to-do list. I used to experience them mainly from the driver’s seat of a tour bus. Lucky for me many of my tour guide friends moved to Darwin and keep inviting me up there. This time I was visiting my dear friend Jane and she was kind enough to take me down to the famous Mindil Beach Markets. While there we bought some amazing seafood and enjoyed a gorgeous sunset from the beach.

I was only in Darwin for the weekend and this was my one opportunity to capture a decent sunset photo from Mindil Beach. I tried to get away with taking the lazy approach by eating my oysters and activating my intervalometer. It didn’t take long to realise this was not going to work. There were a lot of people around and most of the shots were getting ruined. I finished my lovely dinner and decided to get mobile.

Initially, I was a little frustrated with the number of people gathering on the shoreline, as it was making it hard to get even one image without them in it. After a while, I decided to go with the flow and incorporate the silhouettes of the beachgoers. Things improved from then on as I started composing the images differently. I was also lucky to have a few different types of boats pass by. My favorite image ended up being one of just a sailboat and the glowing sun. I did also like the image of the two men trying to capture the moment with their smartphones.

The sky surrounding Darwin was blanketed with a thick smokey haze, which helped intensify the sunset colors. The smoke had come from all of the bush fires burning throughout the upper regions of the Northern Territory.

When I processed the images back in Adobe Lightroom I created a couple of presets and applied them to many of the shots. I decided to do a little creative editing and play with the highlights and white balances. I am pleased with the results and look forward to heading to Darwin again one day.

 

Mindil Beach Sunset Gallery

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