Australia Foams At The Mouth

Amazing phenomenon in sea south of Brisbane

Amazing photographs of "Crazy ocean foam ... near Sydney" like the two shown on this page are so weird that many web surfers (and some real ones) think they must be fakes.

They're real all right, but they were not taken anywhere near Sydney. They show masses of foam four meters (13 feet) deep, washed up at Yamba, a small beach and fishing resort 677km (421 miles) north of Sydney, Australia's largest city, but only 287km (178 miles) south of Brisbane, its third city.

Last week, a similar phenomenon occurred further north, at Point Cartwright, on Queensland's Sunshine Coast, just north of Brisbane.

It may be significant that Yamba lies at the mouth of the mighty Clarence River, while Point Cartwright is at the mouth of the Mooloolaba River.

A quick check shows that the Yamba photos were the work of a commercial photographer, Bill Counsell, who is more used to recording outdoor weddings. His dramatic pictures of the foam have circled the world, copied on hundreds of websites and blogs, usually without a credit line.

Counsell sold his photos to the Sydney Daily Telegraph and the London Daily Mail, and then they took off in a media frenzy, being copied globally in the press, on TV and the internet, usually without permission.

A website in Ukraine displayed the photos with captions in Cyrillic script.

"I've had an amazing response from all corners of the world, from men's girly magazines to German science magazines and everything in between," Counsell told OhmyNews International.

By Eric Shakle. Images Bill Counsell.

More.

Revisiting Summer (PHOTOGRAPHY)

Image above was taken from the top of Sir Lowry's Pass, overlooking Gordon's Bay immediately below.

Boulders.

On the road to Malmesbury

Gulls at Mykonos

Above image is a 5 year old me and my mother, Natal Coast (near Mtunzini).

Outside Oudtshoorn.

Summer in Black and White, and a Dash of Red (PHOTOGRAPHY)

Above image is Candice van der Leek.

Voices of Summer (PHOTOGRAPHY)

Image below (which I think is the pic of the bunch) wasn't taken by me. Unfortunately I haven't made it to the beach thus far this summer. Also not sure how many girls in bikinis would put their hands in the air and shout: "me, me, me!" were I to appear on the beach with a camera. More likely they'd go: "Who is this weirdo...?"

Awash (PHOTOGRAPHY)

Summer Holiday Dreams (PHOTOGRAPHY)

People (Black and White Photography)

Roxanne (PHOTOGRAPHY)

Roxanne (PHOTOGRAPHY)

At at around 4pm I left work to do this photo shoot. Like the JM Neethling shoot, it seemed like far from ideal conditions. Chilly, overcast and just bleh. But it turned out to be a lot of fun, and despite a pretty limited environment (ie my loft apartment and the pool) we got creative and into a nice place to shoot some really exquisite stuff.

What's compelling about her is that unusual combination of sweetness and sheer strength. Those muscles, the sexy lines, that's not from eating salads and dieting. I met her at a pool (not where she usually swims) and while I intended to swim 1.5 or 2km, she swam 6km, so I ended up doing about 3. Usually she does 14km a day, in 2 x 7km sessions. There are few people around who run that far. And, I think, she has a quality in her smile - a geniuneness maybe? - that immediately makes you feel special, which is quite rare and special in itself.

She's also got all her lights on. Can't remember exactly what they were, but she aced the likes of Chemistry and Physics in matric, she did something insane like getting distinctions in everything except one of the languages. And then she has a very fun, showbizzy, actress persona, despite all that hard work.

She's done a little bit of modelling, and won some sort of acting accolade. I found she posed well, but being predisposed to genuine artistic photography, I tried to get the in-between non-posed stuff, and ended up with a nice mix. Yesterday's pictures are for her portfolio, but I think we need to do another one in the sun. Pity there isn't a tropical beach nearby.

Interestingly she observed that JM has used some of the stuff I took of her on Facebook. She recognised them when I showed her some of the stock on my computer. A bit of a surprise as I sort of lost touch with JM after the exhibition and although her mom oohed and aahed about the pictures, I was under the impression (falsely it turns out) that they didn't actually like them. Apparently JM is already in the States.

The strategy for Roxanne will probably be a wholesome start like Shape magazine. JM was a bit of a difficult study because she was quite young when I photographed her (15 or something), and although it may seem like having a famous boet would help her chances, I'm not sure it does. I think in a way it puts more pressure on her. Roxanne is 19, but the shoot reminded me a lot of the JM one.

The picture editor at Shape says:

In terms of exposure we could feature her as a Women of the month, if she could send through a bio of herself. Or if she is going towards a year-long goal we have a page called Challenge where a reader tracks a goal for a year which we feature each month, if she can send that motivation we are busy short-listing applicants for 2008. It sounds like she might have an interesting goal which would photograph well (and then I could justify buying some of your pics!)

The picture editor here has also had a look and chosen half a dozen or so pictures for the Back Page possibly.
He's getting back to me later today.

5 Random Images (PHOTOGRAPHY)

Summer Holiday Dreams (PHOTOGRAPHY)

Surfer Girl (AGAIN)

I really like this picture. I'd like to take these sort of photos this summer. Monkey's Valley and Jeffrey's are possible spots (Llandudno is being done to death).

When I went to George a few weeks ago, I quickly drove in to Harold's Bay - it's near Mossel Bay - just to check it out. I took a few arbitrary pictures of the bay (unusable), and as I got up to leave I noticed two pretty teenagers in bikini's checking me out. I thought of going back to ask them to pose (hey, something to do - beaches can be boring), but it felt like a creepy thing to do. Driving away I thought differently. If I was on the beach, looking good, I wouldn't mind someone coming around offering to take photos (not taking without permission) and emailing them to me. I dunno. Guess it's debatable.