Sunset Bliss: The Twisted Tree at Cape Schanck

Some photos come from careful planning. This one came from curiosity and a little spare time before dark.

I was heading down to Cape Schanck on the Mornington Peninsula for a night shoot. The aurora forecast was promising, the kind of forecast that tells you the Lady might dance tonight, and I'd arrived with time to spare before the sky got dark enough. Instead of waiting in the car park, I decided to explore a road I'd driven past many times without ever really looking at: the one heading towards the Cape Schanck golf course, just a short way from the lighthouse.

That's where I found the tree.

The Twisted Tree

It stands right beside the road, just behind the fence, on its own. Years of coastal wind have bent and twisted its trunk and branches into a shape that looks almost sculpted, as if it had been frozen in the middle of a dance. On an ordinary afternoon you might drive straight past it. Against the right sky, it becomes the whole picture.

And the sky that evening was right. Sunsets at Cape Schanck are always beautiful, with the sun dropping towards the sea and the whole sky turning gold, orange and pink. With the tree silhouetted against that light, its twisted branches drawn in black across the colour, I knew I had something worth keeping long before the aurora had its chance.

A quick note if you go looking for it: the tree is behind a fence, so photograph it from the roadside. Don't climb over, and take care with passing traffic.

Why I Keep Going Back to Cape Schanck

I've visited Cape Schanck Lighthouse many times, and it's not only for the sunsets. It's one of the less light-polluted places within easy reach of Melbourne, which makes it one of my favourite spots for night photography. On a clear, dark night, the Milky Way stretches over the lighthouse, and when the aurora australis is active, the southern sky over the ocean can glow green and pink.

I've written about some of those nights before. My first panorama with the aurora is in The Surprise: Panorama with Aurora, an earlier night chasing the aurora along this coast is in A Lucky Night with Aurora, and the whole area is covered in My Favourite Places: Cape Schanck, Mornington Peninsula.

A Practical Tip for Night Photographers

On my visits, the gate to the lighthouse car park has been open until 6 pm. Once you're inside, you can stay for as long as you like, as the gate can be opened from the inside when you leave. That makes Cape Schanck unusually convenient for sunset, blue hour and night photography: you can arrive in the evening, catch the sunset, and stay on into the darkness for the stars or the aurora. Arrangements can change, so it's worth checking the current details with Parks Victoria before you plan a late session.

Photographing a Tree at Sunset

• Shoot for the silhouette. Expose for the bright sky, not the tree. Let the trunk and branches go dark, and the shape will do the work.
• Find a clean background. Move along the road until the branches stand out against open sky rather than overlapping with other trees or poles.
• Go wide, or go panoramic. A wider frame gives the sunset room to breathe around the tree. For this one, a panorama captured the full sweep of the evening sky.
• Keep shooting after the sun goes down. The colour in the sky often peaks a few minutes after sunset, and then blue hour brings a completely different mood.

Take the Sunset Home

That evening became two canvases: the Sunset Bliss Twisted Tree Panorama Canvas and the Twisted Tree Sunset Bliss Photo Canvas. If the night side of Cape Schanck is more your style, have a look at the Aurora and Lighthouse Panorama Canvas.