
I had no intention of bringing you two journal updates in a row both featuring photographs of the night sky. That was until I found a baby grand piano on a headland cliff. Too good an opportunity to pass up, I organised a few friends, made a loose plan of how we would light it then waited until it was dark and headed out across the rocks to photograph. I’ve no idea who put the piano there or why they did it, some things in life are not meant to be explained…
Given the theme of this journal is night photography, I also included a few other photographs from my creative adventures over the last few weeks. An epic lightning storm, a massive rat that resulted in a selfie (I don’t do many of those) and the last few weeks of daylight saving time that made night photography possible in the early mornings…
Enjoy your day,
Joel Coleman…



With daylight saving time pushing into autumn (not sure why they do that), it meant that the sunrise over the last few weeks was not until after 7:00am. Given I am an early riser I took the opportunity to work on a few night time photographs early in the morning. The one on the left is from Camden Heads on the mid north coast, the right is the full moon taken from North Curl Curl on the Northern Beaches.


I don’t post a lot of selfies. I photograph to build a collection of images for my gallery in Sydney and odds are no one is ever going to decide to hang a photograph of me on their wall! But, this selfie has a story so I thought I’d share it here. I had a 15 second exposure running to photograph a lightning storm the other night (image below). A few seconds in, something moved in the corner of my eye so I walked around to see what it was. I knew the flashlight would ruin the shot, but I was curious to see what ran passed. Turns out it was a rat the size of a cat, the thing was massive! It scurried off pretty damn fast and I went back to my tripod and checked the last frame. There was so much salt spray in the air that the light beam looked like something from a sci-fi film. I figured it would make a good selfie, the lightning storm had moved passed me anyway, so I set up for this shot. I think it’s only the third or fourth selfie I’ve ever done…

Chris
Posted at 23:22h, 06 AprilWow! These are amazing! Nice work.
Phil
Posted at 23:46h, 06 Aprilvery creative Joel
Andy
Posted at 23:52h, 06 AprilI like the lightning shot, that’s amazing.
Melissa
Posted at 23:53h, 06 AprilAmazing photos Joel! Sitting here just saying “wow” the whole way through! Beautiful work 🙂
Craig Brokensha
Posted at 23:57h, 06 AprilNailed that last storm shot, so epic!
tom-paul jagg
Posted at 00:12h, 07 AprilJoel, this is ridiculously great mate. These photos give me chills Joel.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
just wondering if the lightning photo was when the huge storm was out to sea last month that lasted for hours?
Mick
Posted at 00:29h, 07 Aprilwow pretty fricken cool.
John Roper
Posted at 00:54h, 07 AprilWOW.
Ege
Posted at 01:27h, 07 AprilI have been following your newsletter for a while now, always impressed and inspired 🙂
Where were the piano pics taken??
Thanks for sharing these?
Jessica Sarica Uy
Posted at 01:34h, 07 AprilThis is hauntingly beautiful. Love the vision behind it how you’ve projected it – suits the title so well! Amazing talent with unique touch.
Kat
Posted at 04:57h, 07 AprilLOVE!
Especially the selfie photo & story.
Awesomeness!!!!
Thank you for sharing.
Josh
Posted at 05:00h, 07 AprilNo worries with the double journal updates at all… your photography inspires and excites the mind and sense every single time… and these Ocean Concertos are some of the best yet !!! I absolutely love your work and everything you do, keep the journal updates coming I say 🙂
Jasmine
Posted at 07:48h, 07 AprilHow beautiful..thank you for sharing these mesmorising photos. There’s something extra special about playing piano outdoors, but on a cliff with the ocean as accompaniment…perfect! Your photos call for an encore.
benny
Posted at 22:44h, 07 AprilAwesome, unique concept Joel…love that last storm shot!
Pam
Posted at 11:55h, 08 AprilJust so very beautiful and unusual. Many thanks.