Photographing Brisbane and surrounds

Brisbane and it surrounding areas is awesome destination for landscape photographer. You can found cityscapes, different kind of seascapes, waterfalls, mountains etc. In this blog I give some hints for photographing tourist visiting Brisbane. First thing. Rent a car! Without car travelling to photography locations is almost impossible. Because Brisbane is located on east coast, you can find much more easily sunrise photography locations than places for good sunset photos. For sunrise, you need to be on location around 5:30 am and there is no busses on that time moving. There is two important thing you want to check before you go shooting. Sunrise / sunset times and tide. Sun times you find from every weather page. Tides you find from http://tides.willyweather.com.au/qld/brisbane.html

Shorncliffe Pier Beautiful just renewed pier with a beach at Shorncliffe. Perfect place for sunrise photos. Don’t go to water without good shoes. There is some rockfish and you will be in hospital if it attacks your bare skin. There is parking place at down near the pier. No need for hiking. Quite a lot of different birds too, if you like to shoot them. Quite many other photographers. Most of them like to chat with you. Tide is not so big thing here, because pier is to interesting thing over here. On low tide however there is some nice looking rocks at south from Pier behind old pier.

Nudgee Beach Mangrove forest. On low tide you can walk very far on bottom of sea and find beautiful steady water for reflections. On high tide photographing locations are much more limited. Because of quite long walks under mangrove trees I recommend going there around 5:15 with flash light and head to north from parking place walking on near water line. There is also nice trail at national park to walk after shootings.

Redcliffe Redcliffe is sunrise location. There is actually two places at Redcliffe I recommend to visit. First is the wreck called HMQS Gayundah. You can find it from GoogleMaps on its name. I have not checked the tide, but I think that on high tide water is a bit high at there. Other place is the beach at Gayundah Esplanade and Georgina St corner. It’s very nice place on low tide, but boring on high tide. So check the tide before you go. A lot of interesting rocks on low tide.

Brighton Park On way to Redcliffe from south is Brighton park. Place where you can shoot both sunrise and sunsets. Not extremely beautiful place for picnic, but there is two interesting things to shoot. Tree in the water and Houghton Highway bridge ruins. Both can be shot in morning and evening. Don’t come here on low tide. Bottom is ugly and tree is not in the water.

Story Bridge from Wilsons Lookout If you want to get Story Bridge and the City skyscrapers to same photo, this is your place. Leave your car a bit south from Wilsons Lookout to New Farm. Parking is free at there. You want to come here about 1,5 hour before sunset because you can get nice daylight photos too. Most of tourists and photographers park their tripods to corner of Morrey St, where Wilsons Lookout is written in the map, but if you walk a bit toward Story Bridge on Bowen Terrace you will find much more interesting views and you can avoid that ugly warehouse under cliff.

Kangaroo Point At Kangaroo Point you can shoot either in the morning, evening or night. You can be on top of the cliff when best locations are at southern parts of the cliff. Or you can go down to river and get other kind of view to City.

Mt Coot-Tha Lookout A perfect place for sunrise photo with city silhouette or dramatic city view if it’s cloudy. It was cloudy when I was there. Evening light is not so special, but on evening there is more lights on skyscrapers than in morning. So good place on sunrise and just after sunset.

Mt Mee

Oh, I fell in love with this place. Very beautiful high lands and Australian countryside with cows. Actually mostly bulls, but who cares. Because there is so many beautiful views, I recommend leave early from Brisbane and have some time to select the one you like most. It takes about 1 hour to drive from northern Brisbane, 1,5 hours from city, if there is normal traffic. This is also perfect place for sunrise photos, if your accommodation is nearby.

Noosa National Park Oh, what a place. I had time for only one afternoon, but I really would like to spend there more time. Lovely beaches to different directions at Noosa National Park. Noosa is 150 North from Brisbane, but really worth for visit. Quite a lot of tourist. It would be smart not to go there on weekend when all others are there. Noosa National Park is most visited national park in Australia. You will not get lost there. Trails are asphalt. Perfect place for sunset, night and sunrise photography. No light pollution. Noosa Heads is typical tourist town which I personally don’t like, but National Park views are awesome. If you like to shoot surfers, you can get very close at Tea Tree Bay.

Wellington Point Wellington Point is one of the few places where you can shoot both sunrise and sunset. Really nice place on low tide. You can find a lot of steady water with nice reflections. Negative thing is, that there is not much of interesting things to shoot. Nice thing is that there is a café.

Natural Bridge

Not exactly a landscape photography location, but interesting and beautiful. River has formed a natural bridge and water fall. If you are on your way to Gold Coast it’s worth for a visit. I was there on early afternoon, and light was ok. No use to go on sunrise or sunset, light will not reach to there then.

Q1 Tower at Gold Coast If you want to get a photo down to other skyscrapers, you need to go to Q1 tower at Gold Coast. Beautiful view 360 degree over Surfers Paradise. Should be a nice place for sunset photos, but it was cloudy on western sky when I was there. Very negative thing is, that you have to shoot thru window with multiple layers and there is neon lights inside reflecting. To get nice night or evening photo you need some assistance. Either some kind of cover to window with a hole for lens in it or friends standing beside camera very near the window.