Mornington Peninsula as a Photography Destination

Mornington Peninsula Photography

The Mornington Peninsula is certainly a great location to holiday with a group of friends or extended family, or to base oneself for an offsite Corporate Retreat, but sometimes solitude and creativity calls…

(copyright Jim Worrall – reproduced with permission)

It is a poorly kept secret that the Mornington Peninsula offers terrific locations for photography. This should really come as no surprise, as it is one of the reasons it is such a drawcard for Weddings (along with the excellent choices for receptions, and the multitude of large accommodation choices, such as Bay Views from Drury Lane, Spacious Sorrento Retreat and Private Coastal Luxury).

However, if your creative outlet is more landscape and nature rather than portraiture and group event photos, you will find even more inspiration.

Here are some ideas to get you started, including examples from a number of photographers capturing the beauty of this region

Themes

Man-made

The multiple piers, groynes and permanent moorings provide focal points that contrast against the coastline, adding interest. They can also stand sharply focussed in juxtaposition to softly blurred or smoothed ocean features when long exposure techniques are employed.

(Copyright Peter Fritz Photography – reproduced with permission)

Rugged Nature

The Ocean beaches of the Peninsula offer a seemingly endless choice of caves, cliffs, rock formations, and low-tide rock pools. Combined with different times of day and weather conditions, this can be a very inspiring place to work on creating beautiful photos.

(Copyright Adam Bystrzycki)

Locations

Regardless of where you base yourself on the Mornington Peninsula, there are plenty of excellent photography locations. The surf coast from Point Nepean to Cape Schanck offers dunes, cliffs, rock pools, tidal rock ledges, and spectacular rock formations. There are also caves to explore and the rolling ocean waves. Further East, Flinders, Shoreham and Balnarring also provide excellent photography locations.

The bay side of the peninsula, on the other hand, has a large number of jetties, pontoons, groynes and other man-made structures.

Inland, the walks around Red Hill are an excellent area for treescapes, and nature macro photography. The Mornington Peninsula State running North of Bushrangers’ Bay has plentiful wildlife including kangaroos and birdlife, so no matter your style of photography or preference of subject matter, there is plenty to explore.

Guidance

If you want to follow in well-trodden footsteps there are many resources to help guide you. Amongst the best is ShotHotSpot which provides location markers and example shots from some excellent sites.

If your idea of guidance is to have a professional take you or your group of fellow shutterbugs (maximum group size: 3) on a Mornington Peninsula Photography safari, then Daryl Gordon is happy to oblige.