Summer Sunset on Gunnamatta

As a golf photographer always chasing golden hour, summer in Australia brings pros and cons. The longer days mean a more generous shooting window, as the sun slowly works its way across the long arc of the warmer months. The courses are generally looking their best too, with the fast-growing conditions offsetting any increased traffic on the fairways, and out-of-play areas usually offering a strong visual contrast with the pristine playing surfaces. But the warmer months also mean longer hours (for example, I’m often out on course by 5am, or until 9pm, during a January shoot), the occasional mass-mosquito attack (a bottle of Aeroguard is usually added to my photography kit a month too late), and a condensed work schedule when most friends and family are on holidays. None of that really matters on a night like this one at Gunnamatta though. With a bag of clubs on the cart, a warm breeze blowing across the course, and only a handful of golfers out on the property, Gunnamatta was a blank canvas.

The sunset did not disappoint, expressing the muscular contours of the course through warm highlights and cool shadows, and just enough cloud cover to create a spectacular finish. The resulting album of still photographs from the day are some of the best I have taken at The National, and the 40-minute ‘Ambient Golf’ video created during the same shoot offers a relaxing look at my favourite holes on the course.