Observatory Hill Photo Walk

On a crisp winter afternoon in July, around thirty women gathered at Sydney’s Observatory Hill for the latest Lens Light Life photo walk in collaboration with Lumix Australia.

If we’d been hoping for dramatic skies, we were out of luck. The forecast had delivered almost every condition landscape photographers tend to avoid. A cloudless blue sky. Harsh afternoon sunlight. Deep shadows. Bright highlights. And because it was one of those glorious Sydney winter days, Observatory Hill was packed with people enjoying the sunshine.

At first glance, it didn’t seem like a recipe for memorable photographs.

But photography has a wonderful habit of proving us wrong. One of the joys of our photo walks is watching thirty photographers respond to the same place, the same location, under the same light and discovering that no two people come home with the same photographs.

That’s exactly what unfolded at Observatory Hill. As the afternoon progressed, cameras pointed in every direction. Some photographers waited patiently for the light to soften over Sydney Harbour. Others explored the observatory grounds, wandered beneath the enormous Moreton Bay figs, or looked for moments unfolding quietly amongst the crowds.

By the end of the afternoon, it was clear that the conditions hadn’t limited creativity at

If anything, they’d encouraged it.

Among the many wonderful collections of images produced that afternoon, one

photographer particularly caught our attention. While many visitors were naturally drawn towards Sydney’s famous harbour views Chantelle Polley kept finding photographs just beyond the obvious.

Her images became a wonderful reminder that sometimes the strongest photographs aren’t made by pointing the camera at the landmark everyone came to see. Sometimes they’re made by turning around.