Sydney Glow and 640px photos

For anyone who follows photographers on the STEEM blockchain in the last few days steemit.com has made some major (but unannounced) changes which negatively effect your user experience presumably due to forced cost cutting measures. Photos viewed on steemit.com are now displayed in an abysmal 640px ( Hive account@jpphotography wrote an article here about this). It is not affecting other front ends to the blockchain; so if your not using them already please shift over to alternatives like steempeak.com for a much improved user experience.

The shot below captures the milky way rising out of the dim glow of over 5 million people as a lonely waterfall cascades into the abyss that is the Grose valley. Few people outside of Australia realise that one of the world’s largest temperate forested wilderness areas borders on Sydney's metropolitan area, with its foothills starting less than 50 kilometres (31 mi) west of Sydney Harbour. The Greater Blue Mountains World Heritage Area covers 10,300 square kilometres (4,000 sq mi) of wilderness and sits as a stark contrast to the city just beyond its boarder. To have something to compare the size to, the US State of Connecticut is 4,872 square miles.

After 25 years of settlement in Sydney, and numerous failed attempts, the mountains were first successfully crossed in 1813 by an expedition led by Gregory Blaxland, William Lawson and William Charles Wentworth. The ruggedness, isolation and impassability of the terrain held off most development in the region despite the area being suitable for dam construction and rich in coal and shale oil. First proposed as a National Park in 1932 a long fought conservation battle ended in 1959 with the formation of the Blue Mountains National Park. The falls, known as Bridal Veil falls , cascade 180m to the base of the cliff. Mt Banks at the end of the valley sits at an elevation of 1,049 m (3,442 ft) . The shot was taken from Grovetts Leap in the Blue Mountains National Park, New South Wales, Australia

This is a single exposure at ISO 2500 at 30s using a Samyang 14mm f2.8. If you would like to learn a little bit more about my background in photography you can read the interview Hive account@photofeed did with me here

Robert Downie
Love Life, Love Photography

_{All images in this post were taken by and remain the Copyright of Robert Downie - http://www.robertdowniephotography.com}