I’ve seen many severe weather events in my 60 years, however since taking to photography I can’t say that I remember venturing out with a camera to experience any of them.
Beyond that, leading up to this shoot I’d never heard of the term ‘east coast low.’
An east coast low, apparently, is an intense low-pressure system which has more impact than a traditional storm, and are generated on or near the east coast of Australia.
That’s about as technical as my understanding of such weather events gets!
I knew that this event would hit Sydney during the first week of July, 2025, therefore I determined what the most intense day would be, then took my camera out into the elements to try and capture some of the chaos.
Usually on the street my default setting is zone focusing between one metre and infinity, f8-f11, auto ISO with a max of 400 and a minimum shutter speed of 500.
Well, that ain’t gonna work on a gloomy, dark and wet late afternoon in the city.
I decided to open up the aperture to f4-f5.6, remove auto ISO and bump it to 2000, this enabled me to shoot at a fast enough shutter speed.
Also, given the changes in settings I decided to move from manual to continuous auto focus - not sure I could have done that with my X-T5, but the X100VI handled it well!
I emerged onto the streets and immediately saw the force of the wind and rain, along with many people struggling to escape it.
A large pool of water had formed at the intersection of George and Market, causing most people to try and evade it, moving them closer to the vehicle traffic at times.
On days like these you have to choose where to stand carefully at the lights, get too close to the traffic and you risk being covered in water.
I decided to leave this intersection and head north toward King Street and then Martin Place, both areas of the city where large groups of people can usually be seen. The intersection of George and King streets is where the huge Apple Store is, which on this day, and in these conditions, acts as a gigantic softbox.
Another scurry across an intersection to find temporary respite from the hard rain under the retail canopies, and I was heading further north to Martin Place.
The centre of Martin Place was deserted for obvious reasons, everyone was either in buildings, tucked away under the sandstone canopies or heading for them.
I headed up to the Lloyd Rees Fountain, hoping to capture some interesting effect with the hard rain and cascading water.
At least her hair is dry!
About face, and head back toward George Street, not much light left and I was really getting wet, despite having an umbrella with me.
I loved how removed this guy with the umbrella seemed to be from the overall scene, like he was paused, stuck in the rain, whilst the world continued on around him.
I arrived back at King Street and suddenly a huge gust of wind turned my umbrella inside out. I went into a covered area to fix it, however after about five minutes it just wasn’t happening.
I was just about to throw it in a bin when boom, it turned itself back the right way, with a relatively forceful foot from me. I was back in action… still wet, still struggling in the conditions, however at least I could press on.
I made my way up another block before deciding to once again head for a dry area, this time to capture a picture from the Westfield entrance showing both people outside in the rain, and also shoppers on the lower floors who were obviously completely dry.
By this time I was worn out. It isn’t easy moving around quickly, in and out of very strong winds and hard rain, all whilst trying to take pictures one handed and holding an umbrella.
So I decided to head south toward Town Hall, just in case I saw enough interesting opportunities. At the end of the day I was only one block from where my car was parked anyway, so why not try one last option, or two?
I love this surreal, almost cinematic scene.
Ok, that’s enough, let’s get back to my car.
Well, not so fast! Just as I was approaching the entrance to the QVB I looked left and thought, I wonder if I can see anything in York Street, so I went around the side of the building toward the bus stops… glad I did!
Love the courteous Bunnings umbrella owner!
The session was finished off by some quirky pictures that I took looking into the retail shops of the QVB from the outside, making use of the strong lighting from within.
I love the street reflection in this one!
And so ends a fascinating, challenging, yet rewarding session.
I’m super happy with the pictures, more so for my willingness to get out there in the first place, my patience and my persistence in such trying circumstances, I don’t always achieve such feats.
Thank you very much for reading the blog, I really do appreciate it. I hope that you enjoyed it, along with the pictures.
Roger Brooks.