Murrumbulga Point

Sun rays break through the tree line on the headland at Murrumbulga Point, scattering light across water smoothed to near glass by a 13-second exposure. Warm orange and yellow bloom above the horizon and cool to softer tones overhead. Dark rounded rocks in the foreground sit half swallowed by the blurred surf. Photographed at half past six on the morning of 1 September 2016.

Murrumbulga Point is the headland that helps enclose Quarantine Bay, on Twofold Bay near Eden on the far south coast of New South Wales. The bay takes its name from its use as a quarantine anchorage in the era of sailing ships, when it sat isolated enough to hold a vessel apart from the port. Twofold Bay itself carried one of the longest shore-based whaling industries in Australia, which is much of the reason Eden exists in the shape it does, though that is bay-wide history rather than anything specific to this point. Brett made the frame from the point at dawn, on the Nikon D750. What it holds is the quieter thing: light through the headland trees, a flat bay, and the rocks the swell is still working on.