Shelly Beach in Ballina, NSW is home to some wonderful rock pools that delight children with the many species of sea life that inhabit them. Carved in between the rock formations is a small wading pool that is also a hit with the kids. I remember splashing around in that very pool when I was a child, many, many moons ago. This image was captured just behind the pool.

I arrived here well before sunrise and had to navigate the rocks by torchlight. The torch was also the only way to focus my camera in such low light. The images I captured before this one were very long exposures that smoothed the ocean and started painting the sky with colour, before it was visible to the naked eye. As the sun rose closer to the horizon, the sky lit up and the face of the oncoming waves took on a gorgeous turquoise hue.

This image is a one-second exposure that captures the movement of the ocean in such a way that on close inspection, looks more like an oil painting than a photograph.