How do you review Bondi Beach as a landscape photography location? It’s one of Australia’s most popular and probably photographed beaches! It’s so popular that whole TV shows are filmed there, and a place where thousands of Aussies, not to mention travellers from overseas, flock to each day.

As a photography location, Bondi Beach is nearly as popular with landscape photographers as it is with surfers, and for a good reason, it’s a stunning place to visit, no matter what your reason!

It is common to see beautiful images of Bondi Beach on all of the popular Sydney and NSW Social Media Channels. These images typically get lots of likes as the familiar beach scene resonates well with viewers.

Bondi Beach was actually one of the very first photography locations that I visited with my camera. And there is no way in the world that I am showing you any of those photos as they are over-processed and horrendous! 😱

But I still remember that first morning as it was really cool to photograph Bondi Beach for the first time. It may have even been one of the first times I visited Bondi, which is another beautiful thing about landscape photography. It gets you out and about and exploring this beautiful country. Since then, I have returned several times, often taking friends to share the experience.

How best to photograph Bondi Beach

I gravitate more to the southern end of Bondi Beach for landscape photography to take photos.

This is for the following two reasons:

Capturing sunrise at Bondi Beach

The sun rises behind the headland of North Bondi, making the southern end an ideal location to set up your tripod and camera, readying yourself for what might unfold. The other benefit is that you photograph along the length of Bondi Beach. The beach is ever-changing regarding activities and surf conditions, making every trip, and potentially photo, unique.

One spot you can try photographing from if you are looking for a nice spot at the southern end of Bondi Beach is atop the public toilet block on Notts Avenue. This might not sound glamorous, but from here, you have a large platform and a great vantage point to photograph the sun as it peaks above the horizon.

Photographing Bondi Icebergs

Bondi Icebergs is a famous and iconic swimming club located at the Southern end of Bondi Beach. It’s a stunning building with two ocean pools and a multi-storey clubhouse that hugs the limestone perimeter of the beach. It’s a place I enjoy taking photos of when visiting.

Other areas to photograph within Bondi Beach

Although I have mentioned that I prefer to photograph more at the southern end of Bondi Beach, this is not to say that there are not many other places to explore with your camera.

One of the reasons for its versatility as a photography location is that there are so many different areas within Bondi Beach to either take photos from or of as the main subject. This is great as it doesn’t matter what style of photography you are into or even what the weather is doing; you always have a chance of capturing a stunning image.

The different areas of Bondi Beach include:

  • Bondi Beach itself which can be categorised into three sections – North, the main beach, and the South
  • Bondi Icebergs
  • Bondi Skatepark
  • The top of the public toilet block on Notts Ave (mentioned above)
  • Hunter Park
  • North Bondi Ocean Pool
  • Bondi Murals
  • Bondi Surf Pavilion
  • Bondi Coastal Walk (to Turrametta)
  • And the rest

Sculptures by the Sea

One of my favourite annual events to photograph is Sculptures by the Sea at Bondi, held across September and October each year. This event showcases incredible sculptures from many gifted artists along the beautiful Bondi Coastal Walk to Tamarrama.

The first few years I began photography, I had Sculptures by the Sea circled in my calendar, and I loved grabbing my camera and heading down to photograph the exhibition.

Sculptures by the Sea is undoubtedly worth checking out if you haven’t already! 😀

Lifestyle and Surf Photography

Whether it is loved-up couples, gorgeous models, cute families, or surfers out catching waves, Bondi Beach makes for an incredible backdrop to what could be some fantastic portrait photographs. Not that I can speak to this fact, having not done any lifestyle or surf photography at Bondi.

However, to see an excellent example of lifestyle and surf photography taken at Bondi Beach, check out Eugene Tan of Aquabumps. Each day, Eugene grabs his camera and heads into the Bondi area to snap photos of people making the most of their mornings.

With so many people using Bondi for various reasons, you, too, are bound to snap some great photos of fascinating characters if that is your style of photography.

Bondi Beach at sunrise

This photo was taken on top of the toilet block at Notts Avenue, shooting across the beach towards north Bondi. For some reason, I don’t love this photo, and it might be the post-processing that is making it a little too dark. If I had my time again, I would process this image differently. But hopefully, it gives you an idea of the type of image you can capture from this position. (HDR Image, Nikon D300s, 26mm | March 2014 | Sunrise)

The best time to photograph Bondi Beach

You could go down to Bondi Beach at any time, except for maybe the middle of a sunny day or in the dead of night, and walk away with many brilliant photos. However, as mentioned above, I enjoy photographing Bondi Beach at sunrise.

It is a great way to start the day, and having the sun rising over the ocean or headland at North Bondi, with hopefully some beautiful crimson colours, is the ideal scenario. The vibe is also lovely in the morning, with people getting up early, exercising, catching a wave (I believe that is how the cool kids say it), or also looking to capture a stunning photo like yourself.

As you can imagine, Bondi Beach also gets very busy during the day!

So I do find Bondi Beach to be less busy in the morning. This means you are less in the way if you use a tripod and don’t have as many people to contend with who might walk through your photos.

The other advantage is that you can visit some of the wonderful local cafes afterwards and reward yourself for getting up early with a nice coffee and breakfast!

Travelling to Bondi Beach

Bondi Beach is arguably the jewel of an incredible stretch of coastline in NSW known as Sydney’s Eastern Beaches. Depending on where you are travelling from, you can expect the following travel times:

  • Sydney CBD to Bondi Beach: 20 minutes
  • Sydney Airport to Bondi Beach: 30 minutes
  • Parramatta to Bondi Beach: 50 minutes
  • Wollongong to Bondi Beach: 1 hour, 30 minutes
  • Newcastle to Bondi Beach: 2 hours, 15 minutes

You can also travel to Bondi Beach via public transport, with many options available. You just need to research the local bus and/or train timetables to devise a travel plan.

Parking at Bondi Beach

Parking at Bondi can be a little tricky, as you can imagine, not to mention expensive. Bondi Beach does have a large parking lot that runs along the top section of the beach. I believe you can expect to pay $7.60 per hour between 8am to 7pm and $4.60 per hour after 7pm.

I have found that if you get there early enough when photographing the sunrise, you shouldn’t have too much of a problem securing a spot. During other times of the day, depending on the time and weather conditions, you may need to park further away from the beach and walk down.

Sculptures by the Beach at Bondi

One of my favourite photos I have taken to date is this one in 2012 at the Sculptures by the Sea event in Bondi. This was a giant sculpture, and I waited patiently for people to move out of frame to capture this photo without anyone in it. The sun rising behind the sculpture and how it shone through added some nice intrigue to the image as well. (HDR Image, Nikon D300s, 18mm | October 2012 | Sunrise)

Bondi Beach lives up to its iconic status!

Out of 10, I would rate Bondi Beach as a photography location the full 10!

Bondi Beach is a special place, and with all the different areas, the people that visit, and the events that go on, there is always something amazing to photograph. Probably the hardest thing about photographing Bondi Beach is that it is so heavily photographed. So the challenge can be trying to capture something different from what everyone else has captured before. But that is where the fun lies. 😃

I, myself, want to return to Bondi Beach with my camera soon. I still don’t feel like I have that one amazing photo of Bondi Beach that I could hang on my wall and admire. So until then, I’ll keep trying.

I hope this photography location guide of Bondi Beach has been helpful. If it has, I would love for you to share your photos and experiences with me on either Facebook or Instagram.

Happy snapping!

Rob Potter