What do you like photographing more, a beach or a cave? If you can’t decide, then why not do both? As the name suggests, you can do just that at Caves Beach!

Caves Beach is a beautiful location and a place that you will want to photograph if you are ever in Lake Macquarie. At the southern end of Caves Beach are a few different caves you can explore and photograph. You will see the first cave as you head down that way, which is the biggest and most spectacular cave to photograph.

Depending on the tide, you can walk right past this cave to a more secluded area of the beach, with some nice rocks and smaller caves. However, as photographers, we will want to head inside this beach cave to set up our tripods and capture the quintessential photo of Caves Beach.

The other area that is worth exploring at Caves Beach is the small headland above where the main cave is. You can get a nice vantage point from here and see out over either side of the beach. This area is well maintained with paths, stairs and plants, all of which also make for some lovely photos.

A sunrise photo taken from the top of Caves Beach

This is the vantage point that you get from the southern end of Caves Beach. Here, you are above the large beach cave looking back over the beach and lifeguard tower. It’s a nice spot to grab a different style of photo, compared to being inside the cave. (HDR Image | Sunrise | 2016)

How to photograph Caves Beach:

With the beautiful beach, numerous caves, lifeguard tower, headland and other elements, you will have a great time getting your ‘creative on’ and taking gorgeous landscape photos.

However, it can be a tricky location to photograph, depending on the weather conditions. This is because of the dynamic range of light and shadows you might experience when shooting out from the main cave.

As you can imagine, not only are you trying to expose for the dark cave, but you are then also trying to capture the details in the scene from outside the cave. A lot of the time, this could be the sun rising over the water, which adds even more dynamic range to the scene.

I found that HDR photography helped with this process. Yet there were still images that I took that I wanted to process but didn’t feel like I had captured enough of the dynamic range in the scene to make it worthwhile.

But that is okay… This just means that I have to go back!

What camera gear to take

You will want to use a wide-angle lens to capture the entire cave from within. The landscape photos you see in this article were taken from inside the cave with a focal length of 16mm. I feel that you wouldn’t want any more than a 20mm lens to get this shot in one composition.

If this isn’t possible, you can always use Adobe Photoshop or Lightroom to stitch multiple shots together as a panorama.

Landscape photo from inside the cave at Caves Beach

This photo was taken on the righthand side of the large cave at Caves Beach just after surnrise. (HDR Image, Nikon D750, 16mm, f14 | Sunrise | 2022)

The best time to visit Caves Beach

Caves Beach is best visited at sunrise and during low tide. At low tide, you can enter the cave and reach the beach’s other side, which has more to offer photographers. Then by visiting this location at sunrise, you will also see the sun rising up in front of the cave. Combining these two elements is what photographers come to Caves Beach to capture.

I wouldn’t be undeterred if you could only visit Caves Beach at high tide though. While I haven’t been there at this time, I think it would be interesting to get some photos of the water running up and into the cave, etc. It would, however, mean you couldn’t access the main cave or the other side of the beach.

Caves Beach is also a trendy photography location, and hopefully, you are starting to see why. If you visit Caves Beach on the weekend, you will likely find many other photographers also hoping to capture a great landscape shot inside the main cave. If you are hoping to get the cave to yourself, you might need to try going there during the week. This has worked for me.

Getting to Caves Beach

The suburb of Caves Beach is located in the Lake Macquarie area, between Newcastle and Sydney. It is a 40-minute drive from Newcastle or a 1-hour and 50-minute drive if you are heading up from Sydney.

Plenty of parking is available, especially if you are getting there for sunrise. At this location is also the Caves Beach Surf Life Saving Club which offers great amenities.

As mentioned, the main cave is located at the beach’s southern end and is an easy walk to reach, making this photography location quite accessible.

My Rating

Out of 10, I would rate Caves Beach an 8. This location is spectacular and in a way, unique with the beautiful big cave that this location is named after. Add to this the fact that the cave is easy to access, and you have the makings of a wonderful photography location.

It is also a great place to take the family. Your kids will love running along the beach and exploring the caves. It will just be keeping them out of your photos that will be the tricky part.

Caves Beach is a great photography hot spot to explore and one that I would certainly recommend grabbing your camera and checking out.

I hope that this photography location review has been helpful.

Enjoy!