There are different ways to greet the sun when it rises in the morning. Some prefer it with a shot of rum, others by doing yoga. I prefer the shot, with my camera. The important thing is to arrive at an interesting, lonely spot, way before the sun even thinks about rising above the horizon.
The horizon is easy to find, out in the open. If you have a large body of water at your disposal it will be even easier. By the way, you don’t have an excuse for a crooked horizon this time.
Now that you have that large body in front of you, you want to shoot it. But… you still need something of visual interest. You remember that a flat horizon with a rising sun is not going to enchant any viewer. So you find that one of a kind spot where nobody ever has pointed a camera. Well, at least not at that specific point where you plant your tripod.
Then you wait, fire off a few shots and wait some more. The early morning starts to take its toll on your body and you ache for some coffee.
Look mommy, there’s and aeroplane in the sky!
Not yet, the sun hasn’t shown itself yet. You shoot an airplane, high up in the sky. The lower part of the picture is still severely underexposed and the empty feeling for coffee gets a bit bigger. So you try a different focal length of that interesting foreground you found.
The Matlock Pier
The LCD display shows a different picture. The sun is going to rise today. So, with trepidation you wait some more. Perhaps moving the tripod around a bit might help the sun come up faster. It certainly warms up your muscles a little.
The end…
You shoot the unique, never seen object again from a different angle. The light is again slightly different and you continue to hope for coffee a great sunrise. Then your eye catches something in the sky. This time not a plane, but a simple gull. There are lots of them around, but this one makes you think of Jonathan.
Lost… on a lonely sky…
Who has never sung along with “Lonely sky, lonely looking sky… and being lonely makes you wonder why…” ? You have, your parents were in awe of it. The first time,they were less enthusiastic at the 238th time… The gull really makes you think of that time again. Singing along with Neil Diamond…
Waiting for the sun
Then you lower the camera again, change the lens to something longer, just to see if you can catch something else. Of course you can find it. A neighbouring pier, where the parasols are folded away. Hoping for another day of fine sunshine, a little breeze and a drink on the end of your private pier. Hope is there, alright.
Peeking over the rim
Then you turn around, your eyes back to the eastern horizon. There is the sun! Suddenly, the carefully chosen foreground is no longer in view. You have traded it for a simple, wavy foreground. There is still very little light coming off the sun, shooting directly into it is not a problem. On some of the pictures you could even distinguish some sunspots.
Sunrise, Draco’s spiral fades…
Then you move back to the pier that nobody knows about and shoot some more of the sun. Now slightly above the horizon and gaining strength by the second. Already, zooming in on the sun is no longer possible for fear of being permanently blinded. Nah, not really, You are more concerned with permanent damage to your sensor.
Gold for the taking
A few minutes later you strike gold. Gold that is yours for the taking. So you take it, to find what’s waiting inside…
Then you turn around and see that a whole lot of fellow photographers are there, shooting that fantastic sunrise along with you. Some have better shots, others envy yours. A unanimous decision is made to got for breakfast and coffee (ahh… coffee!) in a close-by cottage. It sure is a great time together with like-minded people.
And that salutation of the sun I was talking about? I forgot to say “hi” to the sun that day. I guess tomorrow is another day and another sunset to shoot. I just hope there will be again the like-minded people…
Until next time…