The weather forecast had predicted cold nights with minus zero temperatures at ground level, and possibly fog. So I decided to forgo the fungi this time and instead went to a small fen close to home. I was at the spot about an hour before sunrise, put on my wellingtons and walked into the water. From previous sessions at this fen, I knew where I could find the best compositions, both for sunrise and sunset.
Unfortunately, the fog was not really dense, but the frozen moorgrass made up for that. It really was one of those beautiful crispy-cold mornings that I hope we’ll get to see more of this winter.
The pre-sunrise shots were not bad, but it got better when the first rays of the rising sun hit the budding colors of autumn in the background. Without the sunlight, the treeline became a featureless blotch of black. Not good. I used a 2 stop ND grad filter to keep the detail in the bright sky. In addition, I used a 10-stop ND filter for long exposures. This can be helpful to get smooth water without any ripples, but the main reason this time was that colors start to build up in the photograph when exposures get really long. The exposure for this shot was about a minute and a half. I left the whitebalance relatively cold to stress the idea of a crispy cold morning.
Frosty Moorgrass; Canon 5D Mark II w. 17-40/4L; 82s at F11 and ISO400; ND grad filter, ND filter, remote release and tripod
Comment
Hoi Marijn,
Ziet er weer goed uit! Zou misschien mooi zijn om de foto nog eens te maken als alle bomen nog meer verkleurd zijn? Moet het wel ’s nachts toevallig vriezen want die rijp werkt goed hier!
Gr. Luuk