Finally some luck with the timing. For the first time in ages, last Friday featured a wonderful sunrise. It was a short one, because the clouds came in right after the colors put on some decent hue and saturation. But alas, at least we got some color. After the recent rains, the water level has risen quite a bit. Even the small pools of water in between the high grass are deeper than you might think at first glance. I found out the hard (and wet) way when I suddenly stepped into a pothole, lost my balance and got wet up to my thighs. For a moment I was glad we were not experiencing a bitingly cold winter’s morning.
The next morning saw me back at the same scene, but it was cloudy and grey. When the sun finally beat the clouds, the colors had long gone. Same with the Sunday, when I was smart enough to step outside into the garden and then back into bed.
The afternoons had some serious sunsets to showcase though, so maybe I should stick to those. As I am not blessed with a natural tendency for getting up early, it might not even be such a bad idea. As I am writing this, we have had a day and night with some serious frost and the next day and night the cold will stick around. Hopefully winter will persevere a bit longer, I would love to get back to those fens and photograph them with a beautiful thin layer of ice to reflect the sunrise or sunset colors.
By the way, photographing a scene like the one above needs ND Grad filters. As I am getting more experienced at landscape photography (I consider myself still a novice), I find I am grabbing the right filter on more and more occasions. One thing to look out for is not to filter too much when there’s water reflecting the sky in the shot. It just does not look right when the reflection is brighter than the sky itself.
Heather Fen at Sunrise; Canon 5D Mark II w. 17-40/4L; 10s at F16 and ISO200; ND Grad filter, remote release, bubble level and tripod