Photographer nearly misses epic sunrise!
Okay, I will admit my get up and go in regards to photography appears to have gone on hiatus recently. Apart from a couple of local misty woodland visits I have not had the urge to get out with the cameras at all. I guess as part of the creative process this is something everyone goes through from time to time, peaks and troughs of enthusiasm. As a landscape photographer that focusses mainly on woodlands its a bit of a funny time of year while the anticipation for the autumn (that’s Fall for you Americans) and the spectacular colours it brings is tempered by the still mostly summer greens that are currently about in my local patches. Also the weather here has been pretty trash-although thats just a poor excuse really as weather is a key ingredient in landscape photography-and my depression hasn’t been helping either. But, BUT, I had an oppurtunity on the weekend to maybe reignite the excitement thats been lacking recently. During my customary “drive home from work on a Saturday chat” to Dave he mentioned that his sunset/sunrise predicter app was saying there was a 78% chance of a rocking sunrise on Sunday morning. My weather apps were also hinting strongly that this was the case with little low cloud and lots of medium ond high cloud forecast. Now, being a woodland photographer sunrises are not really in my boathouse but as I also love coastal photography I decided to pick a spot on the south coast to photograph and I settled on the Cobb harbour wall at Lyme Regis ,ahem, just under an hours drive from my home.
I crawled out of bed just after 4am on Sunday, plenty of time to get the life juice that is coffee down my neck and engage my brain, which nowadays seems to take forever to catch up with the body! I made sure all batteries were charged, SD cards were in camera and shoes were on the correct feet. I left the house with the plan to get to the cobb about 30 minurtes before sunrise (6.40am). I loaded up the car, checked the sat nav and it said it would take an hour and sixteen minutes to get to my destination and I had factored for just under an hour! DOH! Now, what i’m about to tell you I do NOT condone you do ok? I was ready to give it up and find somewhere more local but the stubborn side of my brain tapped me on the shoulder and quietly whispered in my ear “You can make that time up” followed by a conspiratorial wink and a little tap on the nose with a forefinger. So, harnessing my inner Colin Mcrae and praying to whatever deities were up at this time of the morning that I didn’t hit a deer, I sped off, pulling a rather cool drift out of the car park (in my head) and set the engine to warp factor 1.5.
Well, I made it in just under an hour and Mcrae would have been proud of my car control skills. I have to say the I don’t drive my cars hard but the Puma handled the country roads admirably and with full confidence. With a bit of a jog from the car I was on the cobb for 6.40am just as the light show of the morning sunrise started to kick off.
I had the gap on the horizon and some lovely clouds scudding by at pace!
As you can see from the image above there was a bit of a chop on the sea and a pretty hefty breeze too. I was constantly having to wipe my lens clean as spray kept…spraying over the camera and the odd gust was rocking me on my feet so kept one foot firmly pressed up against one of my tripod feet to prevent it disappearing over the edge. Its a shame I didnt apply the same care to my Nisi ten stop filter! I decided to try a long exposure image and as I attempted to put the filter on the end of my lens I dropped it! As this was me it didnt just drop onto the floor at my feet but landed edge on, proceeded to roll UP the sloping top of the cobb and threw itself over the edge to land on the stone flagons of the lower part of the Cobb 15 ft below. I was convinced it was smashed to bits or at the very least badly scratched. I headed for the “steps” (a set of stones that stick out about a foot from the wall), gingerly made my way down them, looking for all the world like some kind of giant baby making its first attempt to tackle stairs! To my surprise and Nisi’s credit though the filter was completely undamaged! They certainly build them tough! I then renegotiated the steps back to my camera and tripod which I had laid flat in case a gust of wind took it the same route as the filter and hastily recomposed to continue shooting. And boy it all worked out fantastic in the end!
Just breathtaking!
It was without doubt one of the best sunrises I have seen. Well, technically it wasn’t actually a sunrise but the predawn glow. About thrity seconds after I got this image the colour was gone and it turned into a flat grey sky. It just goes to show how fleeting these scenes can be sometimes.
I hung around on the Cobb for another ten minutes to see if any colour would return but that was it sadly. Still, I was happy and had a wander up and down the beach for an hour before heading home, slowly, a happy bunny and with a large chunk of my mojo restored!
Ring
Hope
Well thats it for this week! I hope you enjoyed my little tale and hope you pop back and visit.
Toodles