Sunrise in Scarborough

Winter is definitely the best time for taking a sunrise photo, I took this at the reasonable time of 0830 in January. Not ideally however was the fact that the tide was low and on it's way back in... let's just say that the tripod and my feet got a bit wet this morning. I'll speak more about planning your photos in another post, along with using filters when shooting into the sun. I did neither here, and it created a bit of a headache. More on this in my next post...

Scarborough Harbour at Sunset

I told you that I might return to that earlier harbour photo with a tripod, and I did. This winter gave some amazing sunsets and I had to really think about how to use these for the best photos. Joe Cornish is one of my inspirations, and in his book "First Light" he talks about how it can sometimes take years to get the photo you want from a particular landscape. You might hold that image in your mind and know the photo you want to take, but actually getting the finished product takes patience. The light source needs to be right, as well as composition and this may only be the case in a few weeks of the year. I found this to be true on this photo. I wanted a good sunset, low on the horizon with a reflection in the sand. The tide had to be out for this at the same time as sunset. Then there was the wind. The wind was so fast that it nearly knocked the camera over, and it caused the boat masts to sway causing blurring. I can now see how a photo like this can take years to perfect. I'm still not happy with it, that chain breaks the photo in two. But then again, a friend of mine said he liked it that way. Sometimes the "perfect" photo you have in your head may not ever come to light. Then again, many others may love the ones you would have otherwise dis-guarded.