White wash foreground

Taken while I was out shooting the sunrise on Stradbroke island over the Christmas break. (I know getting a bit behind), but on this one particular morning the weather gods worked in my favor. I find with sunrise shots a bit of cloud or visual interest is required, otherwise the drama of a sunrise is lost the moment that blaring sun breaks the horizon. I still like cloudless morning, but normally I prefer them prior to the actual sunrise, as they produce great twilight colours. Here’s a good example of some great pre-dawn colours.

Anyway, on this one morning I got some great cloud cover on the horizon, and even better was it moved towards me as the sun rose. This provided a suitable amount of cover to diffuse the morning light and allow it to display some great warm colours. Also a second layer of low lever clouds added a bit of contrast to the skylines, giving it plenty of interest.

What this also does is extend the length of time that the magic light lasts, and allows for much more shooting. Quite often I have 1 or 2 money shots, from a sunrise, but on this occasion it allowed me to explore a number of compositions with nice light present. It is really nice when it works out this way ! Too often I have spent time heading out at 4am, to get into position for the early sunrises here in Queensland, only to be disappointing with average or “normal” light. The good light comes to those who are patient enough (or stupid)  to chase it.

These posts here and also this one here is another couple of shots taken within approximately the same 10min window.

Enjoy