Chasing the light for a dramatic image

Chasing the light for a dramatic image

Chasing the light for a dramatic image - A quick trip down to Albany for the weekend provided a great opportunity for me to go out to Two Peoples Bay for an early morning sunrise shoot. I discovered this location when I was out shooting at Little Beach (https://youtu.be/5FioFneBYRs) a few months ago. While I knew where it was, I really wasn't very familiar with the place, so took some time to explore the area and look for a composition. Even though I arrived 20-30 minutes before the forecasted time for the sunrise, I still wasn't able to find a composition by the time the sun rose above the horizon.

Still I was happy with the scene I found and used a combination of polarisers, ND filters and a little stopper to reduce the highlights in the sky and round the sun, which periodically appeared from behind the clouds. My composition was strong with a rock slab in the foreground providing a leading line to the sun in the distance. With a long exposure, the water was smoothed out enabling the rocks below the water to be seen with the aid of the polariser to cut down the glare on the surface of the water.

With an image captured on the camera, I was satisfied with the morning, but still had more of the area to explore. I set my camera up further around the coast and waited for the light. With the camera still in place, I walked up the top of the rocky headland to see what was further around the corner. I discovered this lovely scene where the sunlight was warming the rocky cliffs with moody storm clouds providing the perfect atmosphere in the background. The light was changing quickly as the clouds were moving fast. At one stage, I found myself wanted to be in two place at once for two different images. I decided to get back to my camera to capture an image where the sunlight rays were coming from behind the clouds and touching the surface of the ocean.

After sucessfully captuing this shot, the sun came out from behind the clouds. Grabbing my camera, tripod and camera bag, I hiked quickly up the rock to the cliffs which were now bathed in sunlight. I employed the little stopped to slow things down and used the edge of the cliff as a leading line into the dramatic scene.

In the end, it was a successful adventure as I walked away after experiencing a stunning morning with three images.

 

Source: Andrew Marr | Youtube