reeds pointing skywards against a patterned sky at sunrise
reeds pointing skywards against a patterned sky at sunrise
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Awards
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Contest Finalist in Natural Clusters Photo Contest
Peer Award
Superb Composition
Absolute Masterpiece
Top Choice
Outstanding Creativity
All Star
Magnificent Capture
Superior Skill
Genius
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onyanita
July 07, 2016
brilliant....not surprised to see it got Contest Finalist. Big congrats Adrian
imagesbyPattiC
August 15, 2020
I love this Adrian, and so happy you wrote such details about everything. Read every word. Are you still using that camera/lens combo? You’re lucky you can see the weather to make your plans. ;-)
Same photographer See allBehind The Lens
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Behind The Lens
Location
These are reeds on the banks of my local river in Bexley, Kent England only 15 minutes away from home I can look out from my bedroom window at dawn to see what sort of sunrise it will be, as this photo shows the mackerel sky seems to echo the reed patterns so I knew it wold be a good time to go down to the river at this location.Time
My passion in photography has to be the very early morning light especially just before and just after sunrise as this photo shows, not just because of the clean non polluted light and air but because you are the only human around at the time this is even more evident in the summertime June and July where I normally get up to go out at 4.00am to get the sunrise.Lighting
This image is all about how the light has lit the reed beds that threw them into semi silhouettes, the light and dark areas gives the image depth and of course shows off all the different shapes and sizes of the plants, The light and shadows in the sky has the same effect almost matching the patterns of the reeds themselves.Equipment
I used a Sony Alpha 550 with a Sony 24-50mm lens hand held no tripod.Inspiration
I love early morning light especially sunrises just before the sun actually rises over the horizon, living only 15 minutes away from this location I can see if there is any interesting patterns of cloud in the sky this is my starting point weather to go or not to go, on this particular dawn I knew it would give me a chance to capture those reeds with a great sky, you can never predict what sort of cloud cover you will get or indeed what kind of light but for me this is what I love about location photography the challenge of putting all the elements together!Editing
I use Photoshop SC6 also Nic software I find that there curves and levels tools are superb for bringing out all the detail in the highlight and shadows.In my camera bag
All I have is one camera and two lenses my camera is now the Sony Alpha 77 which has a 24 million megapixel censor and this provides me with superb detail, my lenses are the Sony 16-50mm wide angle and the Sony 70-200mm telephoto both are bitingly sharp lenses but that's all no filters the only time that I used tripods is for long exposures.Feedback
Best to plan ahead especially if you have to travel hours to get there, find out what your chosen location has to offer what sort of terrain, next find out where and when the sun rises and sets in the location I use TPE ( The Photographers Ephemeris ) a free software that allows you to pinpoint sunrise and sunsets anywhere in the world on any chosen day. Once you arrive for your shoot always photograph what ever you see and like the look of first once you have that then you can look around for different perspectives of height and ground levels be adventurous try different things, think out of the box these are the ones that will be included in the sort list of any competition that you may enter, it took me quite a time to find this image well over an hour on arrival I always goes through the same organized routine you may not always find a winning shot but you will have more chance of doing so if you do your homework first and stick to your own routine.