Saturday, August 30, 2014

Before Sunrise

I woke up early yesterday, and a minor miracle occurred. I actually got dressed and grabbed my camera gear. It had been about two months since I had done that — got up early and headed out. But, the sky was clear (too clear for the best sunrise) and the weather was not too ominous (for a change), so out I went.

I just drove around the corner really, not much more than a mile, and stopped where I had taken my solstice photos that a few might recall. The corn had grown very tall, and I wanted to get a contrasting photo. Well, it turned out that it was too tall to see beyond to the glimmer of light, so I mostly took surrounding photos.

These were all taken just before sunrise when the light was just peeking over the horizon. It can really be best time to shoot. All but the first of the photos have a partial Orton Effect applied in post production: "Orton imagery, also called an Orton slide sandwich or the Orton Effect, is a photography technique which blends two completely different photos of the same scene, resulting in a distinctive mix of high and low detail areas within the same photo." (Wikipedia) Of course in the digital age, we tend to produce the effect in post and not by actually sandwiching two photos.

Since the corn was too tall to be really a viable subject, I included the fence in the first two to use a bit of a foreground element.



Then I turned about 90° to the right and shot down the lane with the corn field of my left.


There were two driveways to the property, so I moved to the other one and took a photo that included the sign: Beckwith Berries and Wild Blueberries. They put up a stand even nearer us in strawberry season, and we enjoy several quarts during the Wimbledon tennis tournament.


Finally, I moseyed across the road for this shot.


It was good to get out again for the specific purpose to taking photos as opposed to snapping pictures when primarily doing other things. I woke up early again this morning, but a look at the thick clouds induced me to roll over — rather a typical morning for this odd, rainy, cool summer.

11 comments:

TexWisGirl said...

beautiful light and color!

MARY G said...

Your early mornings are sure a boon to the rest of us.

Linda Kay said...

I love the one with the building and the red cloud, very pretty. I'm an early bird, so do enjoy the sky in the morning, now that it is semi-dark out.

Tabor said...

You were up early!! But that is the best time for the lovely light. Such a mysterious story you tell.

Dale said...

Leaves me feeling quiet inside. And that's unusual lately. Thanks for that, JR.

Mage said...

Please go back when the sun is up to catch some of just corn and sky. I'd really like to see that.

EG CameraGirl said...

I haven't gotten out to take sunrise photos in quite a while so I'm more than a tad jealous!

Kerry said...

I should do this. When I wake up early I should just get up and do it. Thanks for the inspiration!

Those streaks of colored light!

Hilary said...

Very lovely effects, AC. I know how good it feels to get out just for the sake of snapping some shots. May you have many more such mornings and followup days.

Shammickite said...

So that's what the sunrise looks like! Haven't seen it for a while....

Unknown said...

Wow. I know we all share the same sun, but your views are amazing.