Yes, if you’re there at the right time in the right place, you can encounter a wonderful sunrise to photograph.
You can also enhance the photograph by including something in the foreground, for example, a sunrise in the sky and craggy rocks with mountains in the background, a fisherman with the ocean in the background or some tree branches with a waterfall in the background.
The sense of depth you get from having something or someone in the foreground brings the photograph alive.
Copyright 2008 Carol Chapman
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I don’t have to say to be careful when taking photographs of the sun, do I? After some deliberation, I believe it needs to be said:
DO NOT LOOK DIRECTLY AT THE SUN.
I know this is difficult, especially when the sun is the main character in your photograph. And, I must admit, that I sometimes don’t follow my own advice. Afterwards, I worry about sun damage to my eyes.
You can get severe damage to your eyes if you stare at the sun, even when it is low on the horizon.
That’s another reason a cloudy sky makes a good sunrise photograph: you are protected from damage to your eyes.
Copyright 2008 Carol Chapman
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To get the light right in your photograph, you need to vary the exposure. This is quite easy to do. By “Vary the Exposure” I mean, “How to get darker and lighter photographs” when taking sunrise photographs.
Most of us have cameras with automatic built-in through-the-lens exposure meters. By this I mean that most of us have cameras that allow us to take photographs without having to manually adjust settings on the camera. It just all happens automatically for us.
However, you may find it very frustrating when you take a sunrise photograph and discover that the photograph you see displayed on the viewing screen on the back of the camera does not look anything like the image of the sunrise you see with your eye. It may be too dark or too light.
The reason for this is that the camera’s exposure meter is usually set to make its light measurement at the center of the viewing screen. Therefore, if, when you’re framing up the picture on the viewing screen, you put the bright sun in the center of the viewing screen, the exposure meter will think the whole picture is very, very bright or even too bright. Your photograph will be very dark.
If, when you’re framing up the picture, you have the foreground, which is dark, in the center of the viewing screen, the exposure meter will think the whole picture is very, very dark. Therefore, the camera will overcompensate and will lighten the dark foreground. You will get a very light photograph.
Knowing this, you can play with the exposure of your sunrises by centering the image at different places. You can make dark, light, and medium light-intensity photographs by changing the place where you center the image.
Copyright 2008 Carol Chapman
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Here’s another very important suggestion for getting fantastic sunrises with your camera:
The reason for being absolutely prepared as you begin to take your photos of that fabulous sunrise is that the sky will change by the second. If your media card is full, your batteries depleted, or your film not loaded, you may be sorely disappointed when the sky blazes with color or rays stream out from the sun for a second or the sun breaks through the horizon.
Everything progresses so rapidly during a sunrise!
Copyright 2008 Carol Chapman
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My sunrise photos are often published or sold, matted and framed. Here are my suggestions for wonderful sunrise pictures. To begin:
At times, I wake up very early in the morning . . . before first light . . . with a dream telling me to wake up NOW because there will be a magnificent sunrise worth photographing.
This morning, I woke up early, but with NO dream, wondering why my internal alarm system had awoken me. Peeking through the curtains covering the window, I saw that even though it was still pretty dark outside, there was the hint of a good sunrise–a band of dark red just above the horizon and clouds over it. My best sunrise photographs have been the result of the rising sun’s interplay with dynamic clouds.
By the time I was at the beach, the sun had already popped above the horizon. However, because of the clouds, the sky looked resplendent. Coupled with crashing breakers against the shore, the sun rising through the clouds made a beautiful image.
Copyright 2008 Carol Chapman
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A foggy morning with an orange sun swathed in cloud at sunrise.
Even though I woke up really early, still, it wasn’t worth taking a photograph.
It had all the ingredients for a great photo, but no drama whatsoever. The fog was not colored by the sun. It looked murky and grey. That won’t do.
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I’m home now–got in last night after midnight. First thing: Take a look at the photos I took.
Many are lovely. A couple are grand. That’s all I need.
I especially like the waterfall photographs taken at Rowdan, a town northeast of Montreal in the Laurentian Highlands. It’s one of those waterfalls that you can’t begin to show it’s power in a photograph. Maybe in a video.
Still, I feel happy because I have some good pictures.
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Today, a wonderful excursion to the Biodome in Montreal. My favorite animal was the diving duck.
You can see the ducks swimming on the surface of the water in one section of the Biodome. Then, when you go down to the Aquarium showing the biodiversity of the St. Lawrence River marine environment, lo and behold, you can see those very same cute little black and white ducks with the orange feet diving among the sturgeon, lobsters and sharks. Amazing!!!
The Tamarinds are frisky black monkeys. One of the staff at the Biodome explained to me that the facility had received some new Tamarinds. Most of them were teenagers–hence the boundless energy.
A curious little creature from Madagascar that looks like a racoon with a three-foot-long ringed tail is actually a primate as well. That is the lemur. They have those soulful eyes that stare at you. They also favor the females and the young during times of scarcity!
I also loved the penguins. The Emperor Penguins stood in a row and stared at us. We were standing in a row staring at them. One great photo op after another.
Copyright 2008 Carol Chapman All Rights Reserved
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At last, the rain has stopped and the overcast sky has given way to lovely white clouds and clean blue sky.
Today, I’m going on a Lake Champlain boat cruise during which I hope to take some great pictures for next year’s Edgar Cayce Calendar, the Divine in Nature: with Inspirational Quotes from Edgar Cayce.
Then, it’s off to Montreal on the bus where I’ve heard that the Botanical Garden is the place to visit for fantastic nature pictures.
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