Dawn

Dawn comes slowly to the deep blue waters of the Pacific. Canon EOS 7D EF-S 10-22mm at 22mm f/7.1 1/160 ISO 200

Not knowing when the dawn will come I open every door.

-Emily Dickinson

I woke up early to a beautiful misty, golden dawn and I immediately started taking pictures of the very striking sunrise.  It was beautiful but I soon turned the other direction and I was struck by the combination of deep but muted colours in the west.  The sunrise was all garish gold and sparkly but in many ways the image I got when I turned in the other direction was just as strong.  I under exposed a little to add depth and saturation to the colour and I got a beautiful deep dark blue in the foreground.  Finding ways to pull your eye into the image is not all about using lines, sometimes colour transition can also have a powerful effect.  The passage from almost black in the foreground to the yellow light on the shore to the light purples of mountains in the background pulls the eye forward into the image and gives the image more dynamic strength.  

Sunrise Calm

Sunrise in the mist over Sooke Harbour. Canon EOS 7D EF-S 10-22mm at 22mm f/7.1 1/500 ISO 200

There is a calm in the morning that speaks more from the still water and the mist on the horizon.  It speaks more than the quiet air and the soft light.  The beginning of the day is the beginning of all things and it is a time of stillness and potential.  The day spreads out before you with all that it may contain but in that moment, in that one moment it does not overwhelm or confound, or confuse, it is just there, waiting for us.

I slept on an old fishing boat this weekend and when I awoke this is what I saw.  It was a beautiful morning that calmed me.  I grabbed my wide angle zoom and looked for an interesting foreground.  I got down low so that the chain would grab your eye in the bottom left hand corner and pull you into the middle distance.  I loved the way that the sun backlit the edges and lines of the boat.  I underexposed the boat to emphasize the back lighting.  I also really liked the fact that their is an eagle sitting on the piling in the middle of the frame.  I did pull out my telephoto and get the eagle next.

-Russell Berg

Spaces in the Dawn

A dramatic dawn breaking over the shoreline in Victoria. Canon EOS 7D EF-S 10-22mm f/3.5-4 at 22mm f/5 1/2500 ISO 400She has come to this place before and it holds a special kind of honour in her mind.  She is alone yet she feels protected, she feels comforted yet her mind has space to roam and think.  The light plays and dances in her hair as it slowly reveals the rest of the world around her and lights her face with an amber glow.  Her thoughts pause for a moment and she breathes deep into the world around her.  Now... now she is ready.

I was recently in Victoria and as my wife slept in the hotel I went out to enjoy the sunrise.  Sunrise is a magical time for photographers, slowly the world is revealed to you and the quality of the light is like nothing else.  The light itself is so beautiful, you really just need to point your camera somewhere.  In this case I was struck by the line of clouds that draws the viewers eye in at the top of the frame and pulls it downward towards the whispy little formations at the left.  It almost seemed to me that the clouds where trying to hold back the light and it makes for a dramatic image.