If you follow me at all on Twitter or Facebook you will have no doubt seen me talking abut my planned trip to Bray last Saturday. I must admit to sounding like an excited child as I shared the fact that I had cleaned my Tripod and then that I was all packed and ready for my 6am start.
Right, thats the Tripod cleaned http://t.co/z2Xvx4Io I should be ashamed, it was manky 🙁
— John Dunne (@MyChi) January 25, 2013
All packed and ready for a 6am start tomorrow. http://t.co/aO9mIUDE
— John Dunne (@MyChi) January 25, 2013
The particular spot I planned to shoot was new to me, which made it that bit more exciting. I’d done my ‘virtual’ rece through Google Earth and Google Maps (amazing tools for planning). I had checked The Photographer’s Ephemeris to know everything I needed to about sunrise – time, direction, etc. I checked the tide tables so I had an idea of how high they would be at dawn and in which direction they were headed. And last of all I looked into my Crystal Ball to check the weather… well no not really but lets face it I have as much chance of getting it right as the forecasters. Of the six websites I checked Accuweather won the lotto on the morning as they were closest to the actual weather while the others generally indicated grey skies and rain. I digress, although I thought it might be interesting for you to understand the kind of prep work that goes into an outing like this?
So where were we… oh yes heading to Bray Head, at 6am, in the pitch black, to a spot I had not been too before. Well hopefully the image above will help illustrate the type of sunrise I had! This was shot nearly 40 minutes before the sun crested the horizon and I was already being treated to some amazing warm light. That bank of cloud was really starting to light up with that pre-dawn light, it was as if a huge jet had flown through moments earlier. Yet the rest of the sky and sea was left in a deep rich blue and deep shadows, with the cliffs and seawall left as hulking silhouettes.
Setup for this shot? Tripod set at head height very close to the shore, indeed by the end of the shot I had wet shoes as the tide was coming in. It is a blend of two frames, one very short exposure for the sky and an 80 sec Long Exposure for the sea. In both cases I used a 1 stop soft ND Graduated filter to balance the sky and foreground; and for the LE I also used a 3 stop ND Filter to help extend the exposure time. I then brought the two images in to Photoshop and used some magic dust to blend them.
