Contrasting Sunrises

Destin

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I've gone out the last two mornings to photograph sunrises, and neither morning has gone according to plan. Yesterday I overslept and didn't have time to get to the location I had planned to shoot at so I had to find something close to home and only had about 20 minutes to find it. I saw the light hitting this soy bean field and really liked it.

I'm aware that I blew the highlights on it pretty severely, but it's a quite accurate representation of what the scene actually looked like.. the human eye also did not have the dynamic range to see the full tonal range here, so it would look very fake to not clip the highlights.

Soy Bean Sunrise by Destin Danser, on Flickr

This morning I got up and headed out to shoot the scene I had intended to capture yesterday. Left the house at 0430 and arrived at the location at 0530, 90 minutes before sunrise. Sat on the pier and just listened to the waves crashing while waiting for the dawn to break. As soon as the first light started to appear I knew that I'd be photographing the dramatic cloudy sky instead of a sunrise, but I don't mind this photo either.

Stormy Dawn by Destin Danser, on Flickr

Side note: I dropped and shattered a $150 6 stop ND filter this morning on accident :eek::mad::(
 
Side note: I dropped and shattered a $150 6 stop ND filter this morning on accident :eek::mad::(

OUCH!!!

On the soybean shot I like the leading lines into the sun, and the colors. I will say that we don't see fields with so much grass and weeds in the rows. LOL

I really like the colors of thee second shot, but to me the spray on the left is competing with the post/light at the end of the pier.
 
Side note: I dropped and shattered a $150 6 stop ND filter this morning on accident :eek::mad::(

OUCH!!!

On the soybean shot I like the leading lines into the sun, and the colors. I will say that we don't see fields with so much grass and weeds in the rows. LOL

I really like the colors of thee second shot, but to me the spray on the left is competing with the post/light at the end of the pier.

This field is owned by a very small family run farm, so I'm sure they don't have the resources to fight the grass/weeds like the larger farms do.

As far as the spray, I have shots without it. I chose to include it because it fits with the "stormy" feel, but I think you're right that it's competing for attention.
 
As far as the spray, I have shots without it. I chose to include it because it fits with the "stormy" feel, but I think you're right that it's competing for attention.

It might just be the blurring caused by the long exposure, any chance you have a shot of the spray that's sharper that could be blended?
 
OH NO, blown highlights, blasphemy.
 
As far as the spray, I have shots without it. I chose to include it because it fits with the "stormy" feel, but I think you're right that it's competing for attention.

It might just be the blurring caused by the long exposure, any chance you have a shot of the spray that's sharper that could be blended?

I wish I did. That was about as fast as I could get my shutter speed without taking my iso over 800. I know I could have, but for some reason I reallllly hate raising my iso for landscape photos.
 
Both good shots, I enjoyed looking at them.

The first has a nice early morning vibe but... it bothers my eye that the sun is not centered and neither are the rows.

In the 2nd shot, I agree that the spray draws the eye away from the intended line. Maybe darken it a bit so it’s not the brightest part of the photo.

That stinks about the filter.
 
I love the first one, idk about the "blown highlights" because as you say it fits with the scene. I actually believe the lighting was that strong in the first picture.

While I like the composition and moody clouds of the second one and not too keen on the colouring. I love the spray, just wish there was more of it :D
 
I like them both ... but ... the spray is distracting as it seems to appear out of nowhere. I really like the rendering of the long exposure on the splash ... but it sorta looks like it is coming out of the sky. On the first image, to my eye it calls for symmetry ... a centered sun and it seems the horizon is slightly tipping down to the right. I think the first shot may look good in B&W and maybe even a square format. I like the 50:50 split of the second shot ... the gray-blue sky above and the green-blue water below.
 

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