I had a lovely photo wander in the park on Sunday. Sunrise is starting to reach that time of the year when one has to get up quite early, and I set my alarm for just after 5am. When I reached the gates of the park, there was a little mist, but not enough to feel too optimistic. However, I was happy to be there, and it's amazing how conditions can change as dawn approaches. There had been a little frost, and there was barely a breath of wind. The finest, most delicate brush strokes of high cloud hovered over the horizon, and it looked as though it could catch some nice colour as sunrise approached.
Work has been full on for the last few weeks. I headed in the direction of the ponds, still feeling sleepy from this current busy spell, and the early alarm.
There was a decent amount of localised mist floating above the water when I got to my destination. The sky was also starting to look very pink and pretty, so I set up a composition quickly...
I spent quite a long time here, and took numerous shots of the same composition, as the light changed. This is one of the first that I took, that has the least amount of ripples from passing wild foul, and is probably the best of the set. As sunrise drew near, the mist thickened to such a degree that it was starting to obscure the far away island, which made the composition a little unbalanced. I decided to take a wander to somewhere slightly less misty, further up the hill.
This is a smaller pond that no one seems to photograph. However, I think it's very photogenic, and the lack of other photographers is really nice. It's one of the ponds that dogs are allowed to swim in. Around the main ponds there are notices everywhere, requesting that dog owners to keep dogs on leads. Sadly, not everyone abides by this rule, there have been numerous attacks on the wildlife in the park, from out of control dogs.
Because this is a dog swimming pond, I was very surprised to meet a pair of swans here. They were dozing by the bank when I walked past, and I clearly disturbed them. Once in the water they embarked upon a morning preening session, before the female swan laid her head on her body for floating nap. It isn't the safest pond for a swan pair to take up residence, and I suspect they won't stay in this pond for long.
The mist had thickened really nicely, but the cloud cover was very thin and the light was getting harsh. I wandered back to the bigger pond.
I'm not a huge fan of harsh light, but it did look very dramatic. It was now more than sufficiently light to take a hand held, bracketed shot of the island with this bench in the foreground. The area around the sun is still a little blown out in this shot, and I should have perhaps used a darker exposure, however this was just a fun shot, and I think it documents the scene nicely.
I did a slightly better job of controlling the exposure on the shot below. I set up my tripod for this and took a bit more care over it, and as a result I've maintained the highlight details in the area surrounding the sun.
The light was too harsh now. The mist hadn't really quite made it into the woods, which are still looking quite bare. The old oaks trees take longer to grow their new spring leaves. I skirted around the edge of this woodland on my way back home, and rather liked how the sun rays were bursting from behind this tree, so I set up one last composition on my tripod, and used a 5 shot bracket to capture this image.
I'm really hoping for some more settled weather over the coming days. Also, there is a full moon on Saturday, and it would be nice to try and capture a shot of it, if the weather is favourable.
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