One thing about nature photography is that the length of time for really good light seldom lasts very long. There is the time just before the sun comes up till just after it rises. There is also the time around sunset as well as times of dramatic cloud cover. Most other times prove to be either too dark or too bright.
For me, that means photographing in the morning most of the time. My 9 to 5 as well as family time makes shooting sunsets a little less frequent. I will usually check weather.com the night before a trip to see what time sunrise is then plan when I need to leave the house so that I will have plenty of time to setup before that good light comes.
Late Sunrise – CT Shore
So I planned a morning trip in the winter of 2011 to photograph the snow covered shoreline. We had been hit with a few storms that year which left plenty of the white stuff all over, including the beaches which don’t often hold the snow for very long.
The only problem was that I overslept by about an hour. I could already see it was getting light outside and it’s a 45 minute trip to get to the shore. I fought myself for a while on whether it would be worth it, but in the end, I decided to go find out. As I drove closer to the shoreline, I could see that a line of clouds had formed along the horizon, blocking the sun. I started to perk up a little as I might still get that sunrise after all.
I found a small beach parking lot that only had handicap spaces in it. I never did find out where the rest of us were supposed to park, but I figured it was early on a 30 degree day. Not too many people would be heading out to the beach, so I parked my car and trudged through the thick snow. Once I found a good spot, I cleared an area for my tripod, set up the camera, and a minute or two later, the sun started to show — like it had waited for me!
Tomorrow I will be sharing another from Vermont. Before sunrise this time.