Earlier Dawn Photography

(I mean: earlier in my career)

2021-03-02

It can't really get much earlier in the day, without becoming night photography. The previous blog discussed my most recent dawn photographs. The current set goes back a bit further.

By dawn in this context I mean the time before sunrise. This lasts, from a visual (not astronomical) perspective, for about an hour, under optimal conditions.

As recently noted, that means sliding out of bed pretty early, at some times of the year, and I like not only the light, but also the peace and solitude. And solitude of course matters more during a pandemic. The light at dusk might differ a little from dawn, but more importantly to me, people (and cars) exhibit more activity at dusk. I love people (and cars)—just not for landscape photography.

And, in fairness, my own bio-rhythms also favour dawn. Despite the near-horror that some of my friends express about working at this time of day, i) I got used to it fairly early on in my previous career, and ii) I feel really good then.I rarely wake to an alarm, absent some specific project, and it certainly also happens that many days I then sleep too long for dawn photography. (I can live with that.)

I do not have coffee while I'm out working, or it causes ... complications. Coffee immediately becomes priority number one, however, upon returning to the studio.

At dawn, we will see blues (the "Blue Hour"), the colour of the overall sky, very dark of course at first, and then the sun itself will start to sneak the first little bit of orange/red around the horizon, only into its little corner of the sky. We will see little to no green.

Choosing which dawn photographs to show will make me think. Anyway, here goes.

McNair island Three Sisters 1000 Thousand Islands dawn orange ctLow photography Charles T. Low photographer — McNair Island, pre-sunrise orange, diffused by haze

Now, in the photograph above, which I know many of you have seen before, of course I enhanced it. You may take that as a given in all which follow. Nonetheless, it—everything— did look orange, and that happens on this diffused kind of a basis but rarely. It required a particular atmospheric haze which I don't think I have seen quite like that, before or since. (It does once again highlight one of the most important aspects of art-photography: be there.)

Oh, and by the way, I have print copies of that one, ready to sell, both framed and unframed. I can get anything printed, but check out some other ready-to-go works in my online Gallery.

Now let's check out some blue.

blue dawn image clouds sky St. Lawrence River Brockville Ontario ctLow Photography Charles T. Low Phototgrapher — some red, but blue predominates in this dawn image

Now, sure, the general dawn motif repeats, but I will never see that exact cloud formation again. I plan to continue to do many other types of photography, but don't think that I will ever tire of dawn.

The red and blue often mix in more equitable proportions.

1000 Thousand Islands foggy dawn ctLow Photography Charles T. Low Photographer — one of the Thousands Islands, foggy dawn, red and blue both

dawn St. Lawrence River red blue ctLow Photography Charles T. Low Photographer — St. Lawrence River, a more dramatic red/blue dawn example (pink/orange/purple)

Dawn photography need not limit itself to landscapes (or river-scapes).

King Street Brockville Ontario wet dawn mixed ambient created light ctLow Photography Charles T. Low Photographer — King St., Brockville, on a wet morning

Above, the ambient light mixes with the city lights, and I can assure you that the scene changes dramatically within the space of five minutes. Timing matters immensely. Note the blue sky (which by the way, early on looks black to the eye ... another topic).

In the recent Dawn Photography blog, I mentioned the white-balance ("WB") camera setting. For that street-scene, I used "Cloudy" (I personally never use "Auto" anymore, except for snapshots), but it matters most that my eye guides me, and I can change it later, in editing, to suit.

I also mentioned tripods and long shutter speeds.

Below, I show another case of mixed lighting, the sun (still below the horizon and behind clouds, but making the sky blue), vs. the streetlight; very dynamic as the sky rapidly brightened.

streetlight Oversize chairs riverside snowstorm Brockville Ontario ctLow photography Charles T. Low Photographer — Oversize chairs, riverside, snowstorm

Continuing with the theme of created objects (at dawn), I made several visits to this barn, only once finding a fog rolling in off the fields. Then I had to do some work, back in the digital darkroom, to make it look the way it had actually looked—another purpose for editing which not all viewers will ever know happens.

Sometimes dawn colours remain more muted.

dawn pastel St. Lawrence River clouds ctLow photography Charles T. Low Photographer Brockville Ontario — more of a pastel dawn

pink orange purple dawn Johnstown Bridge fish sanctuary ctLow photography Charles T. Low photographer — intermediate vibrancy

(I have the one above also ready as a print, currently at the O'Connor Gallery.)

dawn swamp mist green — oh my ... some green after all!

And may I finish with a little pow.

winter tree orange dawn ctLow photography Charles T. Low photographer — tree in winter

I could go on (and it requires some forbearance for me to desist), but I think that this will do.

I simply find magic in dawn light.

Thank you all most sincerely for reading and viewing.

Kindly subscribe on the blog page (I suggest a junk email address), or let me know if that doesn't suit you. Check the Gallery. I will very much appreciate referrals of friends to this blog.

Charles T. Low

Photographer

blog #62