Archives for July 2015

Clarity. Yesterday’s storm put an end to the haze and humidity for the time being, so this morning was clear and cool. I’ve made a liar out of myself these past few days when I said a couple of days ago that I don’t normally wait for the sun to breach the horizon, because now three of my past four photos have included the sun. The fact is, few things are more powerful, if at all, than a well-composed image of the sun radiating its light upon a scene. Without the haze to make the sky glow, and without many clouds to change colors, this was my best option today, and it wasn’t a bad option at all.

Also, today marks the end of my 7th month of this project. Thank you to everyone who has been supporting me along the way.

It’s been a while since I’ve been able to use a longer lens to get up close to the city like this. The sun has been rising so far north for the past few months, where the skyline isn’t much to look at, that the situation usually calls for a wider angle to make a more interesting scene. And I’m a big fan of wide angle shots anyway. But today I was having trouble capturing the scene the way I wanted to with my usual wide angle lens. It was hazy and cloudy, and I didn’t feel I was accurately recreating what little color there was in the sky. I walked south along the waterfront with the intention of bringing the sunrise a bit more in line with a more interesting part of the city. That helped, but I was still dissatisfied with my shots, so as the sun was breaching over the horizon I got frustrated and switched lenses. I chose a longer lens and started firing at the sun rising through the orange haze. Framing the shot like this created a bit of a murky and eerie feeling, which was exactly what I wanted.

So, when you get caught in a rut, make a change and do things differently. It can be hard to do it on your own, sometimes external forces will cause you to do it, but when it happens you’ll be glad you did.

Painted brushstrokes across the sky.

Yesterday I spoke about the possibility of sleeping a little later on clear mornings to wait for the sun to break over the city skyline. This morning was a perfect example of why I don’t do that. It was supposed to be a clear morning, and when I woke up around 4:50am I looked out the window and the absence of clouds in the sky made me consider sleeping a little while longer. I didn’t, and it was a good thing because even on what appear to be clear mornings, clouds can appear from seemingly out of nowhere and put on a spectacular show of colors as the sunlight begins to fill the sky at dawn.

It just goes to show how unpredictable things can be and how sometimes you just have to move forward and hope for the best.

Inspired by yesterday’s beach scene, I decided to head over to our own beach here in Hoboken for this morning’s sunrise. It was a hazy and cloudless morning, and although there were some nice soft colors, my early photos seemed a bit empty so I decided to wait for the sun to break over the skyline to include it in my frame. I don’t usually do that, because I time my morning outings to get the best colors around 20 minutes before the sunrise time, whereas the sun doesn’t show itself over the skyline until about 40 minutes after sunrise. So that means about an hour of waiting from the time I get out there until the time of seeing the actual sun. Of course, watching the sunrise is a wonderful experience but on a weekday when I have a million other things going on it can be difficult to remain in the present and fully enjoy the moment. Letting go and remaining present is something I need to work on. Also, I was thinking that on certain days I can plan to go out later (and sleep a little later) specifically when I want to get the sun in my photo for that day.