I consider myself to be primarily a wildlife photographer, but sometimes I enjoy taking photos that do not include an animate subject. That was certainly the case last Saturday, when I travelled to Occoquan Bay National Wildlife Refuge just before sunrise. I have already posted a few photos of the sunrise that I took with my iPhone, but decided it was worthwhile sharing a few images captured with my DSLT.
When the sun first appears its light is so intense that it is difficult to capture a shot when staring right at it. As you can see in the first image, I had to underexpose the image to get a decent shot of the sun. For that reason, I like to take photos of portions of the early morning sky in which the sun is not in the frame, like the second image below that shows the pale orange color of the sky and some of the details of the distant trees.
The moon was almost full that morning and I managed to capture a detailed shot of it by once again underexposing the shot. If I had let the camera choose the exposure, I would have ended with with a bright while circle with no details. The moon was present throughout most of the morning, as shown in the final photo that I took later in the day. The daytime shot of the moon does not show as much contrast and detail as the shot in the dark, but I like the way that I was able to capture the blue sky and the clouds.
I am sure that I will be back to featuring wildlife subjects soon, but it was fun to play around with some different subjects and approaches for a change.
© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.
Mike Powell 