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Posts Tagged ‘pre-dawn’

A new day

Posted in Landscape, Nature, Photography, sunrise, tagged , , , , , , on December 31, 2023| 1 Comment »

Yesterday I welcomed the sunrise at Occoquan Bay National Wildlife Refuge, the first time that I have tried to photograph a sunrise in a long time. There are electric gates at this refuge and I arrived at 7:00 a.m., just after they had slid open. Sunrise was officially at 7:26, so I had to hustle to make it down to the water’s edge in time to see the sun begin to move above the horizon. It was cold, only 37 degrees (3 degrees C), so I made sure to zip up my coat and raise its hood.

I arrived in time and played around with the panorama feature on my iPhone to capture the second image below before the sun was visible. My panning was not quite steady, but I like the wide view that I was able to capture.

The first shot, also taken with my iPhone, shows the sun just after it had risen above the water. I really like the reflection of the sunlight in the water and the movement of the water that is visible in the image.

sunrise

sunrise

© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.

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Pre-dawn light

Posted in Landscape, Nature, Photography, Winter, tagged , , , , , , , on December 30, 2018| 3 Comments »

A few days ago I posted a shot of a sunrise over Occoquan Bay and I remember waiting somewhat impatiently for the sun to rise. Fortunately I took some shots as I was waiting and as I finally went over those shots today, I was happy that they showed some of the beautiful colors as the night finally turned into day.

The sunrise was by no means spectacular—its beauty was more subdued and subtle. You’ll probably notice that the color changes a bit in each of the images. I think that the colors were influenced by the direction in which I was pointing my camera and the amount of light present in the scene.

pre-dawn light

pre-dawn light

pre-dawn light

© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.

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Pre-dawn blackbirds

Posted in Art, Birds, Nature, Photography, wildlife, tagged , , , , , , , on October 6, 2013| 4 Comments »

I arrived at the marsh before dawn, hoping to photograph a beautiful sunrise. I stumbled around in the fog and the dark as it gradually got lighter and captured this shot of a flock of blackbirds flying over a field of cattails. If you click on the photo, you can get a better look at all of the different flying positions of the blackbirds.

As it turned out, there were virtually no colors in the sky as the sun rose. I’m sure that I will be back again soon for another attempt.

pre-dawn_blackbirds_blog

© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved

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Sleeping in the moonlight

Posted in Birds, Nature, Photography, wildlife, tagged , , , , , , , on December 30, 2012| Leave a Comment »

This past Friday I was up before the dawn to try to photograph the almost-full moon and already posted some photos of the moonlight reflected in the water and of the sunrise. As I was making my way along the boardwalk in the marsh, I saw that geese were asleep in the fields. With my camera on a tripod, I took some photos. This was shot at ISO100, f11, and a 25 second exposure. I like the fact that the moonlight was strong enough to cause a reflection in the water and illuminated what looks to be a thin sheet of ice on the water.

Goose asleep in the moonlight

Goose asleep in the moonlight

© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved

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Morning moonlight in the marsh

Posted in Landscape, Nature, Photography, tagged , , , , , , , on December 28, 2012| 8 Comments »

Last night I saw a beautiful almost-full moon as I was driving home from work, so I got up early this morning with hopes of seeing the moon setting before sunrise.

The moon was bright in the cold pre-dawn sky.  Although it was partially obscured by clouds, the moon illuminated my way along the darkened path to the boardwalk of my local marsh. There were geese sleeping in the fields just off the boardwalk and I attempted to photograph them (I’ll post a photo or two of them later). I tried photographing the moon itself, but the overcast sky prevented me from getting any details of the moon, which looks like a blob of light in all of my photos. I had somewhat greater success in taking photos of the moonlight reflecting off the water. I had my camera on a tripod for extra stability, but focusing in the dark was difficult and I couldn’t see the dials of the camera, so my settings were not always right.

Here is my favorite image that shows a pathway of reflected light from the moon. The subject that I photographed is pretty mundane, but I really like the overall atmosphere of the photo.

Moonlight

Moonlight in the marsh

© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved

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