The Early Bird and his Tasty Worm
Laziness: It’s become an epidemic in our society and culture. I despise it, mainly because I’ve struggled with it my entire life. It’s something I have to fight on a daily basis. One of the ways I combat laziness and complacency is by getting up as early as I can. I’ve developed a bad attitude towards sleeping in. In fact, if I sleep in past 8am, I feel like the world has started without me. I then spend the rest of my day trying to catch up and get back on schedule. Why am I rambling about getting up early? Well, for photographers, the light that comes with the sunrise is some of the most beautiful light of any time of the day. But it requires dedication and a love for what we do. It’s not easy to wake up before the majority of the world, pack up our gear, grab a cup of coffee, all in an effort to beat the sun to a spot we want to photograph. I can tell you this though; every time I have gotten up to photograph the sunrise, the rest of my day has been great. My drive home is always great, I have a smile on my face, I’m energized and ready for the rest of the day, and there is no crash in the afternoon. Besides great light for photography, getting up early has it’s other benefits too. I’ve found that most successful people share this trait, and I certainly want in on that.
A Rather Large Drifter
I found this rather large piece of drift wood in Miami one bright and early morning. You may have noticed the backdrop of this photo as I have posted several images from this location. Miami is one the most beautiful cities I have ever been to. I always imagined it as this dangerous, run down, dirty city. I don’t know why, maybe because of the way Hollywood portrays the city. I’m sure there is some truth to this in the night life, but I’m not one to spend my nights hopping around bars and clubs. I was constantly amazed at how beautiful and clean and vibrant the city was. There was no smog, no trash, no grime, no run down industrial areas (at least that I could find). I could easily live in Miami, if not for the unreasonably high humidity levels during the day. I shot this tree from several angles, but this one was the clear keeper of the bunch. Because I was shooting straight into the sun, I took 7 exposures to ensure I had enough light to work with in post. The key there was “enough light to work with.” Just because you have the light in your multiple exposures, doesn’t mean you have to use it. I could have processed a “perfectly exposed” image where the histogram showed no clipping on the highlights, but that’s not what I wanted here. I wanted a sun drenched image, because that’s the way I remember it. Hope you enjoy it as much as I enjoyed shooting and processing it!
