Tips on Early Morning Photography

A Guest Post by Simon Davidson.

As all photographers know, there are two times of day when the light is most ideal for capturing breathtaking images, sunrise and sunset. The reason being is because at these times the angle between the sun and the earth’s surface is small which allows for the sunlight to flow over the landscape in a way that intensifies the colours of nature and also creates spectacular shadows. All in all, it is a photographers dream land!

Planning For Your Early Morning Shoot:

Below are a couple of pointers that will help you effectively plan for your upcoming sunrise shoot so that you don’t miss that perfect shot. (NB: these steps should all be done the day before you plan on shooting the sunrise)

• Check your local weather forecast so you know what to expect, and also be sure to know what time the sunrise is expected to be.
• Make sure your camera batteries are fully charged, and I also suggest you have a spare fully charged battery in your bag as well.
• Go through your camera bag and ensure that you have all the equipment you need. Camera body, lenses, tripod, lens hoods, filters etc…
• Ensure you know how you are going to get to your shooting location; by car, bicycle, on foot, by boat, hot air balloon; and make sure they are fired up and ready to go.
• Set your alarm so that you have sufficient time to get to your shooting location.

But the most important tip of all is to WAKE UP when your alarm goes off!

Know Your Shooting Location:

This is a very important point and is one that many people often overlook. Knowing the location that you will be shooting in is just as important as bringing your camera on a shoot. You don’t want to find yourself in a situation (I admit, I have fallen victim to this myself) where you are frantically running around trying to find the best location to start shooting.
All you need to do is just spend about 20 minutes to half an hour a day or two before you plan on shooting the sunrise, have a look around the location so that you can get a good idea of the prime spots to photograph which will save you the pain of missing that ideal photo.

Enjoy Yourself:

You may be a professional photographer, or someone working their way up to that level, or maybe even just a hobbyist photographer, but no matter what level you’re at or what kind of photography you are doing I truly believe that the most important thing is that you enjoy yourself because at the end of the day that is most likely one of the reasons you took up photography in the first place.

So make sure to plan your shoot in advance, know the location you’ll be shooting and ENJOY IT!

Photographing at sunrise requires a little bit of planning and the ability to wake up to your alarm clock at 5:00am… In this video you will get an inside look at a sunrise shoot which takes place on the Knysna Lagoon in Southern Africa.

See more of Simon Davidson’s Photography at www.simondavo.com.