Photo Talk

I have written for club magazines over a long period. I'm helping with a magazine now, and will post the articles.

Winter Wonderland -
if you get up early enough!

There's something magical about a crisp, frosty morning with the sun coming up in a clear dawn. It's also c-o-l-d, and this can bring its own photographic problems to add to your frozen fingers and toes. Let's face it - you need a strong will and a driving motivation to get out of bed on a frosty pre-dawn morning. It helps to retire early and get plenty of sleep; and have a good hot plate of porridge and a hot drink before you venture out. Dress warmly in layers, so you can shed clothing as the morning warms up. You will also need gloves and a hat; standing and doing nothing while waiting for the light to change is not going to keep you warm.

Planning for Success
The best photos come about either through careful planning or blind luck. As you can 't rely on the luck, you really need to plan ahead. Keep a lookout for likely locations with a good eastern skyline; try and imagine what they will look like in early morning light. Don't rely on memory, take a notebook and make notes; include possible lens choices, camera angles etc., then you will waste less precious time on the shoot.

Get your priorities sorted out: are you going to concentrate on pre-dawn silhouettes, dawn itself, reflections, foliage, or what? Dawn happens real fast, and you can spend too much time on a non-essential shot and miss the one you were intending to get. Make a shot list which is achievable, and then keep alert for photo opportunities as they happen. Often you can extend your dawn shooting time by starting on an east-facing hill or slope, then move down into a gully as the sun rises.

Your choice of film may determine your best strategy. Slide film will produce magnificent renderings of the sky colours. A faster colour print film will be useful to capture hills, trees etc being lit by the dawn light, rather than the light itself. Black & white produces wonderful silhouettes, and closeups of spider webs and frost on fences etc. But concentrate on one type first and get to know it before experimenting.

Equipment Preparation
Pack your camera bag the night before - 5 am is no time to be hunting through drawers for that wide-angle lens. Clean your lenses carefully - the low angle light will shine straight onto the lens surface, and any dust or finger prints will cause flare. A small torch will assist camera setting in dim light. Take extra batteries if possible, and keep them in an inside pocket of your jacket. Most cells lose their capacity to deliver power when really cold, and you can swap them over if your power zoom or motor wind starts to sound slow. A tripod and cable release (or equivalent) are essential - low light is the reality, and you will be using slow shutter speeds. A small towel is a useful cold weather accessory - you will be thankful you brought it when you walk face first into a branch laden with dew!

It is best to keep your gear in a cool place inside over night, and don't run your car heater full bore when going to your chosen site. Condensation on the lens is your enemy, so avoid drastic changes in temperature. Keep returning gear to your bag as it is finished with; it is easy to leave something behind if you put it down in the pre-dawn gloom.

Weather Considerations
Look for a clear, cold night after a warmer rainy period. The first morning following these conditions should produce a good frost. The air is full of moisture, and when the temperature drops below freezing, the dew forms as frost. With continuing clear weather and frosts, there is less and less water in the air each night unless the day has been warm enough to evaporate surface water.

Let's consider the most important thing - the light; after all, you got out of a warm bed to use the light to take pictures! You will notice three very distinct time periods: pre-dawn; the actual time of dawn; and the post-dawn. During these three periods, the light will gradually and imperceptibly increase in intensity with a sharp increase as the sun rises over the horizon. The sky colour will change from the blue-black of the pre-dawn, through lighter blues into roses and orange; and finally into the brighter shades of dawn and post-dawn.

In the pre-dawn, the low light level makes it difficult to photograph nearby objects without using long exposures. Concentrate on the sky, tree silhouettes, water reflections etc, watching for variations in colour and intensity. It is generally safe to let your camera determine its auto exposure unless you are taking slides - when a little judicious exposure bracketing may be needed. Light levels will be fluctuating, so if you are using manual exposure you will need to check your settings often.

On clear mornings, the light will increase slowly, until the sun suddenly arrives and immediately brings problems with lens flare. You can try and avoid flare - but it can also be used deliberately to soften and change the mood of the shot. Experiment both ways - that's what photography is all about.

Misty Mornings
On hazy or misty mornings or those with high cloud cover, the sunlight is diffused through the water droplets which can reduce lighting contrast and soften texture. Mist creates an ethereal, subtle (can I resist the temptation to say "misterious"? no...) atmosphere with very low contrast. But don't defer your outing if the weather forecast was wrong, and things look real bad outside; some of the greatest photographs have been taken by brave souls who refused to let bad weather put them off - but then that has something to do with motivation, which is where I started!

I have noticed that many of the wonderful pictures in glossy photo books and magazines were taken by dawn light. You may not be on assignment; but if you give it a try, you just might come up with a personal winner!

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