For me this past week has been notable with the number of early rises to catch the sunrise, but what a week in terms of the results achieved!
On Monday I looked out the window and saw an unusual cloud structure. I was later to find out it was probably a Mackerel Sky. Even well before sunrise I could see the potential for what was to come.
Arriving down at the river as the colour started to change it turned out to be one of the best sunrises I've seen for a while. The conditions all met together with perfect timing: Recent rain had cleared the river from debris and the stillness of the morning brought an unusual calmness to the water to create a perfect reflection.
This image is taken from a collection of thirteen photos stitched together to get the full perspective of the view - it was a stunning moment.
I continued to wait until the sun rose before moving on.
As the cloud moved south I was able to get a panoramic shot with my compact camera to show the unusual cloud formation that I've rarely seen in the past.
Two days later I was out again with the camera on a crisp clear morning - the colour much more subdued with the cloudless skies.
However Thursday was a special treat. It was difficult to know when leaving the house what type of sunrise it was going to be due to the amount of cloud cover, but it turned out very special.
With a reasonable breeze, there was no major reflections in the water so I decided to go for a long exposure shot with the 10-stop ND filter that enabled using a shutter speed of 71 secs. This smoothed out the water ripples and emphasised the colours before sunrise
This next shot is without the filter:
As the weekend started I decided to set the alarm early again, knowing that I would have more time to spend down the river with no pressure to get back for starting work. The skies were not as dramatic as earlier in the week, but still made a great start to the day and was well worth getting out for. A few photos rounding off a really good week with some great colours first thing in the morning.