Last Sunrise of 2014

Continue The Struggle to 2015

This is the last day of 2014 and I decided to have my last seascape photoshoot.  A friend of mine, Garrie, invited me to shoot and I'm very keen to come.  At first, I didn't woke up on time.  I made an alarm but somehow it didn't trigger.  When I woke up, I immediately pick up my things and rushed to the car.  Good thing I prepared all my equipment last night.  I made it on time, just 15 minutes before the actual sunrise.

Garrie wanted to shoot at Narrabeen Rock Pool, thus I drove there as fast as possible.  Although I made it 15 minutes before time, I noticed it was cloudy.  From where I'm positioned, I can say that the sky is covered 95% of the time.  If there are breaks at the clouds, it's only minimal.  It's all grey than blue.

I didn't see the actual sunrise.

Although it's cloudy and the sun is already on top of the horizon,  I still went to my favorite spot and prepared to shoot.  The sky didn't disappoint.  As I was preparing, the clouds begin to break.  They continue to break until the sun's rays are showing.  Amazingly, The sun rays still have a golden colour to it.

I immediately reached for my camera, stood my tripod, mount it, prepared the filters and made the settings.  

In post, I had to bring back the contrast and colours heavily.  The photo you see now is flat with very less color.  So I did curves, levels, add saturation and color adjustment layers.  I add warth to the sunrays and a bit of bluish tint on the left side of the photo.  I used a gradient mask to give that smooth transition.  I also did a dodge and burn to the pathway to give that natural contrast.


I shot with:

• Nikon D800e
• Nikkor 16-35mm f/4 @ 35mm, f/11
• ISO100, 30 seconds
• Benro Travel Angel Tripod
• Lee 0.9 Soft Grad Filter

Location:
Narrabeen Rock Pool, Narrabeen, NSW Australia