Sunrise Over Lulworth by The Narratographer

Sunrise Over Lulworth by The Narratographer

This morning, I was up with the lark. Sunrise at this time of year is before 6am and in order to be in position for when the soft light appears, you really need to be arriving on location no later than 5.30am. So I found myself, at this ungodly hour, standing on the edge of the sea with nothing for company but the sound of waking waves. The tide was coming in and as I positioned my tripod right by the edge of the sea, I kept one eye on the light and one fixed firmly on the ever-nearing tide.
I wanted to get something low down, giving the images a sense of power and of the sheer size of the bay. Another benefit of positioning your camera low to the ground is that you make the foreground that little more apparent. No one normally looks at what is right before the camera, preferring to let their eye be guided into the frame and led towards the point of focus. But when the camera is positioned low, these little stones become a little more obvious. That was what I wanted, a contrast between the sea and the stone, a wave/particle duality if you will.
I also decided to shoot most of my stuff today in long exposure. For me, long exposure is great at isolating that which doesn’t move. The fact that everything moving is given a softness, everything that doesn’t, by comparison, is given a stronger appearance. This leads to an overall contrast boost and gives static edges a little more grandeur.
I spent a good two hours at Durdle Door this morning, and apart from another pair of photographers and their little dog, I saw no one all morning. Photography is a lonely passion, it is supposed to be. It is a path best trod in solitude.

The Narratographer: Photos