This morning I departed the house well before dawn to make the twenty minute drive to what has become one of my regular photo shoot locations. I’d promised myself to do a sunrise photo shoot there someday and today was the day.
The location is an old mill dam. The dam now produces electricity while the surrounding rocks and river is used for recreation. It’s somewhat secluded. You park several hundred yards from the dam itself and take a path through the surrounding woods.
As I walked this path, my flashlight casting it’s small yellow glow on the blackness of just before dawn, I couldn’t help but wonder if I should be concerned about those rustling sounds I was hearing in the woods just out of range of my light. I guess if pressed I could have put up a fair fight using my tripod as a club but thankfully it didn’t come to that. Perhaps I shouldn’t have watched that horror movie last night. ;-)
I was pleased to find the water level was nearly perfect. Water was flowing over the dam but most of the rocks in the river downstream from the dam were exposed and dry providing excellent vantage points for taking photos. With the tripod and camera assembled in the dark I had a few moments to enjoy the peaceful surroundings while waiting for the first signs of twilight.
One thing I wanted to do during this photo session was to explore the low-light capabilities of the Nikon D700. The first photo was taken while it was still so dark I couldn’t see the display screen on my camera without using the backlighting. Notice in the upper right of the photo stars are still clearly visible. It was taken at ISO 3200 and while some noise is noticeable it’s still very acceptable. For this photo I had a medium speed lens (f/4) mounded because I wanted zoom capabilities. If a really fast lens was used on the D700 you could probably take good photos with very little light.
The sunrise itself was a bit disappointing. The sky was clear and so there was no orange/red colors as the sun rose, it simply got brighter. But I certainly wasn’t disappointed as the first rays of direct sunlight began to paint the surrounding landscape. I turned the tripod first one direction and then the other trying to capture all which was happening around me.
It certainly was worth the 40 minutes travel and the 3 hours of watching, listening and photo taking. Heck, It would have been worth it if I’d not taken a single shot. I shall return. :-)
Over the next few days perhaps I’ll share a few more of the photos.