The Sun Will Rise | Weekly Photo #42
As I sit here in the UK during some incredibly uncertain times, I know that for most people right now, photography is far from the top of the agenda. I get it and I feel the same. But, while there are many people being impacted by this unprecedented global event and there are far more important and practical jobs which are being done by many heroes all over the world, I do feel that positive distractions are incredibly important for everyone now more than ever, and I for one am grateful for all of the content creators out there continuing to provide these welcome creative distractions including my favourite photographers and YouTubers.
Fujifilm XT2 | XF10-24mm | 10mm | 1/6th Second | f/7.1 | ISO200
I first shared this photo in a recent article I posted titled On Location Photographing a Sunrise In Ghent. This is the view looking down the River Leie from St Michael’s Bridge in the historic city of Ghent in Belgium. Although there is no clear focal point in this scene, when I first crossed the bridge during the day I knew this view with its fantastic reflections was one I had to revisit and try to photograph during my planned sunrise shoot the following morning.
After taking a photograph of Saint Nicholas’ Church during the blue hour, the sunrise exploded into the sky, casting these beautiful colours across the scene. With the tripod set up, I decided to go as wide as possible for this shot to get as much of the reflections into the foreground as possible so on to the Fuji XT2 I attached the 10-24mm lens set to 10mm.
Although there are some strong compositional elements such as the long, sweeping lines created by the river bank and the detail in the reflections creating a strong foreground, there isn’t really a main focal point which lets the image down somewhat. A taller building that stands out like an ornate clock tower would have been perfect on the right hand third but we can only capture the view we see. What I feel does work and helps here is the way the light is well balanced across the scene as the sky on the right lighting up the buildings on the left help make sure the light isn’t too strong on just one side.
I will be using some of this time during social distancing to process a few photos I have yet to get to and write a few blog articles that have been on the back burner. I will continue to post my weekly photo posts during this outbreak which I hope will be a small but welcome distraction and although it seems a long way off yet, as the title says, the sun will rise again.
Stay safe.
Trevor
This post is featured in my Weekly Photo series where I post a new photo every Monday. To have this delivered directly to your inbox, you can subscribe to the mailing list here.