Tag Archives: sunrise

Let's go fishing – how I made the image

August 1, 2014Cocoa, INSIDE FLORIDA, St. Johns River, Techniqueboat, cloud, fishing, post processing, sunrise, technique, treeEd Rosack

Here’s another photo from my last trip to Viera Wetlands.

Let’s go fishing! Two fishermen head out before dawn.

I’ve made this kind of photo before – you can see some examples in this set on Flickr. I think this one turned out better than my earlier tries. I used a different approach and because it’s been a while since I’ve written a “behind the scenes / how-to post”, I thought I’d fill you in on how I made this.

The boat ramp at this little park where SR 520 crosses the St. Johns River is pretty busy around dawn. It seems to be a popular place for fishermen to put in. I waited several times while they cleared my frame and the water calmed down before I could make my next exposure. So I decided to make an image that included a boat.

It’s a challenging shot. I wanted to capture the intense sunrise colors so I had to be careful not to over expose and blow out the sky. I also wanted some detail in the boat, so I needed to over expose there a bit, but still minimize motion blur. At sunrise, I normally use a low ISO for the best quality image, and a small aperture for good depth of field. This results in a long shutter speed, which is bad for photographing moving boats. And if I want to bracket and use multiple frame HDR to capture the huge contrast range in the scene – that’s even worse for moving boat photography. So how did I make this image? Glad you asked!

The secret is to carefully capture two frames and blend them together by hand. The first frame is exposed for the boat: I used a high ISO and a wide open aperture to get my shutter speed as fast as possible, and I overexposed slightly to capture a little shadow detail in the boat and in the vegetation on the shore. With my camera set and on a tripod, I composed and waited for the next boat to get to the right point in the frame. Here’s that RAW file:

1-the boat Screen Shot 2014-07-22 at 12.49.58 PM — *First frame, exposed for the boat, ISO 1000, f/4, 1/20 second*

The second frame was my main exposure and I wanted it to be the best quality possible. I also wanted to slightly under expose to capture color and detail in the sky. I waited until the boat was gone and the water was calm again and then made this exposure:

2- the sky Screen Shot 2014-07-22 at 12.49.51 PM — *Second frame, exposed for the sky, ISO 100, f/11, 0.8 sec*

When I got home, I preprocessed the two raw files using identical color balance and paying careful attention to noise reduction (especially on the higher ISO frame with the boat). I’ve used DxO Optics Pro lately when I want the best RAW conversion. It does a wonderful job on both lens corrections and noise reduction for supported equipment. After a few tweaks to exposure in each file, I brought them into Photoshop on separate layers.

The next thing to deal with was the boat. Even though I’d pushed my shutter speed as high as I thought I could, 1/20 second still left a little motion blur visible. The “Filters / Sharpen / Smart Sharpen” command in Photoshop has a “Remove Motion Blur” option and I’ve found that it works well in situations like this where the direction of motion is known. I used it selectively on a duplicate layer to enhance detail in the boat. Here are before and after crops at 200%. I think it’s a nice improvement:

3-motion blur boat Screen Shot 2014-07-22 at 12.45.59 PM — *Motion blur (before using the filter)*

4-sharper boat Screen Shot 2014-07-22 at 12.45.43 PM — *After the motion blur processing*

Next I used layer masks to blend the multiple frames together. I worked carefully around the boat and painted it into the main / second frame. I like a little detail in my shadows instead of a straight silhouette. Since I’d slightly overexposed the first frame (and was careful with noise reduction) I painted some of that into the vegetation. Here’s the first merged result:

6-Initial merge Screen Shot 2014-07-22 at 12.48.18 PM — *Initial merged frames*

The only filter I used on this was Topaz Clarity – I like the way it increases mid-tone contrast without adding halos.

7-Adding clarity Screen Shot 2014-07-22 at 12.48.29 PM — *After Topaz Clarity*

After selective sharpening on a separate layer, I returned to Lightroom for final adjustments (black and white points, vignette, etc) to get the first image in this post.

I struggled some with the cropping. I tried a 16×9 aspect ratio, but because I wanted to keep all the sky, I thought the horizon ended up too close to the center. I decided to keep the original composition since the dark water at the bottom holds my eye in the frame. I might play with it some more.

I like how it turned out and I hope you do too. I also hope the info helps with your photography. If you have any questions on details or other photography related things, let me know in the comments.

Thanks for stopping by and reading my blog. Now, go make some photos!

Viera Wetlands on 7-19-2014

July 25, 2014Cocoa, INSIDE FLORIDA, St. Johns River, Viera Wetlandspanorama, sunrise, Whistling Duck, woodpeckerEd Rosack

I went over to Viera Wetlands last Saturday. It’s best not to expect too much in the middle of summer in Florida, so my expectations were a little low.

First on the agenda was a stop where SR 520 crosses the St. Johns River, near Cocoa, Florida. There’s a park on the north side of the road with a busy boat ramp and a boardwalk reaching a short distance out into the river. The sunrise was pretty – here’s one of the images I made:

Ultra-wide daybreak – Five frame panorama – The resulting horizontal field of view is about 130 degrees.

After sunrise I went on to Viera Wetlands to meet up with several Photography Interest Group members. Kevin M. organized it and we had one of the largest turnouts in a long time. Frank B., Kevin K. and his son Evan, and Tom M all showed up too.

With the heavy rains we’ve had lately they closed the berms to cars, so we took off on a stroll around the cells closest to the entrance. There were more birds out and about than anticipated.

A very colorful Red bellied Woodpecker

In addition to woodpeckers, we saw and heard a lot of whistling ducks.

Perched Black Bellied Whistling Duck

We also saw many of the regular Florida avians (Tri-colored Herons, Great Blue Herons, Snowy Egrets, Ibis, Anhingas, Moorhens, Coots, Black Vultures, etc.). Dragonflies and Alligators were also abundant.

I started with low photographic expectations and ended up coming home with several images I really like. I also got to spend a little time with friends. Once again I was pleasantly surprised by another wonderful Central Florida Photo Op!

You can see more of the photos from trip by clicking the links I included above to each person’s photo stream. You can also click here to view the Photography Interest Group photo pool. My Viera Wetlands album on Flickr is at this link, My St. Johns River album is at this link, and my Cocoa album is at this link.

Thanks for stopping by and reading my blog. Now, go make some photos!

Photographic Friction

June 29, 2014INSIDE FLORIDA, Merritt Island NWR, VARIOUSblack and white, Butterfly, infrared, landscape, panorama, reflection, sunriseEd Rosack

Friction synonyms: Hostility, frustration, conflict, discord, strife, opposition, contention, dispute, fighting, antipathy, resentment, …

Friction antonyms: Harmony.

For the past week or so, my photographic pursuits seem to be in slow motion. Creating photos is difficult. Friction and frustration are up and harmony and flow are down.

What’s going on? Glad you asked. 1. I’m having problems finding things to photograph. 2. I’m also having problems with the software I use to process photos. 3. And I’m having problems with my blog. Hmm.

1. The Images

I was a little busy this week (with #2 and #3) so it left me less time to photograph. But I did go out on Saturday with Kevin M. He needed a park pass and suggested we drive over to the Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge to pick one up at the Visitor’s Center. Of course, I talked him into leaving early for sunrise and we went by Gator Creek just before dawn. This is a nice enough image, but leaves me wanting better. The sky’s a little bland and I couldn’t find a nicer foreground. And the no-see-ums were fierce!

Another Gator Creek morning – a 4 frame panorama, ISO 100, f/11 at 2 seconds

We also drove around Black Point Wildlife Drive, but honestly, there aren’t many birds or animals there now. We saw very few of the regular birds and a wild pig, but most of the wildlife seems to be somewhere else. Summer slow down indeed. When we swung by the Visitors center there wasn’t much bird activity there either. I carried my infrared camera and experimented with IR insects. I like this one – but it also leaves me wanting.

An infrared butterfly

I guess the moral of this part of the story is that making good photos isn’t easy and some photo ops aren’t as good as others. Don’t let all the good ones you see on the web convince you otherwise. Keep looking and shooting. And don’t go just looking for photos – you should also go for the experience. Enjoy being out and don’t make it all about the image. And in Florida, in the summer, before dawn – bring insect repellent to cut your hostile friction with the bugs.

2. The Software

I’ve had issues for some time using the “Edit in Photoshop” command in Lightroom. Photoshop would open, but sometimes the file itself would never show up. If I tried to open the file directly from inside Photoshop, it worked every time. With the latest updates to both programs the problem got much worse. Every time I tried to open a RAW file in Photoshop from Lightroom, it wouldn’t work.

After several searches on Google, I found others are having this problem too. But there wasn’t any clear-cut solution, so I called Adobe. They told me to uninstall both programs and reinstall, but make sure to reinstall Photoshop first. This is a pain since I have to also reinstall all the plug-ins and presets I use too. I did get through it and it’s now working better, although it’s still happened a few times since. Frustrating friction.

3. The Blog

If you follow this blog via email or Twitter, you probably didn’t see last week’s post – a shame – I thought it was pretty good!

For some reason, the server isn’t sending email or Twitter notifications when a new post goes up. I’ve tweaked some settings and hope it’s corrected now. If not, I’ll have to keep troubleshooting. Curious, conflicting friction.

By the way, if you didn’t see last week’s post, here’s a link: https://edrosack.com/2014/06/18/wild-orchids-and-more-at-fort-christmas/

Photography is a great hobby that’s sometimes frustrating. But I’ve done it long enough to know that harmony will eventually return. When it does, the frictionless flow will be truly enjoyable.

If it doesn’t I’ll have to get a giant can of WD-40 to spray all over everything. That should lower the friction.

Thanks for stopping by and reading my blog. Now, go make some photos!

Merritt Island – May 31, 2014

June 7, 2014INSIDE FLORIDA, Merritt Island NWRbirds, boat, BPWD, Butterfly, Green Heron, landscape, marina, reflection, Spoonbill, sunrise, wildlifeEd Rosack

I made a quick trip to Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge last weekend with Kevin M. and Lutfi S. We stopped first at the Titusville marina for a sunrise photo. The sky was so-so, but the calm wind gave us very nice reflections in the water

Morning at the marina

Next, along Gator Creek Road we found a group of preening Roseate Spoonbills. I liked the contrast between their pink and the blue sky reflected in the water.

Preening Spoonbills

Later at the Visitor Center, we found a great many butterflies. They seem to like these Buttonbrush plants.

Gulf Fritillary

And Green Herons were common too, especially at the rest area on Black Point Wildlife Drive where we saw several nests and juveniles. This one (also at the Visitors Center) drew my eye as it posed against the silver-like water while it waited to strike an unwary fish.

Green Heron in a silver pond

With the hot weather starting to arrive, there’s not as much activity at Merritt Island as there sometimes is. But there’s still a lot to see and photograph.

Thanks for stopping by and reading my blog. Now, go make some photos!

Riding the Rails – Orlando's New SunRail Commuter Train

May 16, 2014Downtown Orlando, INSIDE FLORIDA, Maitland, Must do list, Orlando, Winter Parkblack and white, buildings, panorama, sunrise, trainEd Rosack

There are a lot of posts on here about nature / wildlife / landscape photography in our area. But the blog isn’t only about those subjects – it’s about Central Florida Photo Ops in general. So this week we have something a little different…

Central Florida’s new commuter rail system opened on May 1. The first phase of SunRail is 32 miles long and connects DeBary to Sand Lake Road, with 12 intermediate stations. The fares have been free for the first two weeks while they work the kinks out of the system. And I had some free time – so it was a perfect chance to check it out.

Trains run every 1/2 hour during the morning and evening rush hours and every two hours in the middle of the day. Getting there early gave me more opportunities to get on and off the train and explore nearby locations. And sometimes the light is really pretty in the morning too!

A beautiful morning to catch the train – at the Maitland SunRail platform

The trains are new, clean, modern, air-conditioned, and the morning I rode they were all on time. They’ve been crowded with many folks riding for free to scope out the system. But by the time I boarded last Wednesday the crush had thinned out – I had no problem getting seats all morning.

Northbound

There are plenty of scenic locations within walking distance of the SunRail stations. Exploring them all would take longer than a morning so I only stopped at three: Orlando Health, Winter Park, and Maitland. Finding subjects to point my camera at was easy. Here are two examples:

Seaboard Coast Line – Amtrak Station

Lucy Bleuz and the Jazzy Dog – they look like good places to eat

I didn’t try photographing from inside the train – motion and glare would make it tough. But there are some interesting sights between stops. If you want to try this, the east side of the car in the afternoon might have the best shots and light.

Initially, SunRail isn’t operating on weekends – so you’ll need to get around another way on Saturday / Sunday. But if you have time during the week, it’s an enjoyable experience. And did I mention there are photo ops?

You can see these and a few more photos from this trip in this set on Flickr.

Thanks for stopping by and reading my blog. Now, go make some photos!

Lake Louisa State Park

May 11, 2014INSIDE FLORIDA, Lake Louisa State Park, Must do listbirds, black and white, Cypress, Flowers, infrared, landscape, panorama, reflection, sunrise, tree, wildlifeEd Rosack

Update (5/30/14): See this related post on 5 Mile Road.

Intro / Description

Lynn, Mary, and I spent the first weekend in May at Lake Louisa State Park (LLSP). It’s located just southwest of Orlando in Clermont, Florida. LLSP is 4500 acres of rolling hills including six lakes with 105 acres of shoreline. There’s a range of camping options and 20 very nice, two bedroom, furnished cabins that you can stay in. Activities include fishing, canoeing and kayaking, biking, swimming, hiking, and horseback riding.

This is another case of me wondering why it took so long to visit somewhere. My friend Kevin M has mentioned it several times, but I never seemed to get over there – until now. It’s truly scenic and I’ve included more images than normal in this post – I apologize if it loads slowly.

Info for Photographers

There’s a lot to photograph there and the variety of landscapes is greater than many places in the area. Hills are rare around here, but this park has them, some over 100 feet high. I made this photo on the hillside above the road by the cabin where we stayed.

Wildflowers and dewey grass at dawn

May 5-11 is national wildflower week and LLSP was doing its part. Several wildflowers were blooming, including Prickly-pear Cactus, Passion Flowers, Lantana, and others. I think we were lucky to see such a variety in bloom. The Passion Flower blooms are supposed to last for only one day.

All of the lakes in the park are great habitats for Cypress Trees and Spanish Moss – very scenic and a classic Florida landscape look.

Lake Dixie shore – From the fishing dock in the campground on the south side of the lake

The Cypress tree trunks can also be very interesting.

Nature’s sculpture – The older, weathered cypress tree shapes can be very unusual

There’s a variety of wildlife at LLSP, although not as much as some other locations in Central Florida. For instance, eBird lists 112 species at LLSP vs 293 in Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge. We spotted nesting Ospreys (with chicks / juveniles), Red-bellied Woodpeckers, Cardinals, Black Vultures, Wild Turkeys, Nighthawks, a Swallow-tailed Kite, wading birds, vultures, Gopher Tortoises, Alligators, Deer, Crayfish, grackles and a few other species.

An Osprey returning to her nest to check on her chick

Photo hints:

Most state parks in Florida seem to open at 8am, which makes early morning photography a challenge. Since we were staying there, we could photograph whenever we wanted. This one is on the western shore of Lake Louisa.

Cypress dawn

Cypress dawn – by Lake Louisa.

Tripod/Monopod: Yes – take yours and use it when needed.

Lenses: There are so many photo ops here that you could probably make use of every one of your lenses. Macro for flowers, wide-angle for landscapes, long telephoto for wildlife, etc. You’ll have to decide how much to carry and what to concentrate on.

Best time to visit: Any time, but of course winter months will be cooler. Late April and early May will be better for wildflowers and nesting Ospreys too. We often heard Ospreys calling. It was fun to watch the parents bringing food back to their very demanding offspring!

Other:

There’s a nice beach and picnic area on Lake Louisa. If you swim there be careful though, there’s no life guard and there are alligators.

The park also is a popular place to bicycle, so bring yours if you have room.

The Florida Rambler website has a nice writeup on Lake Louisa and the cabins there.

The kayak launch at Lake Dixie across from the cabins is an easy put in. The one at Lake Louisa requires a long carry, so bring a friend or a kayak trolley if you plan to paddle there. You can also put in at the Crooked River Preserve just to the north of Lake Louisa and paddle down to the lake.

I didn’t get a chance (yet) to hike the many trails in the park. There are 9 main ones ranging from 1/2 to 5.5 miles and some of these lead to smaller lakes which might be very scenic.

The Citrus Tower is close to the park. It was built as a tribute to the citrus industry in the area. There’s a great view from 226 feet up, but a lot fewer orange trees visible now than there were in 1956 when it opened.

Cloudy in Clermont – View from the top of the Citrus Tower, looking south along HW27.

There are also many restaurants within a short drive from the park if you don’t want to cook in your cabin.

Summary

Lake Louisa State Park is a relaxing and scenic destination. It seems a world away from busy downtown Orlando. It’s perfect for a weekend get away. If you haven’t been there yet, you should go. I’m very glad we did.

Be sure to visit my Lake Louisa set on Flickr to see these and more photos.

My Gallery / Flickr photo set:	Lake Louisa set on Flickr.
Website:	http://www.floridastateparks.org/lakelouisa/
Address / Phone:	7305 U.S. Highway 27 Clermont, Florida 34714 (352) 394-3969
Central Florida Photo Ops Rating:	A CFL Photo Op must do!

Thanks for stopping by and reading my blog. Now, go make some photos!

Lessons from a photogenic place

April 12, 2014INSIDE FLORIDA, Marineland Beach, Techniquecloud, landscape, sunriseEd Rosack

There were a few lights in the parking lot way back behind the sand dunes and the clouds were thick and low, making it so very dark on Marineland Beach south of St. Augustine, Florida that my first few exposures didn’t even register on the sensor. I kept raising exposure times and ISO until I was able to capture this:

99 seconds in the dark – ISO 400, 99 seconds @ f/8; Marineland Beach, about 45 minutes before sunrise.

It sure didn’t look this way to my eyes. I couldn’t see much at all and had to use my head lamp to compose and focus.

When I got home and processed the photos, they reminded me of some things that might be useful to others.

Pre-visualize before, during, and after you press the shutter

You should always try to pre-visualize the photo you’re making before you compose and shoot – and it’s a delightful feeling when the image turns out just like you imagined. But this is often harder than it sounds. Especially if you can’t see what you’re photographing. There’s nothing wrong with adjusting your vision as you go. This is a wonderful advantage of digital cameras that we’d be foolish to ignore. Check your results on the LCD during the shoot and adapt as necessary. In this case, I knew exactly what I needed to change when I first looked at my (black) LCD. I needed more exposure!

Pre visualization is great, but there’s also nothing wrong with post visualization. What I mean is to try as many things as you can think of while you’re there and sort it out later when you get home. Try HDR, panoramas, high tripod, low tripod, and focus stacking. Use different focal lengths, shutter / aperture combinations, and positions / directions. Exploit changing weather / light as time goes on. Capture them all and give yourself a better chance to come out with something you like.

Shutter speed

Shutter speed is a critical variable when photographing moving water. The 99 second exposure above gave me very smooth and milky looking water, nicely outlining the rocks. A 1/1000th second (or faster) exposure can freeze drops of water. In between, you can find other speeds that look very different from the extremes. Capture the scene with different shutter speeds when possible. In this 1 second exposure, I like the added interest from the flow patterns in the water.

Marineland Beach and coquina rocks – ISO 100, 1 second @ f/4 with 8 2/3 stop neutral density filter, ~30 minutes after sunrise.

High Dynamic Range (HDR) processing and ghost removal

There are so many controls and sliders in HDR software that it’s hard to know which ones to change. Most HDR software has an option for removing “ghosts” (differences between multiple frames for anything moving in the image) and I think it’s a critical setting. HDR Efex allows me to select the baseline frame I want to use as well as the amount of ghost removal to apply. I like to experiment with these and select the combination that looks best. In the image below, there was only one setting that showed the breaking wave. And I think the wave definitely adds to the image.

Golden rocks and sand – 5 image bracket (-4 to +4 stops), almost an hour after sunrise.

Don’t leave too soon

I made these three images (and more!) over a period of 90 minutes. The changing light provided different looks and opportunities to photograph this place. It’s worth getting there early and staying for a while.

Don’t get overwhelmed

When you visit a beautiful place, especially for the first time – it’s easy to be overwhelmed and forget about everything except pressing the shutter button. It helps to visit multiple times. The first time, it’s hard to see all the possible compositions until you get over the novelty and excitement. When you can relax and enjoy the experience you can open your mind and get in the zone. Then you’ll make images you’ll be happy to share with others.

You can see more of my photos from Marineland in this set on Flickr.

Thanks for stopping by and reading my blog. Now – go make some photos!

Get Your National Park Service Senior Pass

April 6, 2014INSIDE FLORIDA, Merritt Island NWR, VARIOUSblack and white, boat, infrared, landscape, Mangrove, reflection, sunrise, treeEd Rosack

I drove over to Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge last Friday to scout for new places to launch my kayak. I’d never been to the Beacon 42, boat ramp before, so I stopped there first.

Beacon 42 boat ramp, before dawn. Venus in the upper right, reflecting in the lower right.

It looks like a great place to launch from, with easy access to Mosquito Lagoon in the distance to the east.

I also went by the Visitor’s Center since I needed to renew my MINWR annual pass. The very nice man at the desk asked me how old I am. When I told him I’d be 62 next month, he told me to come back then and get a senior pass. I’d heard about this before but didn’t know it started at age 62. And that it’s a lifetime (not annual) pass! And that it gets you in to more than 2,000 federal recreation sites including national parks, national wildlife refuges, national forests, and areas managed by the Bureau of Land Management and Bureau of Reclamation! It’s quite a deal – I’ll be back there next month to get mine.

I did make a few more photos that day. Here’s one more:

Reflecting mangroves: Something about mangroves always seems photogenic to me. Especially in mirror like water.

Thanks for stopping by and reading my blog. Now – if you’re a US citizen age 62 or older – get your pass. Then go make some photos!

Cocoa – March 20, 2014

March 22, 2014Cocoa, Cocoa Beach Pier, INSIDE FLORIDAbuilding, ocean, pier, sunrise, venusEd Rosack

Keith H. mentioned that he’d like to visit the Cocoa Pier. I hadn’t been in a while and when I checked The Photographer’s Ephemeris, it looked like the sun would rise lined up pretty well with the Pier this week, so we decided to go over. We arrived early hoping for some star photo ops, but thick clouds and lights on the beach limited star visibility. I did manage to capture a planet in this frame:

Venus rising past the pier – The clouds parted for a few moments before dawn

It’s pretty crowded underneath this pier, so the sun alignment wasn’t as big a deal as I hoped. I caught a glimpse of it through the pilings and clouds just after dawn – here’s what it looked like:

Sunrise under the pier – The ship visible in the upper left was a bonus.

On the drive back, we stopped to photograph the new Port Canaveral Exploration Tower:

Port Canaveral Exploration Tower – The new building is quite eye-catching! It wasn’t there the last time I drove by.

A quick, but fun photo excursion.

Thanks for stopping by and reading my blog. Now – go make some photos!

Whether the Weather

February 23, 2014INSIDE FLORIDA, Merritt Island NWR, Orlando Wetlandsblack and white, boat, infrared, landscape, marina, panorama, pier, reflection, sunriseEd Rosack

I usually always leave early on photo expeditions so I can get somewhere in time to catch sunrise. I have many sunrise photos collected in this set on Flickr.

Lately, sunrise and I haven’t been getting along. I show up faithfully, but sunrise doesn’t. It’ll send its friend fog instead. Or it’ll come dressed in plain, clear sky attire instead of its fancy, colorful cloud costume. Or I’ll get frustrated and sleep in, and sunrise puts on a show without me. I don’t think it likes me anymore.

Marina reflections – Fog at the Titusville Marina. Panorama, looking east, just before sunrise.

Rock n dawn – clear skies at daybreak. Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge

Orlando Wetlands Pano – I slept in on this morning and showed up at the park after sunrise when this front was coming through. I bet it was really nice before I got there.

Well, seriously – I am a bit frustrated that I haven’t captured a good sunrise in a while. But I know the weather and my luck will change eventually. And I enjoy getting out and seeing different things even when the sunrise isn’t at its prettiest.

There are a few things I do to try to maximize my chances with the weather. Persistence is probably the best solution. The more I go out photographing, the better my chances are of catching a good scene. And software can help. My main weather site is Weather Underground. I usually look at their hourly forecast with precipitation probabilities and cloud cover predictions. On my phone, I use Mycast and Dark Sky. Mycast has pretty good forecasts and I can look at IR clouds on its Map tab to see cloud cover even when it’s dark. The Dark Sky app has excellent short-term predictions – especially about rain. I also sometimes use Clear Sky Chart. It’s mainly an astronomy site, but does offer very good cloud cover predictions.

So yes, my relationship with sunrise photography hasn’t been the greatest lately. But I’m working on it. I’m sure we’ll eventually get back together. In the meantime, I’ll enjoy being outdoors and seeing whatever develops.

Thanks for stopping by and reading my blog. Now – go make some photos!