Morning serenity

This weekend we camped with a couple of friends on a small island in the middle of the Veluwemeer (see here). We slept in tepees and it was a perfect weekend to relax. Naturally, I had brought my camera gear with me. On Sunday morning I stood up early and sneaked out of the tent around 5 a.m. It was an early Spring morning, a little cold, but the colours were marvelous.

This photograph was shot at 5.41 a.m., just a couple of minutes before sunrise, probably one of the best times for landscape photography. I like the combination of the rocks on the foreground and the red sky and reflections in the water. I used a large depth of field for the focus on both the rocks and the background. Like for almost all of my landscape photography I use Aperture priority (Av) to control the depth of field. I also used a graduated filter to lighten the foreground. With these dark conditions the small aperture (f/16) resulted in an exposure of 2,5 sec. so my tripod had to be used.

I tried to capture the morning activity by this abstract photograph of a duck in flight. I used my Canon EF 70-200mm f/2.8 L IS USM lens at its longest focal length. I used an exposure of 1/20 sec at f/4 to be able to have plenty of movement in the bird’s wings. The photo was shot by hand.

A beautiful serene morning on the peaceful island.