Today’s Photo Club meet was a little different. We met early. Very early. I set up the meet so we could be out at Witty’s Lagoon to catch the sunrise. Since sun up was supposed to be at 7:45, and we needed some travel time, I set the meeting time at 6:30 (to allow for stragglers).
I got up, got ready, and headed out to the truck and discovered frost. I hadn’t left time to scrape the windows, so I was going to be a couple minutes late. When I got to the meeting place, they had already left (I was 10 minutes late). Crap, I was a straggler. Add on the fact that to drive myself, I was going to need to stop and get gas, I thought I was going to miss it all.
Boy was I wrong!
I got to the parking lot, and headed down the stairs. I met up with the other 3, and set up my gear. I was trying some new film in my SLR, so I was pretty pumped to use it. Then we waited. And waited, and waited, and waited. The light was slow in coming. I was gettin concered that the sunrise would be vey unfulfilling. Then I saw a plane’s contrail through a break in the coulds. The rising sun had colored it pink! It was very cool, but it disappeared within seconds.
Part of the reason the sun was late in getting to us was that there was a cloud layer right along the water. Remember the frost on the truck? It was pretty damn cold! Gradually we saw the sun start to peek from behind the cloud, and we were not disappointed. Then the mayhem began. Somehow my film SLR jammed, and wouldn’t take pictures (I suspect I loaded the new film incorrectly). Then one of the ladies ran out of color film (sun rises in B&W aren’t so hot). Then the other gentleman that joined had his tripod tip over, and his camera went lens first into the sand (thankfully not a rock). Meanwhile I had pulled out my digital and continued shooting. The good golden light only lasted less than 10 or 15 minutes. Then it was over.
We had waited for close to an hour in the freezing cold, for 15 minutes of shooting. Crazy, but incredibly fun! I still managed to get some shots that I really like. One of the sunrises I might blow up, then crop so it is a panoramic. Not sure. Afterwards we headed to My Chosen Cafe for some warm drinks and good eats.
