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All images © Tim Daly
TECHNIQUE PROJECTS IN VISUAL STYLE
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EARLY MORNING MOMENTS If you fancy seeing your surroundings in a brand new light, why not explore our latest time-sensitive assignment? Tim Daly gives you an early morning alarm call.
hotography, of course, is all about light: its atmospheric qualities and its ability to model and describe shape, form and texture. Yet, while many of us take advantage of favourable light, few of us explore the possibilities afforded by the soft light of early morning. For this assignment, we’re going to consider themes and techniques for shooting an alternative view of our surroundings, be it close to home or while
away on vacation. Depending on your location and the time of the year, you’ll need to work out in advance when to set your morning alarm call. The official sunrise time is approximately 20 minutes before conditions are ready for shooting, as the sun at this moment is not yet fully above the horizon. For this project, we’re going to focus on the following two-hour time slot and respond to those short-lived moments created by the ascending sun.
SECTION 1: RESOURCES AND SETTINGS TO CONSIDER For our assignment we’re going to explore potential locations, topics and project ideas that you can adapt to your own situation. Remember, it’s not essential to carry lots of equipment with you, but at the beginning of your shoot, be prepared to use a tripod or a higher ISO than you’d expect, such as 800 or 1600.
1 FIRST IN TOWN Do you have a job that starts early in the morning? Or do you work a shift pattern that makes you one of the first commuters at the train station? As the city wakes up, many workers have already been awake for hours ready for the morning rush hour. First light in the city can be spectacularly atmospheric, as Eugène Atget, the French photographer of surreal, empty street scenes discovered. If you’re travelling in each morning, see if you can shoot the busy bustle of the commute. In this example, I’ve used a worm’s eye view to shoot commuters crossing a river bridge during the half-light of a rainy, soulless morning.
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2 SEA FOG
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If you’re lucky enough to visit the seaside over the next month or so, keep an eye out for the wonderful sea fogs that shroud our coastal locations in unexpected mist. Caused by a combination of warm air, cold sea and an inward breeze, these ephemeral fogs are a familiar sight to many holidaymakers on staycation this year. Sea fogs hug a localised area of the coast from early morning onwards, but are usually gone by the hottest part of the day and sometimes a lot sooner. What’s terrific about sea fog is that it creates an entirely new scenario from a familiar location, covering and shading strong shapes and presenting beautiful gradients and tonal recession for you to explore with your lens. This image, shot in St. Ives, Cornwall, was captured during a 7am early morning paddle.
INSPIRATIONAL QUOTE
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‘Atget must have known that if he didn’t hurry, if he didn’t hit the streets before dawn, Old Paris and its ancient neighbourhood intimacies would be gone.’ – John Rosenthal
