Landscape Photograph – Emerge

Emerge, Fine Art Landscape Photograph

We have just had a crazy week of making seascape photographs in the wee hours of the morning. With the alarm set for 2:55 am we trekked out every day to capture the quiet of Lake Huron at dawn. Getting up that early was painful but being on the beach for first light was magical and well worth it!

We did a location scout the week before, spending a full twelve hours driving up the west coast of Lake Huron from Kettle Point to Kincardine. From there we chose locations for our four days of dawn photography and built our schedule for the week.

Bayfield was one of my favourite locations from the scout. We’ve photographed there before and with the water level a bit lower than it was last time there were a few more interesting spots unveiled.

Darren checked the weather the evening before our scheduled shoot and everything looked good, only a few clouds, lots of sun, and no rain.

Here’s a look at our schedule that morning:

2:55 am – wake up call

3:20 am – load car and leave for Bayfield, gear was packed the night before

4:45 am – arrive in Bayfield, set up and begin photographing in pre-sunrise light

5:47 am – sunrise, keep shooting

6:30 am – wrap up shooting and head back to the studio

8:00 am – arrive back at the studio and unpack car

8:15 am – download and backup files

8:45 am – choose selects, tweak images for colour, contrast, lightness, and darkness, process raw files

11:00 am – retouch

11:15 am – archive final image

And that’s how Emerge was made. I love the blur where the beach ends and the pebbles begin, and the way the water lapping up over the stones during the long exposure has created a ghosting effect.

While I was there I created another 30 Seconds of Peace video with the sights and sounds of my morning in Bayfield. If you can’t see it because you’re reading this post in your email or via RSS you’ll need to click through to our blog.

This is the first image from my self-imposed Hell Week, get on our Sneak Peek List to see upcoming photographs before they are posted here, and be sure to visit our blog in the coming weeks to read all the production details.

If you’d like to learn more about how I make these photographs please read our How these Seascape Photographs Were Made Post.

How have you pushed your limits lately? Which do you prefer to watch, the sunrise or the sunset? Are you a morning person or a night owl?