Yesterday was my birthday, so as a gift to myself I took today off from work and got up extra early to be at Fords Pond for the sunrise.  An odd choice of ways to spend a day off to most, I’m sure, but it’s what I wanted to do – I cherish my early morning outings.  They are well worth the lack of sleep and the long days.  Beyond just the joy of being out there, I was hoping for a repeat of yesterday’s sunrise, which was nothing short of stunning, with a full range of color coming through the broken clouds.  Unfortunately today’s sunrise wasn’t as dramatic, but that doesn’t mean that the morning was wasted.

Not hardly.

Clouds at sunrise

This was a dynamic morning; the light changed almost as fast as I could shoot it.  Moments before this frame, the sky was bald – then long clouds moved in from the west.  I barely got this moment, with my favorite tree and the leading edges aglow with color.  Moments after this frame, the sky was filled with broken overcast.  Which was actually fine, since I stopped to shoot this one the run, trying to get back to the jetty because I had seen the otter in the bay.

A lone otter in the bay.

Since finding the otters living in the pond a month or so ago, I’ve made several trips back to try and see them again, but without success until this morning.  I was thrilled to find this one swimming about – and thrilled to be on the right side of the bay this time (last time I was shooting into the rising sun).  Watching the otters is a ton of fun – even alone, this guy was cavorting about a bit, well aware that I was there.  At times, I almost got the feeling he was hamming it up.

But for all the fun it is capturing photos of them, I’m still beating my head against the wall now that I’m home looking at the shots on the computer.  None of them are nearly as good as I’d like.  For the second straight time, I’ve come home without the shot that I want.  The first batch suffered from back-lighting; this batch suffers from general failure.  They’re not as sharp as they should be, and they had just enough noise to be annoying.  I ran them through NeatImage, which helped, but they’re still not what they should be.

Working with any new subject comes with a learning curve, and I’m confident that I’ll work my way through this one.  But in the meantime, it’s driving me crazy.  After seeing how soft they were (even after upping the shutter speed while shooting), one of the first things I did was re-calibrate the lens’ AF micro-adjustment on the camera.  Turns out it was off-kilter by a few points, and I’m more confident that it’s accurate now, which will hopefully help.  Next time I’m bringing the damn 580EX, too, and pumping some fill light into the scene.

After the otter left, I finished a few more frames before breakfast began to call.  Here’s the view across the pond, with the overcast starting to diminish:

View across the pond as the clouds move away.

And here’s another shot, made only a minute or so later:

Far shore in the golden light.

A matter a minute and the clouds are nearly gone, the sun is over the hills and shining warm golden light on the far shore.  I’m posting these to reinforce what I’m always saying (and reminding myself of): the ideal image can come at any time, and the window may be very short!  A minute can make the difference between your next gallery piece and another crappy file.  So pay attention!

One final photo, which I put in my top three from the morning.  I have a very strong love for minimalism, although I hardly use it as my everyday style.  But when the opportunity arises to make a minimalist image, I try to work with it, since the results can be so strong.  This was one of those moments – just the single, late season leaf, that splash of life and color, against the cold gray waters of the pond.

Minimalist leaf