Waking up at 4am to chase the sunrise is always a liberating experience. Most people are sleeping, and you feel like you are the only human on the planet. It really allows you to clearly visualize how small you are in relation to the world.
For this Orient Point sunrise, the park was closed off for vehicles, so I ended up walking to nearly the end of the road because I wanted a shot without the ferry visible. This was problematic because sunrises are extremely time sensitive. Every ten minutes the lighting drastically changes, and walking added about 35 minutes to my commute to the spot that I had envisioned.
After arriving, I like to look around for at least ten minutes to figure out what my subject will be, or how I want to compose my landscape. I initially wanted a picture of the road as a one point perspective, and after I got that shot I still saw potential in the location. I ended up climbing down on the rocks and shooting close to the water, to give a more immersive feel to my photos.
As the sun gets higher in the sky, the contrast will increase at an alarming rate. The rocks began to glow orange, which I tried to capture, but that was in the other direction than the sunrise and the clouds, which I could not pass up. At the point when the sun rose above the horizon, the clouds were sweeping across the sky, creating great directional lines for a vertical shot. After capturing that scene, I was content with that location and decided to move on.
I stopped briefly in Greenport to capture a staircase leading down to the Sound. It was now overcast out, which is one of my favorite situations to shoot in, because the light is diffused nicely. I had the goal of creating an almost mysterious image leading down the stairs, kind of making the viewer want to go down to see more. I think I pulled it off, but there is always room for improvement.
I wanted to continue shooting, but I was tired, and after shooting from 4am to 9am I was ready for a sausage egg and cheese and a rest.