Portreath Glowing Sunrise
This photograph captures the early moments of a waking village on the Cornish coast, blinking into life with the still-glowing lights of streetlamps and the morning sun cresting the horizon. I’d wanted to take a sunrise picture of Portreath for a while, so I decided to arrive nice and early in the pre-dawn to give myself the best chance of capturing all the elements I wanted to. I was particularly keen to feature the warmth of the streetlights, which tend to turn off automatically with the arrival of the sun. So, hugging a steep cliff path in the darkness before dawn, I found a perfect vantage point and waited.
Rewarding my efforts and the leg-aching ascent up the cliffs in the dark, the day’s sunrise and the subsequent views over Portreath were a joy. As it began to get lighter, I could see how cloudy it was, so I’d been unsure what was going to happen. That said, the clouds really came into their own as the predawn progressed, almost trapping the beautiful red glow emitted straight behind Portreath from the rising sun. Despite the brooding sky, it was quite a tranquil morning, and the beach was lapped by a placid sea. Thanks to the calm conditions and the low light, I was able to take a long exposure without a ND filter, allowing the surface of the sea to really smooth itself out and reflect the streetlights of the road that flows down to the shore.
This photograph captures the early moments of a waking village on the Cornish coast, blinking into life with the still-glowing lights of streetlamps and the morning sun cresting the horizon. I’d wanted to take a sunrise picture of Portreath for a while, so I decided to arrive nice and early in the pre-dawn to give myself the best chance of capturing all the elements I wanted to. I was particularly keen to feature the warmth of the streetlights, which tend to turn off automatically with the arrival of the sun. So, hugging a steep cliff path in the darkness before dawn, I found a perfect vantage point and waited.
Rewarding my efforts and the leg-aching ascent up the cliffs in the dark, the day’s sunrise and the subsequent views over Portreath were a joy. As it began to get lighter, I could see how cloudy it was, so I’d been unsure what was going to happen. That said, the clouds really came into their own as the predawn progressed, almost trapping the beautiful red glow emitted straight behind Portreath from the rising sun. Despite the brooding sky, it was quite a tranquil morning, and the beach was lapped by a placid sea. Thanks to the calm conditions and the low light, I was able to take a long exposure without a ND filter, allowing the surface of the sea to really smooth itself out and reflect the streetlights of the road that flows down to the shore.
This photograph captures the early moments of a waking village on the Cornish coast, blinking into life with the still-glowing lights of streetlamps and the morning sun cresting the horizon. I’d wanted to take a sunrise picture of Portreath for a while, so I decided to arrive nice and early in the pre-dawn to give myself the best chance of capturing all the elements I wanted to. I was particularly keen to feature the warmth of the streetlights, which tend to turn off automatically with the arrival of the sun. So, hugging a steep cliff path in the darkness before dawn, I found a perfect vantage point and waited.
Rewarding my efforts and the leg-aching ascent up the cliffs in the dark, the day’s sunrise and the subsequent views over Portreath were a joy. As it began to get lighter, I could see how cloudy it was, so I’d been unsure what was going to happen. That said, the clouds really came into their own as the predawn progressed, almost trapping the beautiful red glow emitted straight behind Portreath from the rising sun. Despite the brooding sky, it was quite a tranquil morning, and the beach was lapped by a placid sea. Thanks to the calm conditions and the low light, I was able to take a long exposure without a ND filter, allowing the surface of the sea to really smooth itself out and reflect the streetlights of the road that flows down to the shore.