I had not set an alarm for Saturday morning but woke up just after 4:30 am, a lie in of some 90 minutes from my normal work day alarm.
Summer is knocking on the door when it is almost light at this time of day, such a welcome respite from those long hours of darkness of wintertime.
I feel that I need to make the most of these few short months of extra daylight, so after my first brew of the day, I set out for an early stroll along the river, breakfast will be my Saturday treat upon my return.
The sun has already begun its ascent into a cloudless sky, casting a golden glow across all it touches, the river is perfectly still, there appears to be a photograph wherever I look.
It is this one particular scene that falls into my photo of the day category, the reflections of the houses reflecting in the serene waters with the beautiful green of the bankside grasses and flora, bathed in the early morning sunlight, what a perfect storm of photographic ingredients.
It is scenes such as thuis that are my reward for those early starts, a small price to pay for such beauty.
After a very enjoyable outing to Totnes, capturing the essence of a busy market town, my Saturday morning will be quite the opposite, as I make my first early morning outing of the year.
With sunrise at just after 6am, I set out just after 5am, heading towards the quayside and the Canal footpath along the River Exe, looking forward to capturing whatever this new day may bring.
As I reach the quayside, the skies above are cloudless but bright, there will be no dramatic clouds to reflect the sun’s early light but there are some beautiful reflections in the mirror like still waters.
At just after six, the sun makes its welcome presence known as it paints the nearby buildings in a subtle golden light, the scene is jigsaw puzzle picture perfect, what a great start to my Saturday morning.
I manage one image of the sun as it rises between the trees, before all too soon those yellow hues fade away.
Happy with the shots I have, I head back along the opposite path, where the local rowers carve through the water like a knife through butter and runners and cyclists take their morning exercise, I admire their dedication as I think about that bacon sandwich I promised myself when I got back home.
In April this year, like many, I was furloughed for a number of weeks, time that I think I used fairly constructively in finally getting around to cataloguing and sorting through a few terabytes photos, a job that had been remained permanently rooted to the bottom of my ‘to do’ list for far too long.
Once the decluttering phase had begun with the photos, it became contagious, books, cd’s and dvd’s found their way into my ‘no longer required’ boxes, ready for when we may once more safely give to charity shops or to the local recycling facility.
Then came the crunch day, when I decided it was time to purge the camera gear that had lain unused for too long, ebay bargains I had intended to sell but used, liked and kept, older models of newer cameras, the classic case of gear acquisition.
I was given plenty of time to evaluate my decision, with only essential shops still open, it would not be until the beginning of August that I was able to trade in at my local camera shop and collect the Lumix G9 I had decided upon.
One of the deciding factors in deciding upon the G9 was the weather proofing, it would give an opportunity to still get out on those wet and windy days, as long as it was paired with a weather sealed lens of course.
It is only in the last couple of weeks that I have acquired the Olympus 17mm 1.2 Pro lens, great not just for being weather sealed but good for low light photography, of which there will be plenty of opportunities with the clocks going back an hour just a week ago.
Having a couple hours free this Saturday morning, rather than making a cup of tea and heading back to bed after hearing the rain against the window, I packed the G9 and headed into town to hopefully get a few moody wet day shots.
Monochrome was the only way to go for todays brief foray
It was still a little early to capture people in numbers as they went about their day, however, I did manage to capture a good few reflections and ‘outside looking in’ shots as shops were preparing to open.
These shots have had very minimal editing, I really like the tones that the in camera ‘L monochromeD’ setting offers.
Now I have no more excuses not to go out wet days, as a whole new wet and windy world awaits to be captured.
Andy's Photography blog 