This week in December 2021 has seen some very colourful sunrises. This usually happens in the week when you are working. The weather forecast looked good for Saturday and the plan was to shoot a sunrise from Warren Hill on the South Downs overlooking Eastbourne.

High Cloud Forecasting

High clouds capture the colour and low clouds block the colour. So for a colourful sunrise we want high clouds. There are two apps I use to forecast cloud cover Windy and Clear Outside. They were both indicating good high cloud cover and minimal low clouds and on a Saturday morning.

Warren Hill Rise

Nearly not get out of bed at 5:30am. What makes it easier is putting the heating on timer half hour before your due to rise. At least its winter when the sun rises much later. There is a carpark at Warren Hill its pay and display but not until after 8AM. Have been to Warren Hill before to capture a colourful sunrise. But this time the plan was to include some foreground interest with a cattle pool up near the trig point.

Observations

From recent observations I know that the sky lights up if there are high clouds around 15 minutes before sunrise. The sky looked good, lots of high clouds almost a mackerel sky, already they were catching some colour. Anxiously kept looking at my watch with sunrise predicted for around 7:50AM. Then it happened almost to the second!

Composition

Chose this location as due to a colourful sky reflecting in the water of the cattle pool would get double the impact. Was using the wide angle lens for this sunrise reflection composition.

Even within the confines of this small area there were many different compositions to consider. Did not feel I was optimising the spectacle. Problem is these intense colours captured in the high clouds only last a few minutes. In this composition the pool is the focal point but something wrong with the bench reflection and the background…

Focal Point

Using my mobile phone got down low, close to the pool edge and then you got the silhouette and the reflection of the bench. The bench then became the focal point and an anchor for the eyes to rest within all the colour.

Got down low with the tripod and reframed the composition with the park bench off center. This angle of view was much stronger removing many background distractions. Simplifying the scene. Now we not know the water is a small circular pool. The bench tells a story of all the people that may have sat there and enjoyed the view, but not this early hence it being vacant. Nailed it just in time and so glad I dragged myself out of bed.

Sunrise

Waited around on Warren hill over the pool until sunrise. Even took my first time-lapse. Waited until the sun got too bright and the colour evaporated from the high clouds before moving on.

The forecast for later in the day was lots of low cloud moving in from the west, just another grey dull overcast day, just about when most people get up at the weekend and venture out. Most would never know they missed a beautiful sunrise from Warren hill on the south downs.

Great morning out, still learning a lot about photography, how better to predict the weather, how better to compose the frame. Perseverance furthers, persistence pays off. Got my December shot!