River Sunrise

Sunrise, Arkansas River, Arkansas

I got up early yesterday and headed to the Two Rivers Park Bridge to get some shots of the sunrise over the Arkansas River. Arriving about 45 minutes before sunrise, I found a good location from which to shoot, set up my tripod, and framed the composition I wanted. Because I wanted to capture the constantly changing hues as the sun got closer and closer to breaking the horizon, I kept the framing for most of the shots essentially the same.

This shot, which was one of the last ones I took just before the sun came up, turned out to be my favorite. I like the bright orange clouds, the corresponding reflection of color in the river, and how the bright color contrasts with the dark silhouette of the foreground tree. I also like how the photograph makes me feel like I am sitting on the river bank by that tree waiting for the sunrise and enjoying the peace and solitude of the early morning.

The original image also had a clump of leaves hanging down from the upper right corner, and the bridge from the nearby interstate cut in from the right side. When I originally composed the picture, I thought the clump of leaves and the bridge would look nice. Once I got home and started looking through the frames, I decided that the leaves and bridge didn’t add anything to the image. In fact, I felt they took away from the sense of tranquility I wanted to convey, so I cropped the image to eliminate them. Cropping a photograph is not something I typically do, but, in this case, I think it makes for a much stronger photograph.

Settings: Canon5D Mk IV, 32mm, 1/4 sec, f/22

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