Why Such an Early Start Just to Capture a Photo

There’s early starts, and then there are EARLY starts. Here in the south west of the UK during late spring and early summer when we approach the longest day, sunrise is as early as 5am and sunset after 9:30pm. (It’s even earlier and later in Scotland!). With those times I expect most of you are thinking that if you had the choice of sunrise or sunset photography, you would almost certainly pick a sunset shoot.

It appears I am a wired a little differently. I actually like getting up early in the morning. But 03:30? That seems a little too much effort, and in most circumstances you’d be right. It would be much easier to give up on sunrise landscape photography until late summer or early autumn.

However, there are some photographs that can only be captured at certain times of year, and sunrise at Bowerman’s Nose is one such photograph. As it’s such an beautiful location in spring, and you get a very different angle at that time of year, it’s one location I will happily set my alarm for 03:30. But, as I discuss in this video, it’s not just landscape photography that inspires me to get up that early.

Landscape Photographs of Bowerman’s Nose on Dartmoor National Park