Bite-Size Blog Post #84 - Return to Honeybag
The Smallest of Gaps
If you’ve been reading my blog for a while, you’ll know that I often talk about the thrill of seeing a gap in an otherwise cloudy sky, especially around the horizon just as the sun is rising.
There is always a sense of anticipation. Not knowing for 100% certain that the sun will actually pass through that gap is all part of the fun. Sometimes it does, but more often it doesn’t. You think you’ve found the perfect opening, only for it to move, disappear or turn out to be nothing more than a layer of distant cloud. It’s all part of the fun of landscape photography.
Returning to Honeybag Tor to capture more photographs of the heather, I was presented with the smallest of gaps. All around me was heavy cloud and it was raining lightly, but I was pretty confident I would see the sun.
I’d checked PhotoPills to verify the exact position where the sun would rise using its AR mode. The gap appeared to be clear sky, and there was already a strong orange glow beginning to develop.
My personal photography style is to use side lighting, but I had a strong feeling that the sky was going to be the star of the show this morning. So I pointed my camera straight at the gap and waited.
Normally, the glow from the rising sun only illuminates the underside of the clouds as it approaches the horizon. But thanks to the rain and the position of the cloud, the glow continued to build as the sun broke the horizon.
Honeybag Tor, Dartmoor National Park - Nikon Z8 with Nikkor Z 14-30mm f/4 S at 18mm, f/22, 0.6 sec at ISO 800
It was a glorious sight, and yet another reminder of why I get up early in the morning to photograph sunrise. You see things that few other people get to witness. It really is a special time of day.
I’ve already photographed Honeybag Tor a few times during this heather season, but I see no reason to stop going back. As long as there is heather on the ground and soft light from the rising sun, I’ll be there with my camera and a massive smile on my face.
