The best sunrise I’ve ever seen…

When the alarm goes off at 4:30 am, I don’t ever want to get up. It’s dark and cold and the last thing I feel like doing is putting on a wetsuit and driving to the beach to go for a swim. But no pain, no gain. I don’t get up to shoot sunrise as often as I’d like, but when I do, I never regret it. I didn’t realise it at the time but in April 2020, I ended up shooting one of the best sunrises I’ve ever seen. Of course I did think it was beautiful at the time, but it’s only that I haven’t seen a sunrise as good as this one that makes me appreciate just how good it was. I keep coming back to these images and finding ones I’d overlooked at the time, so I thought I’d share some of them with you.

SUNRISE FIRE // Available to purchase as a print from Riptide Prints.

I love this time of day. I love the quiet. I’m usually alone on the sand waiting until the right moment to get in the water - too early and I’m bobbing around in the cold, dark water on my own for what seems like an eternity, but too late and I miss the moment the first light appears on the horizon.

OCEAN INFERNO // Available to purchase as a print from Riptide Prints.

On this morning, for some bizarre reason, there was no one in the water. Just me. Now I look at these images and wonder why on earth no one had come out to surf, but I guess they waited until there was a bit more light. Sensible. It doesn’t take long after sunrise for the light to change dramatically. If there are no clouds, it gets harsh and white within about 10 minutes. What made this sunrise so special was the cloud cover. I’m still yet to be able to accurately predict when this will happen.

I often struggle to decide what I want to shoot when everything is this beautiful. I’ll switch between apertures trying to capture some abstract details and then tell myself off for missing a great wave. Such is photography. You can’t shoot everything. Of course, I had to try and get at least one abstract shot of the actual sunrise.

DAYBREAK // Available to purchase as a print from Riptide Prints.

After about 10 minutes, I could see some other people swimming fairly close to me. I do love to be alone but this time of day can feel a little daunting when the water is still dark and there’s no-one around. I have never seen a shark in Noosa but I know for sure that they’re out there and I’m swimming during their preferred feeding time. I love how different the scene looks simply by turning in the other direction.

Then as the light gets brighter, it’s fun to try and capture some backlit waves.

Seeing these images again has inspired me to get back out there. If you’d like to know how to shoot those more abstract images at sunrise, I wrote a tutorial about that as well.

Do you remember the best sunrise you’ve ever seen?

SUNRISE ON THE WATER // Available to purchase as a print from Riptide Prints.