When opportunity knocks...

There are times when a photographic opportunity presents itself and you have to act on impulse and on instinct.

East Marden Sunrise

Nikon D810, 14-24mm f2.8 Nikkor at 14mm, 1/250 second, f9, ISO 64, tripod

07.03, 8th September 2016

This is a completely unplanned for, transitional shot with diffuse and ephemeral sunlight; I was on my way to photograph the lovely West Sussex village of East Marden and, as I turned a corner in the road, I was confronted with this bucolic scene. Nearly driving into a ditch, I abandoned the car, lifted the tripod over a fence and set up the composition.

The harvested crop lines provide a pleasing C-curve leading into the frame from bottom right that continues up into the wispy clouds. The rising sun is a bright and high contrast primary point of focus - and it ultimately provides the light without which the shot would be nothing; oblique, golden and slightly filtered, it defines everything, from the contrasts in the curving parallel lines of stubble to the subtle cirrus cloudburst around it.