Field Notes
I've visited Sydney Harbour many times but this time I was there in late summer and the dawn would happen right behind the Opera House from my chosen viewpoint near The Rocks. It's easy to confuse 'good weather' with 'good light', or to equate one with the other. The two are often completely unrelated and finding a striking sky to set the Opera House against required much patience and persistence. What works well for me with this sky is the texture and variety of the clouds; it's not a blazing red sunrise but the photograph is engaging because the clouds have much depth and contrast and a pleasing tonal range cast by the early, pre dawn hues of light. Indeed, because they are so engaging I deliberately avoided including much of the reflection and opted instead to dedicate as much as I could to the cloudscape without unbalancing the composition at the bottom of the image. EOS 5DMKII, 0.3 secs, f8 ISO 100.