Bottom Lake (6 am)

Bottom Lake (6 am), originally uploaded by nzcjs.

Take a shot at 6am. This is the challenge. Not sure for how long I'll be able to do this, or how frequently. The idea came from Paul Smart of Maxam Photography. As I'm usually up and about close to 6am I thought this'd be a breeze. Yeah, right!

Yesterday's attempt failed miserably as I was so tired and just couldn't leave the cosiness of my bed. Today, however, I faired a bit better.

I rose at 5.30am and set some bread cooking. I'd had an idea of capturing some joggers running through Totara Park, but after getting the bread going I was a tad late. The sun was already up, but not too bright and some street lights were still lit. Realising that I wasn't going to get the joggers at 6am I started to shoot anything on the way that looked vaguely interesting.  I was taken by the reflection of the street light on the wet road ... better get something before it get's too late and I miss 6am again!

Crossing the motorway it struck me that you may like to see Auckland's traffic at 6am on one of the country's main state highways leading into the country's largest conurbation. State highway one just south of Manukau City.  Trust me, it's not normally like this!  Perhaps the annual exodus from Auckland has started early this year as people depart for their holidays.

At last I reached the bottom lake at the Botanical Gardens and thought this could be the place for the first shot. The water was very still and the clouds looked like an HDR shot could work.   This is the image at the start of this post.  A five shot HDR processed with default settings in Photomatix Pro.  (I didn't have time to do anything else and it looked pretty good.  Problems at work meant I had to head off to the office).

After taking my five shots for the HDR image I was looking at the water and noticed a few insects causing the odd ripple. Then I started to get wet! Typical Paul D Smart! Jinxed by the British project with British weather!

I may try another 6am shot next week. Let me know what you think of the images in this post.

Oh, on the way home I noticed Santa, rather worse for wear.  Somewhat deflated you might say :-)

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