New Years Day Sunrise

We agreed as a family that we'd forego the usual midnight shenanigans and get an early night instead. The forecast for New Years Day was bright and cold, so we decided to start the New Year with some fresh sea air.

Durdle Door was the destination- a location I know well from childhood holidays, but not as a photographer.
I've always wanted to do a Milky Way shoot at Durdle Door, but the possibility of getting a winter sunrise shot, with the rising sun coming through the door seemed a great idea too until the Milky Way season kicks in.
Alarms set for 4:30am (ouch!) we all got up and headed off on the 1h45 drive.
Arriving at the entrance to the caravan park around 6:15, we parked up on the verge (the Car Park doesn't open until 9am). Not the first here, as we saw one other photographer wandering off towards the sea.
We negotiated our way by torchlight through the caravan park to the clifftop, keeping our kids (9 and 11) close by at all times to prevent losing them over the cliff!

We couldn't see the sea, just the distant lights of Weymouth and the occasional star shining through the cloud (surely a good sign).
I took a couple of high ISO shots, just to get an idea of what was down there...

Pre-dawn crowds at Durdle Door

What do you know... other people.
I had thought about getting down on the beach to get the classic "through the keyhole" photo that can only be got a couple of weeks either side of the Winter Solstice (this sort of thing), but decided that rather than rub shoulders with others to get in the right place, I'd enjoy the space up on the clifftop.

The sunrise didn't disappoint, with the sun coming up exactly where expected (funny that!) after it eventually cleared a small bank of cloud on the horizon.

Durdle Door, pre-dawn. Canon EOS77D, 10mm Sigma, 5s @ f11, ISO100

 

Durdle Door sunrise, New Years Day, Canon EOS77D, 10mm Sigma, 1/6s @ f16, ISO100

All in all, a great way to start the New Year and I feel lucky to have got the weather for a clean sunrise. 

As happy as I am with the results, I just can't shake the feeling that I should have been down on the beach... maybe next year!