Christopher Rowe

For the early bird that I am (or rather lack there of) two 4am starts in one week was more than enough. My intention was simple, take some morning sunrise photos of my home city Perth. The notion of sunrise photography dawned (pun definitely intended) on me upon image-googling ‘Perth city’, where I was digitally scouting out possible locations to expand my twilight/sunset collection. Being such a fan of sunset shots, it didn’t even occur to me that I was potentially missing out on some fantastic sunrise opportunities.

Given that the Sun sets in the west and for Perth that means over the water, it is somewhat near impossible to take a photo of the Perth city scape (well, the best side of it from the south) along with the sun setting, unless you do a crazy-wide panorama right round towards Fremantle. The sunrise on the other hand places the orange ball of light creeping from behind the Darling Range right beside the city at its south facing orientation – perfect! So with that, it became obvious, lets do a sunrise shot, after all, <em>how hard can it be?</em> I was about to find out.

My first attempt on Wednesday found me setting up along side the Old Swan Brewery which offered a rather unique view of the city skyline in the distance with a splash of culture of the Old Brewery itself to one side. I arrived on the scene at 4.45, there was only a hint of blue hue over the horizon, this itself made for fantastic photos. I stayed on for another hour and a half; sunrise was scheduled for 5.30am. By the time 5.40 ticked over the city area was completely lit up as day with no sun physically in sight. There was no way a sunrise shot was going to work I thought, it is already too bright. Perhaps sun rise shots are not possible in summer. With that I packed up my camera into the car and drove off heading west. I had only been on the road for a matter of minutes and all of a sudden the sun peaked through; its powerful orange rays bled through the blue sky, causing the city skyline to be cast as a sharp silhouette. I pulled into park, the closest place being Matilda Bay, jumped out of the car with the camera and tripod and ran toward the water. Of course from where I was now located, the city skyline was hidden behind Kings Park, but the sun rise itself was still breath taking, like watching creation being reborn.

From that point I was adamant to re-attempt sunrise. Two days later (today) I headed to Kings Park itself, the observation area behind the ANZAC memorial. The morning was still with a slight overcast of cloud, which made for perfect sunrise photography conditions. Sure enough as before, the sky lit up as day with the absence of the sun itself, but this time I stayed poised, waiting. With a hesitated peak, the sun crowned over the Darling Range and set fire to the sky and clouds around it, with all shades of red and yellow bleeding through.

Photo below:
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