April 4. Day 94. Photography for Dummies

I intend to write a book called Photography for Dummies. "What?" I hear you scream. "That's already been written." This may be true but the title is most misleading to the point of being a breach of the Trade Practices Act or something and should be withdrawn from the market. That book is really Photography for Novices. My book will be Photography for Really Stupid People.
That book will talk about f stops and focal lengths and apertures and depth of field. This is perfectly acceptable information for your average 10-year-old budding photographer. Really stupid people will read this roll their eyes and immediately sell their camera on EBay.
My book will say "take a photography course and having done so disregard pretty much everything and find one of the automatic buttons that suits you. Had God meant you to learn all that crap he wouldn't have given man the ability to design better cameras". Advanced tip. "The Sports mode with the person running is awesome and covers a multitude of sins"
That book will have nice little optimistic strategies to motivate you. This will include such things as "the best camera for the job is the one you have with you"
My book will agree on that to a point but will helpfully add "however disregard that advice if the camera you have has no battery with charge, no memory card or a lens cap you have not yet removed." See all of those hours and all of those photos I've taken have given me a world of useful advice for the person with a nice camera who thinks that makes her a photographer. Do what I say, not what I do should be the subtitle of my book.
Today's chapter would cover the business of photographing the sunrise. It will draw directly from this morning's experience. I shall share it here without you having to wait for advanced copies of the book. Sunrises are an excellent subject for the person who likes to bore their social media friends with their images. Taking sunrise photographs involves two important things - the sun and the rise. If you want to get all technical, the horizon helps. This will mean a great deal of sacrifice such as getting out of bed early. Before deciding to take the plunge, stick your head out the window. If water is falling from the sky, the chances of getting an awesome sunrise pic are significantly reduced. Thick black and grey things in the sky are also likely to be a significant impediment.

Seriously, the dogs did stir a bit early this morning but they would happily have rolled over and gone back to sleep. But I looked at the time and thought "almost sunrise. Get up and get yourself to the beach". It was only when I walked out the door that I noticed the rain but by then the dogs were primed for the job and there was no turning back. The shower quickly passed. The cloud, not so much. The walk on the beach was most successful. the sunrise photos were an epic fail.