My wife and I have spent last weekend in Mitzpe Ramon - a small town on the edge of the beautiful Ramon Crater. And so, I finally got my opportunity for photographing the crater at sunrise.
The Ramon Crater is located in the middle of the Israeli desert - the Negev - a good 2 hours drive from the center of the country. The crater is probably one of the most unique landscape types in Israel, and as far as I concern - it fairly challenges other well-known desert parks such as Death Valley or the Grand Canyon views. In addition, it's probably one of the best places in Israel to watch the sunrise. The cliff-edge promenade provides a beautiful sunrise view - so you don't even have to put a serious effort to get there... And at this time of year - the sun rises just in front of you - classic for a good photo.
After I set the gear up for the sunrise shot, I waited and took a few shots in the meantime, during the blue hour. The weather was unusual - to say the least. The humidity was high at 90%, and it was close to the dew point - which meant light fog. I wasn't worried about the tiny drops that appeared on top of the lens, but just as the sun rose - it hit me: if it's on the top of the lens - it must be on the glass too... Luckily a quick wipe solved the issue - and I did manage to get that shot (otherwise a whole too-early morning would have been wasted...).
I usually prefer having several exposures over using filters in the field. It's not always easy to combine - as clouds and other objects are moving - but usually you can manage - and you get much more flexibility. Filters have a fixed value - which means you'll probably end up with a sky that's too dark or too bright, or with a bag full of filters - if you insist on getting that done right...
So for both sunrise shots, I used about 12 exposures, that were meant to be properly combined in post-processing. Here's why:
In the end, I didn't have to use all these images, since the initial exposure setting proved good enough. You can get the impression by visiting the Ramon Crater gallery.
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