If sunshine and showers produces good results then so do early mornings and evenings. Even on very clear days photos taken at the extremes of the day can be so much more interesting. If you’re camping then try and pop your head out of the tent soon after day break. If your in a hostel or a B & B try and get up on the hills early at least one morning during your stay.

Shadows are more interesting at these times of the day, and the colours can be more appealing too (this is to do with the effect of temperature on recorded colour — more about this later). Here are some examples.

f9, 1/200 second, ISO 400

This is not the most interesting of views. But it was taken early on a December morning. The mists were hanging around the low ground and the red tint to the sky is lovely. Maybe not much of a view, but the light conditions mean that this is a photo I love to look at, no least in summer.

f11, 1/2000 second, ISO 200

An early morning shot from the Pyrenees. This was taken during a long spell of lovely weather, you can see the blue in the sky. The Pic du Midi d’Ossau is an interesting shaped mountain at all times. But it is the cloud inversion, the cloud in the sky and the highlighted ground detail that makes this photo. This wasn’t the easiest of pictures to process — there was some lens flair to deal with as a result of shooting into the sun. But, if I hadn’t have gotten up early, I wouldn’t have experienced the drama of the shot.

f9, 1/60, ISO 200

This is as shot taken to preserve a record of a wild camp site. The rocks in the foreground add interest, but it is the early morning effect on the light — and on the stillness of the lake — that make it work.

So, rise early my friends ….