Five Minutes Of Magic

Twelve days and not a single clear morning for sunrise photography.  Twelve days and very few clear evenings for sunset photography.  The weather in Newfoundland was very changeable and rendered all advanced planning almost useless.  On my photography trips, I meticulously plan sunrise and sunset photography locations.  Everything else is secondary... eating, sleeping, even bathing!  It all happens only if time permits and only after the sunrises and sunsets. 

We met our match with the Newfoundland weather.  But we adapted and it turned out to be great weather!  We had some beautiful periods of sunny skies.  We had fog.  We had clouds and even a short period of rain one day.  What we learned was that each day would start off with fog or clouds, turn sunny by late morning, then cloud up again toward sunset.  And on very few evenings, we would be treated to about five or ten minutes of absolutely magical sunset light.

In the case of the photograph above, we were on Cape Bonavista when the sunlight broke through a small gap in the evening clouds and lit up the coast with incredible golden light.  I was literally running from spot to spot to get the right composition before the light faded.  One hundred yards behind me and across the road, Marilyn and Rich were watching whales put on an amazing show... breaching, diving, blowing air and water and simply playing in front of an appreciative audience.  The light faded quickly and my work was done, so I joined Marilyn and Rich and watched the whales enjoying their evening of fun off the coast.

I'll probably share one or two more photos from our trip.  Newfoundland is not a place that many people know about.  And hardly anyone has it in their top locations to visit.  But it should be... it was simply beautiful.  We will go back.  For sure.

Brian ReitenauerComment