Steve Pellatt
Good Day Sunshine🎶
Caddo Lake, Uncertain, Texas, USA
On the first morning of Sapna’s workshop we set off on a boat before sunrise. The start time had to be changed at short notice when it was realised the clocks in Texas went back an hour the night before - a week later than here in the UK.
With Capt. Rich at the helm the 7 of us (6 Participants and Sapna) set off to see what was out on the bayou. For a few seconds on the way out we thought there might be some mist but our hopes were soon dashed. With not a cloud in the sky we knew we would get nothing interesting from it so after a bit of searching we settled on trying to get a sunrise between a group of trees. “Can you stop here please Rich.?”, Can you back up a bit please Rich?”, “Can you move us a bit to the left please?”, Can you turn the engine off please Rich and let us drift a bit”......and so it went on! Capt. Rich must have been used to this as I gather he’s done workshop trips for Sapna before but I did admire his forbearance. Perhaps it wasn’t just coffee in that flask he was drinking from.
Now as you may appreciate even with the engines off a boat is rarely completely stationary. It tends to drift, even if very slowly, so all 7 of us trying to line ourselves up in exactly the right place for where we thought the sun would rise isn’t easy and, of course, moving positions when the boat is drifting just makes things worse. When you are trying to get a shot like this, doing so from a drifting/bobbing boat is not ideal to say the least. So this is basically my excuse for not getting the sun dead centre of the image which I admit was my aim. I shot several images attempting to get a sunstar but only two shots showed any sign of a sunstar and this was the best of the two. I particularly like the backlit Spanish Moss. I admit I’ve tried to clean the image up by removing a phone mast in the background and some branches from adjacent trees that encroached into the image. I know the purists amongst you may not agree with that but I’m OK with doing that and it’s my image plus I’ve declared it.
Once we had all filled our memory cards with our sunrise shots off we went with Capt. Rich in search of our next shooting spot.
If anyone is interested Sapna has fixed the dates for her 2026 workshop here www.sapnareddy.com/products/copy-of-beauty-of-the-bayou It’s a different location for the accommodation next year but I happened to stay there for 3 nights after the workshop finished and it’s probably the best B&B I’ve ever stayed in. I’m not on a commission
Oh, and I expect most of you over the age of 60 got this but the title relates to the 1966 Beatles song of the same name - just thought it was appropriate www.youtube.com/watch?v=LTapImFT9Sc&list=RDLTapImFT9S... Apologies to anyone who now suffers from the ear worm
© All rights reserved to Steve Pellatt. Please do not use this image on websites, blogs or any other media without my explicit written permission.
Good Day Sunshine🎶
Caddo Lake, Uncertain, Texas, USA
On the first morning of Sapna’s workshop we set off on a boat before sunrise. The start time had to be changed at short notice when it was realised the clocks in Texas went back an hour the night before - a week later than here in the UK.
With Capt. Rich at the helm the 7 of us (6 Participants and Sapna) set off to see what was out on the bayou. For a few seconds on the way out we thought there might be some mist but our hopes were soon dashed. With not a cloud in the sky we knew we would get nothing interesting from it so after a bit of searching we settled on trying to get a sunrise between a group of trees. “Can you stop here please Rich.?”, Can you back up a bit please Rich?”, “Can you move us a bit to the left please?”, Can you turn the engine off please Rich and let us drift a bit”......and so it went on! Capt. Rich must have been used to this as I gather he’s done workshop trips for Sapna before but I did admire his forbearance. Perhaps it wasn’t just coffee in that flask he was drinking from.
Now as you may appreciate even with the engines off a boat is rarely completely stationary. It tends to drift, even if very slowly, so all 7 of us trying to line ourselves up in exactly the right place for where we thought the sun would rise isn’t easy and, of course, moving positions when the boat is drifting just makes things worse. When you are trying to get a shot like this, doing so from a drifting/bobbing boat is not ideal to say the least. So this is basically my excuse for not getting the sun dead centre of the image which I admit was my aim. I shot several images attempting to get a sunstar but only two shots showed any sign of a sunstar and this was the best of the two. I particularly like the backlit Spanish Moss. I admit I’ve tried to clean the image up by removing a phone mast in the background and some branches from adjacent trees that encroached into the image. I know the purists amongst you may not agree with that but I’m OK with doing that and it’s my image plus I’ve declared it.
Once we had all filled our memory cards with our sunrise shots off we went with Capt. Rich in search of our next shooting spot.
If anyone is interested Sapna has fixed the dates for her 2026 workshop here www.sapnareddy.com/products/copy-of-beauty-of-the-bayou It’s a different location for the accommodation next year but I happened to stay there for 3 nights after the workshop finished and it’s probably the best B&B I’ve ever stayed in. I’m not on a commission
Oh, and I expect most of you over the age of 60 got this but the title relates to the 1966 Beatles song of the same name - just thought it was appropriate www.youtube.com/watch?v=LTapImFT9Sc&list=RDLTapImFT9S... Apologies to anyone who now suffers from the ear worm
© All rights reserved to Steve Pellatt. Please do not use this image on websites, blogs or any other media without my explicit written permission.