Sunrise Imminent – 29mm; ISO 200; 1/50 sec; f/8.0 (click image to view larger size)

No, I didn’t manage to get one of my images as a magazine cover photo, it’s just that I instantly recognised the location where this image was taken:

Digital SLR Photography January issue (cover image by Helen Dixon)

It’s a copse of trees in Richmond Park that I’ve photographed in the past. I took this one in 2009:

Copse sunset

So it prompted me to return and try again. I like to revisit locations as you’ll always get something different.

The magazine cover photo above has some wonderful frost in the foreground and with the sunlight piercing the low mist it’s a lovely atmospheric shot by Helen Dixon.

For my main image above, there was no mist and no frost but a wonderful pre-dawn sky, so I chose a low silhouette of the copse to emphasise the clouds and colour in the sky. I loved the way the clouds were curving down towards the copse.

I returned two days later and managed to find one small patch of frost:

Copse Sunrise

Pity I didn’t notice the distracting fern stalk creeping in on the left! And I didn’t quite manage to find the tripod holes left by Helen