The Path to Bromo

French Journal Day 155 (Travel Diary Day 235)

As I finished off the remnants of my first coffee of the day, I mentally prepared myself for the cold conditions that would soon follow. Donning my woolly hat and scarf, I collected my camera gear and groggily headed out the door on a mission to capture a Parisian sunrise. It was 5:40am – the second time this week I’d gotten up to take pictures at this time.

I navigated the streets towards an address I’d never visited before. Daniel, a Canadian living in Paris who I’d met through facebook some time ago agreed to accompany me at this ungodly hour. I found his place without incident. The temperature was surprisingly warm.

By taxi we arrived at Trocadero and walked around looking for decent compositions. The streets were virtually empty. We strolled along the river and took a few shots while exchanging photography chit-chat. Colours in the sky soon began to show, suggesting we were in for a nice sunrise.

We headed back up to Trocadero to get the higher vantage point over the Eiffel tower as pinks and yellows blessed the sky. While shooting, we bumped into Beboy, a photographer whose excellent work I follow on facebook.

After the drama of the sunrise had unfolded, the three of us went to a nearby cafe and relaxed over coffee and breakfast. By 9:00pm we were heading in our separate ways and I thought to myself, ‘I think I’ll start everyday like this from now.’ Thinking about it now, I’ll probably give myself an extra hour in bed.

Today’s Photo – the little canyon at Bromo

This was shot at Mt Bromo. It’s a gorge carved out over the years by flowing lava. This is a reprocessed image. I digitally blended the exposures to retain as many details as possible, whereas previously I’d processed the image in Photomatix, sacrificing a lot of detail.