Sunrise

When necessary, only 90 minutes sleep seems to be enough but even so I think we all had to heave ourselves out of bed and force ourselves to get going. I suspect not many of us got dressed either, not because we spent the morning running ‘round stark naked but simply because we slept in our clothes.

We headed out from the camp and into the dunes where we’d been last night and from here we had a clear view towards where the sun would rise. There’s not much to say about all this really, it was a sunrise after all, so just enjoy the three photos I took as the sun brought the new day to life. It doesn’t look too bad does it - the colours are nice and it’s a bit moody I guess, but I was hoping for more earlier on to be honest, when sometimes the clouds can be a blaze of purples and reds. This didn’t happen today but it was really calming to watch the light change as the sun slowly climbed above the Algerian border.

Once sunrise was over we all looked for compositions in the golden tones of this first hour or two of the day. After I’d taken photo four in this footprint I really struggled to be honest. I’d come here with a vision of an image I wanted to capture, of the long sweeping curves of sand dunes of the sort vaguely like photo four but much more striking and dramatic. In that photo the large dunes were too far away and nothing like that was on offer where we were so I found it really hard to find alternatives to what I’d fixed in my mind. I needed to learn from this: my mind needs to be more flexible and mould more easily to the situation on hand. Then Katrina arrived and having checked everyone else was okay, she then spent some time with me giving me ideas on how to look for something different ... without the tripod. This was just what I needed and in no time I’d captured an image that made the day a photographic success. You’ll get to see it in the final footprint of this trip - it’s of some grass in the sand ... sounds stunning doesn’t it so I bet you can’t wait to see it!

The last two photos are of our up-market camp site which I took after breakfast just before we left. We’ve only been here one night but seem to have seen and experienced so much in that short time. It was definitely the highlight of the trip, so different to our normal routines and awe inspiring to spend the night in a location such as this. That sky was truly amazing.Read more