Portfolio 44 of 80

I had to get up pretty early to get this shot. We had been getting some stunning sunrises in Marbella and I was determined to capture at least one. This photo was taken at 8.01am but I had already been at the location for an hour or so.

I woke with the birds and set out to the highest viewpoint I knew of that overlooked Marbella and "La Concha", the mountain behind the Spanish town. The camera was set on a tripod and set with a small aperture to get a nice crisp image.

As the sun started to rise I started shooting, and the beauty of digital is that you don't have to stop for a long time. I was really after a great shot of the sun actually piercing the horizon, and I did get a few but after I had processed all the images in Photoshop, this one just stood out at me.

I like the fact that you have nearly all the colours of the spectrum and the sky is still very dark in parts. You can actually see stars on the original but cannot see them when converted to web unfortunately. For me, it was well worth getting up very early to get these shots and I recommend it to anyone at least once, if not just for the peace and quiet at that time of day...magic.