A sunrise to remember

A SUNRISE TO REMEMBER
It was dark when I went out, and I walked through the rainforest with a flashlight towards the viewpoint. I had pre-vizualised the scene I planned to photograph.
When I arrived it was still dark, but after a few minutes I could start seeing details in the forest canopy in front of me. Sunrises and sunsets are very fast in Panama, so I worked quickly to set up my camera gear.
The howler monkeys startet to howl and roar somewhere in the rainforest behind me. It is sometimes hard to tell how far or near they are, because the sound they make is so powerful, and it can be heard from many kilometers away.
When the sun came over the horizon I was taking several pictures of the scene as parrots flew above me, and I heard toucans in the distance.

I used a Canon EOS 5D mk2 camera housing, with a 18mm Carl Zeiss wide angle lens. I also used a Gitzo mountaineer tripod with a BH55 ballhead from Really Right Stuff. To avoid camera shake when I pressed the shutter, I used a cable release. That is fine so far, but the most important tool was a 3-stop Daryl Benson reverse graduated filter from Singh-Ray. (see www.singh-ray.com)
I used the filter to balance the light between the foreground in shadow and the brighter sky.
I handheld the filter in front of the lens, and I darkened the brightest part of the sky with the darkest part of the filter.

It is hard to convey 100% of what I saw and sensed while I was out there. But I will always remember this sunrise, and when I am looking at the photograph I am back there out in the rainforest.

To your success,
Øyvind Martinsen