Morning in nature

I don't know about you, but I'm not used to waking up too early on weekends. During the workweek, I have to leave home early for work, but on weekends, I love to make up for that early rising.

Still, I've mentioned before that when photography is your hobby, it often forces you to change your usual routines.

A few weeks ago, when I was photographing aircraft at NATO Days Ostrava, Czechia (see my previous articles), I got off the train in Studénka before seven in the morning. You see, driving to this event is quite a hassle – it means spending a long time in traffic jams when arriving and leaving, dealing with parking, and so on. My past experience taught me that the best approach is to take the train to Studénka and make a roughly four-kilometer walk along the Odra meanders and around the Kotvice and Kačák ponds.

The path partly follows a now-abandoned railway line, with only bridges over the Odra remaining, and partly runs through the Kotvice nature reserve. Event visitors know this route, and quite a few walk this way. And I wouldn't be myself if I didn't take advantage of this walk to capture a few photos.

Basically, a natural need prompted me to stop and step aside for a moment. The rising sun was filtering through the tree branches, piercing the morning mist and creating interesting light rays. There was dew on the grass, so my shoes quickly got wet, but I didn't mind. Actually, the dew sparkling in the morning sunlight completed the atmosphere of this place.

A few hundred meters further, the path wound along the pond. Early in the morning, there was quite a lot of birdlife – swans, ducks, seagulls, and who knows what else. The low-rising sun painted the dry reeds in shades of orange. So I couldn't miss capturing this scene either.

I've written this here several times and I'll write it again: No matter what you go out to photograph, you never know exactly what you'll end up capturing. You set out to photograph military equipment, tanks and airplanes, and you come back with (among other things) these beautiful colors.

And that's what I love about it.

And the same goes for you: do what you enjoy, write, photograph, and publish what you love and in the way you love doing it. Everything else is secondary.