Spring sunrise
- 📍 Location: Le Pecq, Yvelines, France
- 📅 Date: 2022
Two cherry trees in full blossom, standing on a strip of grass with flooded ground in front of them, and the sun coming up between the two crowns. The water was perfectly still, so the whole scene arrived twice.
I closed the aperture right down to hold the sun as a small hard star inside the branches rather than a blown white patch. That star is what stops the backlight from flattening the blossom: with a defined point of light, the petals in front of it read as translucent instead of merely bright.
The waterline sits across the centre and the reflection takes the lower half in full. I framed for symmetry deliberately — the picture is about doubling, and hiding the join would have been a wasted opportunity.
This lasts about a week each April and the flood does not always coincide with it. I had watched this strip for two springs before the blossom, the water and a clear sunrise finally arrived on the same morning.
Limited-edition fine-art print from the Skywaven Studios collection, available in several sizes, papers and framing options.
