Trying something new: exploring the city at sunrise
Since picking up a camera 2 decades ago, nature photography has been ‘my thing’, so to say. It’s never been much of a consideration: I love being out in nature, I love photography, so there you go.
Ofcourse I’ve occasionaly photographed urban areas throughout the year; on vacation, on the odd walk downtown when in the area, etc. But intentionally going out for urban photography? At my favorite time of day, at dawn, like I do in nature every week? Never. Not untill now.
A week ago, Wednesday morning September 6th, I found myself at one of my favorite lookout points in the dunes nearby. I was looking back towards the city as the sun rose above as I’ve done so often but for the first time I thought, ‘wouldn’t it be fun to be there in the city sometimes when the sun rises?’.
September 6, 7:16am. Westduinpark The Hague, looking towards the city from the dunes.
Exploring grounds
That same day I posted a story on my instagram stating my intention and asking if anyone local would be interested to join me on a sunrise photowalk in the city. I organize sunrise (and the occasional sunset) photowalks regularly, but always in nature. So I gathered a small group to go explore the city that next Sunday. However, suddenly really excited about this new thing, I decided I couldn’t wait another 3 days and instead went for a small solo tour downtown that friday morning before work to explore grounds.
6:43am, 20 minutes before sunrise. Groot Hertoginnelaan, looking towards Laan van Meerdervoort.
With an idea in my for a photo, I cycled towards the Bankastraat/Kerkhoflaan crossing where you get this nice view towards the city across the downward sloping Bankastraat. Our own little slice of San Fransisco right here in The Hague, so to say.
However, between permanent and temporary road signs, less attractive house blocks between the nice classic ones and other things I’d rather keep out of my frame, I had a very hard time getting something composed that I liked. So after a little while trying, I decided to stop bothering and instead cycle on into the city while the light was still all soft and pretty.
On my way through the city I made plenty of stops; I was carrying my camera in one hand and steering with the other while scanning the area as I cycled. This worked ok by the way, but would have been much more comfortable if the one handed carry wouldn’t have been a Canon 5D classic + 28-70mm… I do love that combination but my first lesson of this urban photography experience was that my big and heavy Canon probably isn’t the most suited street photography camera. Noted.
While the sun was rising over the city, I quickly ran out of time and after a few photos in the city I had to go back home to bring the kids to school and get to work myself. My first brief exploration of the city at sunrise had been both enjoyable and informative though. I got a basic understanding of how and where the first light of day would show and what could perhaps be interesting that following sunday.
Our ‘insta’ sunrise photowalk
Alongside 4 brave fellow photographers I’ve connected with through instagram, I started the photowalk last sunday at 6:30am at the central station in The Hague. It’s an interesting place at that time of day on a weekend morning, nothing like what you encounter in a nature reserve at such a time I must say. When everyone had arrived we quickly set out into the city to begin our photowalk.
Having learned from my exploration that Friday before, I left my heavy gear at home and carried a small bag with two compact mirrorless camera, an Olympus E-P5 with a 20mm f/1.7 prime lens (40mm full frame equivalent) and an E-P7 paired with a 14-42mm f/3.5-5.6 (28-84mm full frame equivalent). Two lightweight cameras with really tiny pancake lenses on them, very suitable for our mission that morning.
Upon arrival that morning, Lieke had already mentioned how on her way there she’d just spotted the moon sitting right in between two buildings. Obviously, all of us jumped at the opportunity and took the shot as we passed the location. And right when we were doing so, an airplane passed and complete the composition for us:
Leaving the area around central station with its modern ministries behind us, we moved on into the old part of the city around the Binnehof, where the dutch government resides. The light was beautiful here on those old buildings and although I don’t particularly fancy photographing such obvious locations because it is so hard to get anything remotely original, I couldn’t really resist these tourist hotspots in this warm morning light.
The day before our walk, September 9th, marked the first day of the current daily blocking of the A12 organized by Extinction Rebellion. At the foot of this Thom Puckey art piece ‘Monument to Thorbecke’ we found this sign probably left behind from the protest.
Running into on the huge planters at the Lange Voorhout/Toernooiveld crossing, I couldn’t resist squeezing in between for a green framed view, which resulted in a nice flowery capture and the interest of a police car, slowing down to see what this weirdo was doing hiding in between the vegetation. seeing all of our cameras I guess they quickly got our intentions and drove off.
As I’d seen on my first brief visit in the area that Friday before, Hotel des Indes at Het Lange Voorhout was very nicely lit when the first sunlight rose above the surrounding buildings. I had a lot of fun capturing its warm reflections across the street.
Some of my fellow sunrise photo walkers that morning:
The whole area around the Lange Voorhout, Denneweg and surrounding smaller streets offers plenty of photo opportunities. There’s so many beautiful buildings and angles at which the light shines on (parts of) them, I really had a wonderful time taking my first steps into this type of photography. I also enjoyed observing my fellow photographers and see what caught their attention and how they went about capturing that.
Finally making our way back across the Lange Voorhout, still quite dark before but now covered in golden morning light, it was about to find a good coffee place.
After a few hours of walking, photographing and chatting we ended up for coffee at Bookstor, a lovely little book/coffee place at the Noordeinde. I didn’t make any pictures there but I did take a few just before we arrived there, at Noordeinde 33, a beautiful 19th century building that once was a bank but serves as a hotel these days.
After coffee and talks it was about time to end our photowalk. My last pictures of the day I made on the way back to where I parked my bicycle, quite different from the rest of the series. I really like these typographic/worn kind of details and that’s something I’m going to try to pay a bit more attention to on my next city walks.
A portrait of Lieke in the reflection of a shop window
Closing thoughts
After two sunrise photowalks in the city that I really enjoyed, I feel very inspired to continue to explore this type of photography. I am also quite surprised and intrigued by how a—seemingly out of the blue—thought on an early morning in the dunes overlooking the city, sparked such a sudden interest for something I’ve never really cared for that much previously. Interesting how that goes.
Anyway, if you’ve made it this far looking at my photography and reading what I had to say: thank you so much for taking an interest! If you want to see more of my photography, my most recent captures are usually on my instagram feed. And if you’d like to join my photowalks sometimes, feel free to send me a message here or on insta and I’ll let you know when they happen. Thanks again!
