On the night before the morning of 21st January 2020 I was preparing to go to my first “Meet The Artist” exhibition at The Fisherton Mill Gallery in Salisbury when I saw the potential for another attempt of getting the shot.
The weather forecast was for heavy fog with clear skies, these conditions always make me very excited.
I was very apprehensive about shooting as this was the 15th attempt at trying to get the photo I have envisioned for so long.
Sometimes photography can be very disheartening when you arrive on location and the conditions haven’t presented themselves as you wished. Horizon cloud can be an absolute killer for photography at sunrise and this was the case most of the time.
Although I did get some nice photos of Salisbury Cathedral in the 14 previous attempts, they were not the right conditions for the shot I was hoping for.
Below are 3 examples of this.
Attempt 2:
Attempt 4:
Attempt 5:
On the morning of the shoot my photography friend Jim and I arranged to meet for sunrise at the town path.
The light was completely flat with very dense fog and freezing cold temperatures of -2c. You could not see 20 metres in front of you.
At first I thought it was going to be an absolute no go. The fog seemed to be never ending and I was concerned that the whole of the Cathedral would be swamped. The legal height limit for flying a drone in the UK is 400ft and the Spire height is 404ft.
But I got lucky…
As the drone crept up through the fog to 350ft I could see the spire! The sun wasn’t quite in the right place for the shot I wanted plus there was a small amount of cloud on the horizon so I took a quick shot and brought the drone back to land.
As I brought the drone into land, a warning appeared on my controller screen that there was a problem with the motors.
I inspected the drone and noticed ice forming on the propellers. This caused the motors to overwork due to the extra weight.
After a few minutes of clearing the ice and running some safety checks, the drone was good to go.
Hopefully by this time the sun will be in the right position for the shot.
As the drone rose up again to 350ft I could clearly see the top of the spire but no shadow coming from the spire.
So I moved the drone so the sun was directly behind the Cathedral Spire and flew slightly higher to 375ft to get a better angle and there it was!
It was the most amazing sight!
Finally, The Shadow Of The Spire in perfect conditions.
After bringing in the drone to land I headed off to The Fisherton Mill Gallery for my “Meet The Artist” exhibition.
I was so excited to edit this image that in-between speaking with some lovely people I was editing.
When the final image was created I was so proud and decided to release it as a Limited Edition Print.
Over the next few days I was contacted by a news agency as they were interested in the image and on the 24th January 2020 the image was printed in The Daily Telegraph. This was a first for me to have an image of mine in a National Newspaper.
It is such an incredible thing to dream something up and through perseverance and patience to create that image.
15 attempts at sunrise with mostly unworkable conditions was disheartening at times especially when the forecast looked promising.
Don’t give up on your vision.
If you would like your very own Limited Edition Print of “The Shadow of the Spire” click here.
A special thank you to Jim for the BTS shots.
