Winter sunrise

This photo of a winter sunrise over the Sava river was taken this winter, close to where I live.
For some reason or another, I had to get up early one cold Saturday morning (I think I had to drive someone somewhere), and I figured I might as well take the opportunity for some photography. I tossed one of my two old Konicas - the one with Velvia colour film (I always keep colour film in one and black and white film in the other), a few lenses and a sturdy tripod into my car. I went to a nice spot along the river that's isolated and shot of almost an entire roll of film (36 exposures).

Many of the photos were bracketed - which means that I took the same photo at two or three different exposures (light settings). This is because with tricky conditions such as these (the sun shinning directly into the camera), light meters have a hard time determining the correct exposure, especially older meters such as the ones found in the 30 year old Konicas. New cameras have better light meters and all sorts of electronic tricks, but even they can get confused sometimes. In the days of film, professionals often bracketed photos because the price of film wasn't as important as getting the perfect shot. With digital, bracketing has become less important, mostly because you can check the photo on the spot and decide on any changes right there - something you can't do with film. Besides bracketing the exposure itself, one can also bracket focus, white balance or flash.