Myself and one of my friends/photography students met up at 5am in Shimbashi today and headed down to the Takeshiba Pier to photograph the first sunrise of 2009. Not knowing exacctly where on the skyline the sun was going to appear, we may not have had – in hindsight – the best spot. But, we had a good spot nonetheless and an interesting background of some triangular shaped building and the Marine Survey vessels across the bay.

The only fly in the ointment was a drunk Japanese guy who turned up at exactly the moment the sun appeared, stripped to his underpants, jumped the railings to where I was set up, stood himself right in front of my camera and proceeded to shout about how stupid foreigners were in general and especially for sitting here with our cameras for hours to catch the sunrise.

Justin managed to pacify the guy but it meant he lost a lot of shooting time, more than me. But I was thankful for Justin’s intervention as, especially when the guy started touching my camera I threatened to push him into the bay. I was set up two feet from the edge of the pier and given his totally random behaviour I was worried he would pitch me and/or my equipment into the water.

This is the first of a number of shots I made this morning. But, for now, I am off to have a rest and get some breakfast inside me!

Nikon D300
Nikkor 80-200mm f/2.8 ED IF @ f/8
Five-frame bracketed burst with HDR made in Photomatix 2.5.4