A Cloudy Dawn at Buntal

Two days ago, I received a phone call from a photography companion asking about what subject is suitable for a 1 second shutter speed shot (for her photography class assignment), so I suggested sunrise at Buntal. She started gathering all the people interested and there were supposed to be five of us for this outing.

I woke up very early in the morning to get to the meeting point on time. Since I was there 15 minutes before schedule, I ordered a kolo mee and a large kopi 'c' kosong as a start of the day. When I have finished all my food and drink, there was still no sign of anyone joining this outing. I felt sceptical and sent the message "the sun is rising..." to the organiser who was supposed to drive us there.

I got a call from her and apparently they were rushing to the meeting point due to faulty alarm clocks, I supposed. With the two ladies who were 30 minutes late and the two guys who were missing in action, I started driving the three of us there at 5:30 a.m. On the way to Buntal, we have already seen that the day is breaking.

It was a cloudy morning, so there was no sunrise scene to be shot. Therefore, we were just trying to shot whatever light that was available.

When the wind started blowing, one of our teammates felt stomach upset due to the smell of salted fish coming our way. She couldn't shoot with the smell walked away from us to avoid the smell. The other teammate saw her squatting down and she tried to get to her and see if she was alright.

Unfortunately, she slipped and fell down before reaching her. She had got mud all over her pants. Luckily she brought along a tower that she could use to clean herself up a little.

I slipped and fell down also during my first attempt of sunrise photo shooting at Buntal. However, I was more unlucky because I sprained my waist and the pain pestered me for three weeks. Well, I guess most people have to fall down at Buntal for their first attempt at sunrise there.

When the day became brighter, I started to walk around to look for other subjects to shoot. I didn't dare to walk around very much in the dark because it was hard to identify the slippery part of the beach.

After I walked around for a while, I saw the two ladies wandering around my car. I knew that they started to feel boring already because one had stomach upset and the other was dirty due to the fall.

Hence, I started to pack up all my gears and got my tripod folded because I know the two ladies were looking forward to go home. So, I called the outing to the end.

What an eventful day to start the month of June in 2012!