Photography today

It's been a while since I've captured a proper sunrise. But yesterday plans were made to do exactly that today.
Yesterday, Peter and I searched for locations for quite a while and slowly but surely a plan came together. (I love it, when...)
We would go to Twente to a nature area called Buurserzand. After that the plan was to visit the Twickler Estate, near Delden (also located in Twente, a location I'd been to before)
To be there on time, the alarm clock was set to absolutely crazy o'clock: 02:30 am.

We left at 03:00 am and after a 2 hour drive on the southbound A31 in Germany, we arrived at the chosen scene and things looked perfect, a pink glowing sky and loud singing frogs and birds all around us. 

Unfortunately things changed for the worse during the 30 minutes we waited for the sun to rise at 05:30. By then the clouds had thickened and the sun just didn't have enough power to light up our landscape. A bleak yellow sky was what we got.

But still, we captured for a while, and looking at those photos now I'm still satisfied with the results. Although I now have visualized in my head this same scene in frosty and foggy conditions. Who knows I will go back there some point in the future when those circumstances are likely.

We then went on to an old farm nearby, called the Bommelas, and after that we went a bit north again for a proper McBreakfast (at 8 am) and new some locations at the Twickler Estate near Delden. (I'd been here before, back in 2021) 

The rest of the morning was spent at the Sprengenberg, in Haarle for some woodland photography. This area is famous for its rhododendrons, in full bloom these days, but this year somehow there are a lot less flowers in the rhododendrons due to the drought of last summer. But the woodland in Haarle was quite nice, even without the rhododendrons.

Our final location was in Ommen, at estate De Laer. Woodland again, and on top of that, a nice bridge as well.

At 15.00 hours, exactly 12 hours after we left, we were back home in Delfzijl. Peter dropped me off and I spent the rest of the afternoon sleeping.

All and all it was a nice day to be out there again.
I must confess I'm still struggling with my new camera and inspiration at locations as well. I'm doing things and chosing compositions I'm familiar with, knowing that more and different options are also there, just around the corner. I just somehow can't grab them.