Sunrise at Marken
Full screen gallery below
The former island of Marken situated in the Gouwzee was connect to the main land in 1957 by a dyke. This means that visiting the island is obviously much easier now. Marken is famous for its monumental wooden houses, fishing heretic and the traditional costumes the residents wear.
The charm of this island is especially the wooden colourful house and the lighthouse at the end of the island. Protecting the boats, mainly recreational and fishing boats, that are on the Markermeer. For me it’s been a long time bucket list to photograph the lighthouse and that part of the island. Not knowing what or how to photograph that area, I chose to just go and see.
It was a very cold, I again underestimated the cold - especially the wind, but a sunny day. That meant that a decent sunrise was to be expected. So it was, albeit there being almost no clouds it was a bit “dull”. But he, it is all about the location and finding that composition for the next time.
I arrived quite early, an hour before sunrise, at is was a bit of a walk towards the lighthouse and there are no cars allowed on the island past the main parking area. Walking towards the lighthouse I passed the nice wooden houses and the small streets on Marken, which made me feel like being back in history, living 100 years ago.
Heading towards the shoreline I immediately felt the strong cold wind and me without a hat or gloves was in for a freezing morning sunrise. Stupid I could have known this, not the first time. OK! Moving on.
As I come closer and closer to the lighthouse I start to see the sun rising and getting some photos along the way. Finally arriving at the small beach where the lighthouse is situated.
What immediately caught my attention is that you cannot really be alone anymore in the Netherlands as there were already 4-6 photographers there to capture the sunrise with me. it is what it is, however sometimes I just wish I was the only one.
The other thing I noticed is that the lighthouse is pretty well guarded in the sense that is has a lot of fencing around it. Which to me makes the lighthouse a bit less interesting -or- at leas to photograph. I did not realise this earlier, not a dealbreaker, but still it makes the photo less interesting in my mind.
In the end I tried to workaround this issue, but it’s hard. Also the lack of almost any clouds did not help in this regard. All in all, I wanted for this just to be a scouting morning for a next time. However I’m not so sure I will be back a next time, but you’ll never know.
After sunrise it was time to go back home, cold, hungry and tired I was in for hot coffee and some proper breakfast. On the way back to the car a small sailboat came out the harbour and just passed the lighthouse. This made for a nice scene and context for the last photos.
When I arrived almost at the car I passed the last meadows and noticed that a lot of birds (aquatic) reside in Marken, so for birding this might be a good location as I did not expect this much variety.
For now enjoy the photos and let me know if you get some inspiration to capture this scene differently and surprise me, as I’m still unsure if I like the photos.
All photos below, taken with the Fujifilm X-T3 and the Fujinon 16-55F2.8 plus the Fujinon 50-140F2.8. Click to view larger in a light box and navigate with mouse or arrow keys. Enjoy!
