Michael Wilkins
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The gnarled branches of a pōhutukawa framing a bay at sunrise, three photographers with tripods silhouetted on the sand, yachts at anchor on still water, Rangitoto Island low on the horizon and the sky banded orange, pink and violet.

Under the Pōhutukawa

Auckland, New Zealand · March 2020

1D X Mark II, 28 millimetres, f 22, 15 seconds, ISO 100

Three tripods, one sunrise, and a tree that got there first.

The tree does the framing. Its branches reach right across the top of the frame and down through the middle, so the sunrise has to be seen through them, and the three photographers on the sand, tripods up, are the scale. A few minutes after the islet frame, a few metres along the beach, and the colour still climbing.