Dawn Photography at Haysden Lake

I wouldn’t generally catagorise myself as a ‘morning person’!   But sometimes, it’s worth pulling the duvet back and timidly putting a toe out into the cold room, because you get to spend a morning like the one I spent in May 2026!

It had been a while since I’d carved out time for some ‘me’ photography!  I love photographing businesses and families!  But getting back to the basics of photography – just me and nature – is something I hadn’t done enough of, and so I set my alarm for 4am and headed over to Haysden Lake in Tonbridge to commune with nature, bird song and quiet when very few others were out and about!  

There’s something quite thrilling about being up before everyone else; listening to the dawn chorus with no background traffic noise; watching majestic swans and geese glide silently over still water; witnessing the clouds turn from nothing to fire in the blink of an eye…

Mother Nature saves her best light show spectacles for the beginning and end of each day.  Whilst most of us get the opportunity to see a sunset every day, there is something so distinctly unique about watching a sunrise when the rest of the world is asleep!  The peace, the calm; it feels like a priviledge.

Once the sun was up, I went for a wander along the shore of the lake to see what bird life I could spot.

I’m planning on putting an early  toe out from under the duvet again before too long!