Sunrise or moonset
Behind or ahead
We wait on a ridge
As sun wins by a smidge
Photographer’s Dilemma
Tag: sunrise
Mountain Sunrise…
Silently waiting
Capturing movement through space
Erotic, carnal
Chill of pre-dawn air yields to
Unwavering candescence
Christmas Morning…
a cinquain.
Winter
Prairie highway
Pastel wash, lines obscured
Alpenglow glazing mountain tops
Dawn breaks
How I imagine…
Mars.
In a place where the prairie winds blow
Horizon stretching endlessly
Geological landscape
A coulee of bedrock
Prehistoric sea
In dawn’s pink light
Concretions
Spheric
Red
A time…
of change.
Hard edges, soft swirls.
Water surges just beneath-
Cold wintry winds blow.
Anywhere…
the wind blows.
All the lessons are in nature. You look at the way rocks are formed – the wind and the water hitting them, shaping them, making them what they are. Things take time, you know?
Diane Lane
I love this time of year when the seasons change from day to day; one moment is fall, the next winter.
This was taken the morning of the Autumnal Equinox when the length of day and night was almost equal.
The rock lover in me could not get enough of these sandstone sculptures in this magical place.
Take time to get out in nature. I guarantee it will give you a new perspective on life.
Those mornings…
that feed the soul.
The soul becomes dyed with the color of its thoughts.
Marcus Aurelius
Some mornings just arrive with a bang.
Those mornings are a force to be reckoned with and they refuse to creep quietly into your slumbering thoughts.
Those mornings are the ones where dressing for the weather doesn’t matter. When the sweetest gesture might be someone bringing you the jacket that you didn’t grab as you ran outside into the frosty air to capture the moment.
Or maybe it’s just the sweetness of seeing a new day come to life and knowing that the moment was not spent in solitude but was shared by others lucky enough to awaken before dawn and to capture it.
As a photographer who prefers black and white, I still recognize that there are moments that just scream out for a color image. On this morning, as the rising sun splashed color across the sky I was grateful for the opportunity to soak it in.
Once again…
it’s (almost always) about the water.
Some photographers take reality… and impose the domination of their own thought and spirit. Others come before reality more tenderly and a photograph to them is an instrument of love and revelation.
Ansel Adams
I can’t begin to tell you how many times I hear “I wish I had my camera with me!”
It’s been proven to me time and time again that you don’t go to where the images are; they come to you. When that happens your job is to see that there is a moment there and to then know how to capture it!
I was out shooting the almost full moon still high in the sky in the early morning hours around sunrise when this scene drew me in. It reminded me of some of the double exposures that I create in camera but this time it was all there in a single image.
Click…
If you’re passionate about photography two things will help you to improve: take your camera with you every day and then use it every day. In the next few weeks leading up to a new year I will be encouraging you to make a commitment to yourself and take a photo a day for a year. I promise you, it will change how you see the world.
Haleakala…
where the demigod Maui snared the sun and forced it to move more slowly across the sky.
The grand show is eternal. It is always sunrise somewhere; the dew is never dried all at once; a shower is forever falling; vapor is ever rising. Eternal sunrise, eternal dawn and gloaming, on sea and continents and islands, each in its turn, as the round earth rolls.
John Muir
It seemed like the right thing to do, after all I have had a lot of practice lately at getting up after midnight and chasing the night sky so the alarm was set and at 2 AM we began our journey to the 10,023 foot summit of a volcano called Haleakala.
I would not have imagined packing my winter down, snowboard under layers and wool hat for a trip to Hawaii but I was really glad that I had! Bundled up and with a Pepsi and pretzels in hand to combat the nausea that I deal with on winding mountain roads, into the Jeep we piled.
The drive was as curvy and slow as reported so we were glad that we had gotten such an early start. Upon arrival we made our way up top and I found a good place to set up my tripod, thankfully weighted down by my gear bag as it was cold and breezy.
It was a full moon night but I was still pleased to be able to see the milky way with my naked eye and took some shots of it while we waited for the main event. I think that this was the first time ever for me photographing the night sky with a group of people and I do mean group! Those of us braving the weather outside had a chuckle at the expense of the ones who looked a little like caged animals staring out from the enclosed and far warmer viewing area; snapping pictures from behind the glass with their flashes on.
Being surrounded by some wonderful people from other parts of the world helped to pass the time as my fingers (gloved) froze and my kneecaps shook. Thank God for remotes so I didn’t have to touch my camera!
For me the best part of a sunrise is always the time before it comes up and the continuous line of vehicles driving up added some lovely trails to the night sky images. The main event was a moving experience as the sun rose over a bank of clouds and the audience could be heard to say a collective aaahhhhh.
Haleakala, house of the sun, I will remember you…
Sometimes it’s better to just get up…
and go capture a moment.
Hope is the thing with feathers that perches in the soul-and sings the tunes without the words-and never stops at all.
Emily Dickinson
After a somewhat sleepless night following some disturbing news I decided to give up on the idea of sleep and go lose myself in some early morning photography. There are several apps available now from which you can track sunrise, sunsets, moonrise, moonsets and all manner of night sky events. From apps like Photographers Ephemeris you can pull up locations that you’ve logged and see exactly when and where these events are going to occur so that you can be in the right place for shots that you’d like to take. Slipping my iPad into my gear bag I set out for one of my favorite spots; the site of ruins from an old sawmill on the shores of a mountain lake.
It was peaceful and quite chilly but being well dressed for the weather and armed with handwarmers to thaw chilly fingers, I explored my area and tried out several compositions before settling on this one. When it is still dark out, a quick way to do that is to bump up your ISO really high and take a quick shot to see how you like it.
I love that early morning light before the sun rise but shot all the way through, finally capturing the sun as it rose directly behind one of the pillars. Even when I’m not taking pictures, I’m thinking about taking pictures and keeping track of points of interest for future shoots.
I enjoyed my first morning of Daylight Savings time, how was yours?
it's (almost always) about the water... 