Sunrise draws photographers for a reason. The calm pre-dawn landscape slowly taken over by beams of red, orange, and yellow is a magical sight to behold. But it is in the mountainous landscapes that sunrises become really special.
Perhaps it is the mesmerizing movements of clouds kissing the snow-capped peaks as they slowly take on a coat of the morning colors, or perhaps it is the soothing sway of mist rising up from the mirror-life reflections of a lake, or perhaps it is just the sense of being connected with nature as you smell the fresh moist earth, hear the chirp of the morning birds, or witness the raw beauty of the landscape all around you.
Sure, I had suffered plenty of hardships in making this scene - a severe lack of sleep, a drive up windy mountain roads in pitch-black darkness, freezing conditions that I was not prepared for, and more. Yet, once I set my camera on the trip and started composing, I got into the zone of photography, forgetting the pain and the hardships, and focusing purely on the beauty of the scene around me.
Mt Rainier National Park
WA USA