Winter Sunstar

I sat in the soft snow, powder up to my knees, watching the slow dance of sunrise. At first, it was the distant eastern horizon taking on a pale orange, its vibrancy kicking up a notch every minute. The silhouettes of the horizon were slowly coming to form, and I started to make out the jagged edges of the snow-capped Cascades.

The color started inching its way across the sky, reflecting first in the wispy Cirrus cloud formations. By then, the eastern horizon took on a vibrant yellow hue. The next few moments, I realized, would be the most crucial in what I had intended to capture: a sunstar

The sun finally broke through the hroizon, its light reflecting on the smooth bank of snow in front. Millions of tiny crystals of ice glistened, breathing in the first light of day. I bathed in the quiet stillness of this sunrise, a fleeting moment I froze in time.

Mount Rainier National Park
WA USA