sunrise

Snowdrifts

Looking back at this scene brings sharp memories of the freezing conditions I endured to catch sunrise atop this windswept knoll. I still remember fiddling with my camera with cold numb hands, shivering despite wearing multiple layers, feeling nauseated from the lack of sleep the prior night, and most importantly, of being disappointed after the predicted sunrise did not pan out.

Sometimes these are part and parcel of the experience of the photographer. Even after putting the best effort into getting everything right, it is impossible to predict factors that lie beyond the photographer's control. I have faced many such disappointments, but persevere and shoot despite that.

And on this day, I was glad I continued shooting even after the sunrise didn't pan out, because I allowed me to enjoy the peaceful winter solitude for just a little bit longer.

Mount Tahoma State Forest
WA USA

Greens of the Palouse

Its that time of the year again when the Palouse gets a glow-up. Brown rolling hills after the winter slowly transform to a resplendent green, both from the winter and spring crops. Colorful barns and grain silos dot the undulating landscape, interrupting the flowing fields of wheat, soy and canola. Yellow crop dusters take to the air to fly sweeping loops over this wavy landscape, spraying fertilizers and pesticides. While it is no organic farming, it certainly is a productive corner of the state.

And photogenic too. The few weeks surrounding this time offer optimal conditions to capture the pastoral landscapes from the high vistas and from the dirt roads that wind through the landscape. Old renovated farmsteads and beautifully restored red barns offer subjects for the detail seekers too.

Here are a few showing the view from up above.

Palouse
WA USA

Rays of Shadow

Watching the sun rise from the summit of a volcano was an tranquil affair, interrupted only by the tumultuous shockwave from a nearby eruption thundering through the air. As the light from the eastern horizon slowly gained intensity, features and undulations slowly became more visible in the haze. Roads and farms formed intricate patterns in the valley that only started to come into light.

As the deep reds slowly turned orange and yellow in the east, the western horizon was still dark under the shadow of earth itself. The moon was the only anchor point steady in the sky as the Belt of Venus slowly arose. What I had not expected to see was the shadow of the volcano itself projected onto a neat triangular point into the west. Surprisingly, this shadow, and the accompany rays of darkness only became visible after the sun rose. I admired the distance to which this shadow was projected, and how long it actually lasted.

This image portrays the summit of the volcano at sunrise.

Volcan Acatenango
Guatemala

Hazy Horizons

The hazy sunrise slowly transformed the landscape down below me. Caverns and canyons in the shadows became brighter, while the long shadows over farmsteads and tractors became shorter. We floated above this dreamy landscape, blissfully unaware of the civilization down below waking up and doing their morning chores. Instead, we focused on the beautiful patterns etched by the landscape becoming more sharp with the rising sun.

Such was the magic of floating into the sunrise in Cappadocia, where the dreams down below and reality up above merge at the hazy horizon.

Cappadocia
Turkey

Sierra spring

It was remarkable how quickly weather could transition in the Sierra Nevada mountain range of California. A late spring storm coated the rugged terrain with a smooth coat of snow, transforming the dry desert climate to a beautiful winter wonderland. But it didn't take long for this to change. In just 24 hrs, it transformed to its summer sheen, and was not longer the snowscape that it was just a day earlier. These two images show how quickly the weather can vary in the mountains.

Eastern Sierras
CA USA

Lines in the Sand

Mother Nature's fingerprint at White Sands National Park. The delicate lines on the dunes at dawn are a mesmerizing reminder of the ever-changing desert landscape. Witnessing the hues in the sand transition to warm to cool colors at dusk, and reverse again at dawn, was a big factor to decide to camp in the park. And it was worth every ounce of sand I discovered in the tent and backpack thereafter.

White Sands National Park
NM USA

A Dante'ing Sunrise

Getting to Dante's view in Death Valley requires driving on a twisty mountain road from near the lowest point on the continent. And trying to get to this spectacular view point at sunrise requires commitment of a different sort. And yet, I was able to convince my entire family to wake up at dawn and make our way to the freezing summit at Dante's view to catch the sunrise.

Thankfully it did not disappoint. It was cold, windy, and extremely colorful. The eastern sky slowly changed from crimson to pastel tinges as the sun cleared the horizon. At the same time, shafts of light lit up the the mellow eastern slopes of the Panamint range, lighting the highest point in the National Park. Down below was Badwater basin, a salt flat at the lowest point in the Park that served as the drainage for the elongated valley.

It was very hard to take it all, especially with freezing winds blasting from the east. But it was worth the trip.

Death Valley National Park
CA USA

Horizon Blues

The thick fog of the cold morning dispersed slowly into the valleys as the sun rose, highlighting the jagged ridges of innumerable ranges. The icy summit of Glacier peak stood alone in the distance, and yet so near I almost could touch it.

Scenes like these are the perks of being able to get here early in the morning. And they far outweigh the effort of waking up and driving in the lonely pitch black night. Here is to hoping I can make it out to these places once again this summer.

Mount Rainier National Park
WA USA

Blues and Reds

Seasons Greetings

A few days earlier, I posted about the difficulty of capturing sunrises since it is so hard to predict when and how the colors would hit, and whether there would be a 'burn' of significant color. This particular sunrise, featured above, had everything going for it. Until the last moment. The colors just tinged the horizon a few dozen miles away, and spread nowhere else. In this frame, I tried to make the most of the 'burn'.

Tahoma State Forest
WA USA