Missing the Light

Sunrise on Baseline Road. Boulder, Colorado, 2013

Sometimes I try to guess when the conditions might be right for some nice sunrise landscape photography. I generally hope for some interesting clouds that could be illuminated by the solar disc as it approaches, then crests, the eastern horizon. If I think the next day might be good, I’ll set my alarm early.

I sure missed on this one.

I woke up just in time to notice this wonderful, martian red-orange glow coming from the bedroom window. By then, it was already too late to go anywhere–the light would be gone within five minutes. It was all I could do to dress quickly and dash outside with the camera. Then the problem became how to capture the wonderful, wave-cloud sky and light while surrounded by apartments, power lines and city streets. Most would be content to simply shoot the sky, leaving the horizon littered with peaks of houses, electric poles and other detritus of modern “civilization”. I tried to find something–anything–to make the image at least a little bit better than that…the result is above.

Next time, though, I need to hoist my fanny perpendicular an hour earlier and get myself out to a park, a lake, a mountain, or Open Space. Be there and await the light–that’s the real solution!