The Photographer's Ephemeris (TPE) + Skyfire app predicted an amazing sunrise for the following day. A prediction of a 90% chance of a colorful sunrise doesn’t come very often. Would conditions hold overnight? No prediction is 100% accurate but it deserved some attention. Would it be a go or no go?

Research & Virtual Recon

I began my usual hunt for supporting data starting with a visit to the National Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), National Weather Service Forecast website. NOAA’s location specific, hour-by-hour forecast of temperature, cloud (sky) cover, wind speed & direction, and chance of rain, fog, & lightning is a helpful tool.

The NOAA data confirmed weather conditions that matched the colorful sky prediction.

I had 24 hours to create a photo plan.

My goal was to create a wide spectacular sunrise landscape photo that focused on a stunning subject with a dramatic colorful sky. I choose to make the photo at Smith Rock State Park.

I used Google Earth 3D to scout the area virtually. I chose a spot just outside the park boundary high on the hillside near Brogan’s Spire. From my office I stood there (virtually) looking west. It looked ideal.

I even framed the shot (virtually). The scene would include a downhill sloped foreground with fall straw colored bunch grass. The mid ground of image would feature the red-yellow rock pinnacles and curve of the Crooked River. The background would consist of the distant Cascade Mountain peaks all with a big colorful sky.

The Plan

With the photo idea stored in the memory cache, it was time to gather the details and create a time table. I researched astronomical, nautical & civil twilight, sunrise and moonset, and the blue & golden hour peak times. I used TPE & PhotoPills to trace the sun’s sky path across the sky and the direction of its light across my intended composition. Logistically the perceived image was doable.

Obsessed you say? Maybe, but when the plan includes an o’dark thirty wake up and an hour and half headlamp hike with a heavy pack - mostly uphill, I like to be pretty sure the potential outcome matches the physical effort! Of course, even with the best pre-plan sometimes the result is nothing more than a great exercise day!

From Plan To Action

I woke at 3:30 am to review the forecast prediction. It held firm. There was still a very good chance of a beautiful sunrise.

Another local photo enthusiast would join me on the outing. The night before we had agreed on a 4 am leave time. This would give us enough time to drive to the park, trek to the photo spot and scout for an ideal composition all before sunrise.

We left the Smith Rock parking lot using headlamps to navigate. We reached the bridge at the river and followed the Wolf Tree Trail north and east. The trail intersects Burma Road. The gravel road would lead us uphill to a trail that turned towards Brogan Spire.

A fork-in-the-trail wrong turn by me cost us 10 minutes. This meant we would need to keep a steady pace to arrive on time. We did take a few short breaks on the steepest parts of the journey. Each break was an opportunity to scan the sky and begin to consider composition options.

Sunrise is never late! The remaining distance wasn’t far but it was steep. We agreed we didn’t come this far just to fall short of our target. We doubled our effort and reach the target location.

With little time to celebrate our physical effort, we unloaded our packs and began the composition recon process. Time was ticking by. Out came the cameras and on went a lens or two as we made final composition decisions. After a few test exposures the cameras were tethered to their respective tripods and exposure fine tuning began.

I was elated as the sun began to rise. The light bounced off the rock wall pinnacles and illuminated the under side of the clouds. Minute-by-minute the light changed and so to did the color of scenery. Different elements in the composition, including the under side of the clouds, went through a cycle of sunrise colors.

I was on auto pilot. I worked methodically all the while appreciating what was unfolding in front of me. Cloud cover extended the ‘good light’ well beyond the usual post sunrise end time. This gave me time to consider other options and even experiment a bit.

By the time I was done I had covered a good deal of the hillside, used a variety of camera gear, and practiced a full list of photo techniques. The process was both exhilarating and stressful. Did I get the best composition? Should I have used a longer exposure, shorted focal length, lower point-of-view, etc?

A big exhale was followed by a moment of appreciation and calm. The experience was amazing.

The above photograph is my favorite from the adventure.

Buy The Print

I hope these short behind-the-scene vignettes provide you a backseat to the experience. And, I hope the stories motivate you to do your part to preserve the natural world. Thanks for your interest and continued support.

Cheers,

Steve

Photo Tech Talk

For all you photo enthusiasts here’s the details and some thoughts on the featured image.

Camera: Nikon D850

Lens: Nikon 17-35 mm @22mm

ISO: 100

F-stop: f/11

Shutter Speed: 0.8 seconds

File Format: RAW

Metering: Matrix

Exposure type: single focus, single image

Edit Process: DXO PhotoLab 4, NIK Collection & Photoshop

Color profile: ProPhoto

Insights:

Goal. My goal was to capture a wide landscape. The foreground, anchored by the shrub is intended to lead the viewer’s eye into the frame from the bottom. I wanted the rock pinnacles of Smith Rock State Park to be the primary focus. The background of mountains and sky hopefully keeps the viewer’s eye in the frame for a while.
Focus. My camera focused was on the scrub brush in the foreground. I believe it was 5-8 feet from the tripod (hyperfocal distance). After each exposure I always check the entire image for sharpness. Often I use a three image focus stack technique. One focal point for the foreground, one for the mid-ground and one for the distant background. The three images are merged in editing process to create a tack sharp final file.
Level. The tripod was leveled using a Really Right Stuff attachment. In addition, the in camera horizontal level feature was used to double check. I cropped the image just a few pixels on all four sides during the editing process to compensate for the corner softness of the Nikon 17-35 mm (@ 22 mm) I was using.
Editing Process. I used DXO PhotoLab 4 (instead of Adobe Lightroom & Camera Raw) to make the first pass edits. I exported to Color Efex Pro 4 for additional edits. The final edits were made in Adobe Photoshop along with TK Actions plugins.

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