Sunrise...

Sunrise, my favorite time of day, as the world around me starts to wake up. I head out early, in the dark. I arrive in the dark because the best sunrise photographs are taken before actual sunrise. I sit in the dark and listen to the night. Then it starts to happen. The first shots are on the tripod with a long exposure. The light is constantly changing. The shutter speeds get shorter and shorter, starting at minutes and ending with fractions of a second. Sometimes the clouds are low and nothing happens for awhile and then suddenly it is very light. Sometimes the clouds and the vantage point are just right and the sun comes up like a huge orange ball. Sometimes there are no clouds at all, just orange. But each one is different. Then when it is finally light I head out, either to take more photographs or home to grab a quick nap. The trip back is very different than the trip out. There are more cars on the road, the world is starting to move around. Pretty soon, it’s just a normal day but I feel slightly different, a little more connected to the universe, a little more serene.

The photographs above were all taken at the same place, at approximately the same time of year, but different years. If you look closely you can see the same tree line. The same, yet different.