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Archive for the ‘sunrise’ Category

Spectacular sunrise in North Dakota

Posted in Autumn, Landscape, Nature, Photography, sunrise, Travel, tagged , , , , on November 27, 2024| 6 Comments »

I am finally more or less caught up with my photos from my road trip to Seattle and back. Here are a couple of my favorite shots of the trip, when I captured the sunrise on 5 November at Theodore Roosevelt National Park in Medora, North Dakota. It was dark and cold when I crawled out of my sleeping bag that morning, but I really wanted to try to see the sunrise.

The sun rises and sets each day, but each one is unique, affected by a whole host of uncontrollable factors, including meteorological conditions and the landscape. Sometimes the sun arrives slowly and subtly and sometimes it explodes into view. Professional landscape photographers scout locations in advance and figure out the optimal locations to catch the sunrise. I simply got into my car and began to drive slowly on the road through the park.

As I was driving I came upon this view as I rounded a corner just as the sun was rising over the horizon. Results are unpredictable when you point your camera directly at the sun, but somehow I managed to get it almost right in the first shot below—well at least I got a cool image that I like. When I moved the camera to the side a little so the sun was no longer in the frame, I was able to capture the final photo. I really like the sort of layering in the background, as the sun painted the various land features.

I am not sure if I will do a posting tomorrow, when those of us in the United States will be celebrating Thanksgiving. In case there is posting tomorrow, let me thank all of you now who pause for a moment to look at my photos or read my rambling prose. Thanks for all of your support and encouragement over the years.

sunrise

sunrise

© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.

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Sun and moon

Posted in Landscape, moon, Nature, new year, Photography, sunrise, Winter, tagged , , , , , , on January 4, 2024| 15 Comments »

I consider myself to be primarily a wildlife photographer, but sometimes I enjoy taking photos that do not include an animate subject. That was certainly the case last Saturday, when I travelled to Occoquan Bay National Wildlife Refuge just before sunrise. I have already posted a few photos of the sunrise that I took with my iPhone, but decided it was worthwhile sharing a few images captured with my DSLT.

When the sun first appears its light is so intense that it is difficult to capture a shot when staring right at it. As you can see in the first image, I had to underexpose the image to get a decent shot of the sun. For that reason, I like to take photos of portions of the early morning sky in which the sun is not in the frame, like the second image below that shows the pale orange color of the sky and some of the details of the distant trees.

The moon was almost full that morning and I managed to capture a detailed shot of it by once again underexposing the shot. If I had let the camera choose the exposure, I would have ended with with a bright while circle with no details. The moon was present throughout most of the morning, as shown in the final photo that I took later in the day. The daytime shot of the moon does not show as much contrast and detail as the shot in the dark, but I like the way that I was able to capture the blue sky and the clouds.

I am sure that I will be back to featuring wildlife subjects soon, but it was fun to play around with some different subjects and approaches for a change.

sunrise

sunrise

moon

moon

© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.

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A new day

Posted in Landscape, Nature, Photography, sunrise, tagged , , , , , , on December 31, 2023| 1 Comment »

Yesterday I welcomed the sunrise at Occoquan Bay National Wildlife Refuge, the first time that I have tried to photograph a sunrise in a long time. There are electric gates at this refuge and I arrived at 7:00 a.m., just after they had slid open. Sunrise was officially at 7:26, so I had to hustle to make it down to the water’s edge in time to see the sun begin to move above the horizon. It was cold, only 37 degrees (3 degrees C), so I made sure to zip up my coat and raise its hood.

I arrived in time and played around with the panorama feature on my iPhone to capture the second image below before the sun was visible. My panning was not quite steady, but I like the wide view that I was able to capture.

The first shot, also taken with my iPhone, shows the sun just after it had risen above the water. I really like the reflection of the sunlight in the water and the movement of the water that is visible in the image.

sunrise

sunrise

© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.

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Early morning light

Posted in Architecture, Landscape, Nature, Photography, sunrise, Travel, tagged , , , , , , on May 23, 2023| 4 Comments »

I live in a suburban townhouse community, which means that the scenery is not particularly photogenic if I walk around at dawn. This weekend, however, I attended a church retreat at Shrine Mont, a facility owned by the Episcopal Diocese of Virginia. Shrine Mont is located in the Shenandoah Valley near the border with West Virginia, in the tiny village of Orkney Springs.

I stayed in a small cottage with some other members of my church and when I woke up in the pre-dawn hours, I was able to grab some coffee and begin to walk down the road. One of my favorite buildings in the area is the post office for the village. I love the quaintness of the structure, with the chairs on the covered porch and the Coca-Cola signs. I was happy that I was able to capture the lighting provided by various sources inside and outside the building.

There was not very much color in the sky, but I was able to capture a bit of it in the sky and its reflection in the waters of a small pond that I passed. The final shot shows several of the main buildings of Shrine Mont. The large building, now called Virginia House, used to be the Orkney Spring Hotel and was privately owned until it was purchased by the Diocese of Virginia in 1979. According to Wikipedia, the Virginia House is believed to be the largest wooden structure in Virginia—it dates to the 1870s and is on the National Historical Register.

I love to capture the moments when the sky is beginning to lighten, but the electric lights are still on. It is a beautiful and peaceful period and a wonderful way to start the day.

Orkney Springs Post Office

Shrine Mont Pond

Virginia House, Shrine Mont

© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.

 

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Immature eagle at dawn

Posted in Birds, Nature, Photography, sunrise, wildlife, Winter, tagged , , , , , , on February 16, 2022| 9 Comments »

Through the distant trees, I spotted a shadowy shape in the early morning hours last week at Occoquan Bay National Wildlife Refuge. Was it a large bird or simply a malformed tree? It is a little embarrassing to admit it, but I often find myself taking photos of odd-shaped branches or leaf formations, thinking they might be birds.

In this case, though, it turned out to be a bird. When I zoomed in to get a closer look, I initially thought it might be a hawk, but the more I stared at the hazy form, the more I realized that it was almost certainly an immature Bald Eagle (Haliaeetus leucocephalus).

It takes almost five years for an adult Bald Eagle to develop its signature look, with its yellow beak, light-colored eyes, and white head and tail. In the interim the eagle’s plumage is flecked with white, rather than being a solid dark color, and the beak and eyes are darker than they will eventually become. Experts can tell the age of an immature eagle on the basis of its plumage pattern—I am definitely not an expert and would guess from what I have read on-line that this eagle is probably about a year old or so.

Although I was a long way away from the eagle, it seemed to sense by presence and took off shortly after I spotted it. As the eagle flew away, I was able to capture an image with a view of the mottled pattern of the feathers on the underside of its wings and its dark tail feathers

Bald Eagle

Bald Eagle

© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.

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December sunrise

Posted in abstract, Landscape, Nature, Photography, sunrise, Winter, tagged , , , , , on December 27, 2020| 16 Comments »

The electric gates at my favorite wildlife refuge slide open at seven o’clock in the morning and sometimes I will be sitting in my car waiting for the parting of the gates to maximize my chances of seeing the sun rise. Traffic was a little heavier than I had anticipated last Tuesday and the gates were already open when I drove into Occoquan Bay National Wildlife Refuge a few minutes after seven.

Dark clouds were covering much of the sky and although some color was starting to appear in the few open patches, it was clear that I was not going to see the sun itself rise. I rushed down the trail toward the water as it grew lighter and lighter, racing against the rising sun. I never did see much of the sun itself, but the reflected light was amazingly beautiful. At times it seemed like the skies were aflame with an orange flow and a few minutes later the skies were tinged with a softer pink.

Forecasters can tell me at what time the sun will rise, but they cannot predict the look and feel of any sunrise. For that, I have to be there in person, waiting expectantly with my heart full of hope. It is a wonderful way to start a new day.

“The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of his hands.” (Psalm 19:1)

 

winter sunrise

winter sunrise

winter sunrise

© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.

 

 

 

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Sunrise impressions

Posted in Art, Landscape, Nature, Photography, spring, sunrise, tagged , , , , , on April 2, 2020| 31 Comments »

The sun had just risen when I arrived last Thursday morning at Occoquan Bay National Wildlife Refuge. How, I wondered could I possibly capture my impressions of those wonderful moments as the new day was dawning?

I hastened to capture an image while the sun was still low on the horizon and grabbed the first photo below while standing at the edge of the parking lot. There was a soft mist lingering over the fields and in my second shot, I worked to capture the stillness and serenity that I was feeling.

When I finally arrived at the shore, the sky and the water seemed to be almost the same color with a narrow, darker strip of land separating the too. I immediately thought of the moody, minimalist landscape shots that Michael Scandling regularly features in AMAGA Photography Blog. Michael likes to coax each pixel into submission and I confess that I did not work on my final image as much as he would have, but it is a kind of homage to his wonderful work.

So there you have it, three distinctive images that together give you a sense of what I was seeing and feeling in the early morning hours, a time of day that is perfect for introspection and reflection.

sunrise at Occoquan Bay

sunrise at Occoquan Bay

sunrise at Occoquan Bay

© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.

 

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Sunrise with my second camera

Posted in Art, Landscape, Nature, Photography, sunrise, tagged , , , on January 16, 2020| 23 Comments »

How much gear do you carry with you when you go out to take photographs? Each time that I get ready, it is like planning for a trip. More gear means that I will be more ready for the full range of situations that I may encounter, but more gear means more weight. So what do I do? I compromise. During the winter, I tend to have my 150-600mm zoom lens on my DSLR and during the summer I use a 180mm macro lens as my primary lens. I will usually have a second lens in my camera bag, often a 24-105mm lens, but often it goes unused.

For greater flexibility I usually carry my trusty Canon SX50 super zoom camera. It is lightweight and versatile, with an equivalent field of view of 24-1200mm, a 50X zoom. Like me, it is a bit old and slow and has some limitations, but it lets me capture wide-angle shots in the winter and distance shots in the summer without having to change lenses on my primary camera in the field. It also lets me shoot in RAW,  my preferred format for capturing images.

On the 2nd of January, I was chasing the sunrise. I knew that sunrise was scheduled for around seven o’clock, which is the time when the electrically-controlled gates of my favorite wildlife refuge slide open. I was a little late leaving home and as I drove south on the interstate, I could see the sky turning a beautiful shade of red. As I entered the refuge, I could see that the colors were starting to fade. As soon as I got to the parking lot, I grabbed my SX50 and captured the second shot below with the engine still running and the car door open.

I turned off the engine, grabbed my gear, and headed for the water. Along the way I stopped to capture the third shot below, a view across a frosty field. When I finally got to the water, I could see that the sun had already risen. However, the clouds reflected some of the brightness of the sun and added drama to the scene and I was able to capture the wide view that you see in the first photo below with the SX50.

In case you wonder why I did not post these photos earlier, I simply forgot to upload them immediately from my “second” camera. It was a nice surprise for me when I looked at them on my computer screen for the first time yesterday. The images validated for me the value of carrying this camera with me for its multi-purpose capability, a kind of photographic Swiss Army knife.

 

sunrise

sunrise

sunrise

© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.

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Early morning light

Posted in Art, Landscape, Nature, sunrise, Winter, tagged , , , , , on January 12, 2020| 11 Comments »

The colors in the sky were soft and beautiful early last Thursday morning at Occoquan Bay National Wildlife Refuge. The reflections in the water were equally beautiful. What a wonderful way to start the day.

sunrise at Occoquan Bay

sunrise at Occoquan Bay

© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.

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Sunrise on the Seine

Posted in Architecture, Paris, Photography, sunrise, Travel, Urban, tagged , , , , , , , on November 9, 2019| 7 Comments »

Saturday morning sunrise on the Seine River. What a great way to start today in Paris.

Sunrise on the Seine

© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.

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Another April sunrise

Posted in Art, Landscape, Nature, Photography, spring, sunrise, tagged , , , on April 6, 2019| 29 Comments »

I’ve noticed that recently I have been really sensitive to lighting and moods and not just to specific subjects. It’s problematic for me, because it is so difficult to figure out how to capture a feeling.

That is part of what was going through my head when I took this photo early in the morning this past Wednesday at Occoquan Bay National Wildlife Refuge. The sun had already risen, but it was still low in the sky. I loved the way that shafts of light were visible coming through the trees. It was a cold morning and mist was hanging over the still water of a small pond. Could I possiblycapture the details that took my breath away?

So what do you think, or more importantly, what do you feel?

sunrise

© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.

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