behind Sunrise

Sunrise and sunset are two charming moments for photographers. I am a night owl, not an early bird. Getting up super early to get sunrise shots is not my favorite thing to do, but the temptation is big and I did it again.

Oregon is beautiful everywhere, but not many out-of-state friends know about it. Crater Lake is probably the most known tourist destination. I have been there 5-6 times and I know I won't never get tired of it. The lake is calm, peaceful and sacred.

The mirror-like lake surface looks calm, peaceful and sacred. I imagine a drop of needle will ripple the water.  Sunrise beam hits the rim and sets crimson color reflections. The reward of catching sunrise is the harmonious color combination, two shades of blue, orange, burgundy, crimson red and white. 

I was here same time last year and the shot below was taken around noon under a crystal clear blue sky.  The remaining white snow dramatized the appearance of the rim and reflections. It is sacred as always and it is glamorous.

I would say, the beauty of Crater Lake is unspeakable. You have to be there in person in order to be able to embrace its beauty and tranquility.

Take a peek through the hole framed by the old broken tree. Morning sun ray has brightened the background and I feel the lake is just a few feet away from me, so unbelievably close.

I would not notice that this fallen trunk has un-intentionally provided me a telescope for this awesome view till I downloaded the picture.

This picture frame looks so well-designed to me that I know, from my heart, it is intentionally arranged by the Supreme for our pleasure.  I adore and appreciate in awe.

I meant to take some HDR shots, but I did not remember to set up bracketing exposures. My memory card was quickly filled, but what I got are the multiple shots of the same thing. I cannot believe it, after all that work.

The good news is, we have digital camera and we have enhancement tools. My disappointment can be removed in one click OR with additional few strokes, I can inject new life to the images and transform them to something else that I may have never imagined.

Post processing is interesting and revealing.  I just began to experiment with some simple filters. The process is very fun and can be addicting.

If my images turned out to be the way I wanted and there are no further challenges, I may be happy but not excited. And, I won't have all the fun playing with filters. Thinking about this, smile comes and dwelled on my face....

Sunrise, Sunset, Surprise

Sunrise and sunset are prime time for photography. Light is soft and smooth. At this time of the year, sunrise is around 5:30am and sunset 8:30pm in our area.  I don’t usually get up that early for sunrise images unless I am on a photography retreat or on a vacation where we can have an ideal spot to view the scene. The dramatic rise and set of the sun from horizon happen in that five to ten minutes window. We need to have our camera gear more than ready to capture the dramatic moment. It is a luxury to be able in the right place at right time.

Morning Glory

This picture was taken early in the morning in the woods. The warm and fuzzy morning sun just began to embrace the earth and have us drowned in its glory.  In this shot, the sunlight was filtered through trees that created layers of monotone from white, gray to black. It looks to me that the trees were soaked with light and drunk in soothing pleasure.

In many cases, I was just passing through somewhere in the car. Camera is not accessible or it is ready but I am right in the middle of the freeway.  If I am fast enough to pull over at an exit, I may still get a shot if the location is open and angle of view is manageable. Sometimes, the sun was either up too high or disappeared from horizon by the time I found a place to stop.

The lesson taught me to just shoot regardless whenever an opportunity comes up and not to worry so much about photo quality.  If I don’t get a great shot, I at least have chance to examine the setting of my camera and learned from there what I can do better next time.  I am anxious to explore and to learn, but I know I cannot give myself too much pressure. I have to be carefree, take one step at a time.

On a trip back from a photography event, I was pleasantly tired and anxious to go home.  But when I spotted this post sunset sky, I was determined that I wanted to get off the next exit.  Luckily I was able to find a good angle for the shot, but it was pretty dark all around. I hand held my camera and bumped ISO up to 640 to shoot.  I could have raised ISO higher but I was concerned about the details of layers and colors.  I also did not remove electric pole and power lines as I always like them to be in the scene to be more realistic.

Sunset (Three Sisters are in the background)

I grew up in the city and now become a country folk. Believe or not, I have had very few experience taking trains. My first experience taking a train by myself was in Cologne, Germany at my 30’s. When I was young, I was gutsy. I did not speak German. I had not taken a train before by myself. I only had the address of a company that I planned to visit and talk business. I remember that I purchased a ticket and my seating was later claimed by the conductor that it is first class, and I had to pay him another $20 Dutch Mark (then about US$10).

On a trip to visit my daughter and grand children in Seattle, I took a train, my first experience (again) taking a train by myself in US. It was a 6:00am train. As I recall, sunrise was 6:42 am or so on that day. I found myself a seat on east side and started to figure out the settings. The train moved fast and the sky was dark, I definitely needed both shutter speed and ISO to accomplish the shot.  As sun started to shoot out its orange light from below the horizon, I started to shoot whenever I could find an open spot.

Train was moving and there were all kinds of barriers in front of my subject. I must have fired 30+ shots including when the sun was finally above horizon.  Most of the shots were very cluttered because of the various items existing within the distance, but I got couple OK shots. Because high ISO was used, some post processing to reduce the noise was necessary.  I was busy selecting better shots and reducing noise, and I did not realize that there were two suns hanging high in the sky, two of them. I was stunned and could not figure out why. My husband is the one, as usual, to come up the logic answer for me.

Sunrise

I was sitting inside the train by the window. Window is composed of two layers of glass panels. The sunlight was first hitting inside panel of the window in an angle (from high to low) and bounced back through outer panel of the glass (from low to high). My smart camera has caught both Suns, the reflected one was dimmer and higher than the real one.  Does this make any sense? You may have better answers. Please feel free to chime in.

I am not writing mystery fictions, I am unfolding mysteries in our nature.