“Get outside. Watch the sunrise. How does that make you feel? Does it make you feel big or tiny? Because there’s something good about feeling both.”
Amy Grant
Photographing Sunrise
Sunrise is often a special experience for photographers. For me, being there early and being there with very few people is part of the appeal.
The best light begins well before dawn and doesn’t last for long after sunrise. I’m often packing up my gear and leaving by the time other photographers and tourists are just arriving.
Photographing sunrise entails arriving at least an hour before sunrise. While interesting light often begins about 40 minutes before sunrise, I’ve been pleasantly surprised on occasion by a colorful sky an hour before sunrise.
And unlike sunset, there’s usually nobody around. A location that can be crowded with people at sunset is often nearly deserted at dawn.
Don’t get me wrong; I like people. But the peaceful solitude of being in the company of just one or two friends photographing the start of a new day is exhilarating to me.
Sunrise photography is not without its challenges. Photographing at dawn begins the day before with scouting. While several phone apps will provide the time and direction of sunrise, you still must imagine what it will look like at dawn.
And then there’s the matter of getting out of bed in the morning. I want to make the most of any location I’m visiting. And that means shooting every morning, every evening, and occasionally at night. The grind of getting up early and going to bed late takes its toll after a while.
It’s much easier in the winter. The days are short with late sunrises and early sunsets.
Summer can be a challenge. When I was in Badlands National Park in July of 2020, sunrise was at 5:20 AM. Catching good light meant arriving by 4:20 AM. And I was staying an hour away in Wall, South Dakota.
It was a week of 3 AM wakeups. With the late sunsets, bedtime was usually around 10:30 PM. Naps can be a wonderful things!
The Shot
July 15 was another beautiful sunrise in the Badlands. I had taken one potentially good photograph and started looking for a second composition.
Spotting the crescent moon, I turned ninety degrees towards it looking for a composition. I settled on this view, hopefully moving the eye from the foreground textured mound to the midground striped hills to the moon and back.
Thanks for looking,
Chuck Derus