Sunrise is so early

3:30 AM my alarm sounded, shaking me from a deep slumber. Too early for most normal people, but I've never claimed normality.

Sunrise shoot today, time to get up and get ready to flip the creative switch. Sunrise light is beautiful, albeit awful early. Such is our burden as image makers.

Got up, tried not to drown in the shower, swilled down two cups of black coffee strong enough to jump start an Cummins engine. Awake, finally. Cameras in hand I hit the street.

Timing was off. Dang. So on the way to the location I did a bit of early morning shopping. Wal-Mart. Open 24 hours. Yeah. No time to do this during "regular" hours so lucky me. People inside reminded me of a George Romero movie. They looked worse than I felt.

Arrived too early anyway, still dark. Time to scout. In the dark? OK, time to eat a little breakfast. Awake, awake at last!

Morning light is good. Still too early though. Contrails are just crazy cool. A few frames bracket for the HDR and I'm done. Wandered a bit more and shot some other things but nothing struck me as nice as what I pre-visualized in the HDR shot. All in all a good mornings shoot and a well deserved nap this afternoon.