Sunrise, Mt. St. Helena (Napa County)

[DisgustipatedinCA]

Here are a couple of pictures taken on August 21 from the eastern flank of Mt St Helena, on the Napa/Sonoma County line, and just north of Calistoga, CA. I love the predawn and dawn light, but I'm rarely out shooting at that time. I think I'll challenge myself to get out at least once a week during the dawn hour to shoot pictures.


Predawn. This was taken about 2/3 of the way up the eastern flank of Mt St Helena.
There was a blanket of fog below and these high clouds, which were being underlit from
beyond the eastern horizon.


Almost there. The sun was up just a few seconds after this capture, but for those few seconds, the
horizon looked like some kind of beautiful blast furnace.


And the sun peaks out. It's unfortunate, but the shooting is all downhill from here. The light
gets more ordinary with each passing minute.

Early birds, please feel free to post your sunrises. Maybe this could be a lesser bookend to the excellent sunrise thread from a few days ago.

[Celebration]

1. These are awesome

Hope they don't intimidate people. The second one is my fave, with all the rays coming up from behind the mountain. I don't get many sunrise pictures, and just posted one, but, hmmm, here is one when the water was half frozen, from last year

[ManiacJoe]

3. I love all the layering in the first one!

[JeffR]

2. Jawdropping!

I have a few sunrise shots in the archives, but I'm not going to cheapen yours by posting mine in the same thread, or at all.

These are really magical. Really exquisite work.

[NV Whino]

4. Good gawd!

I'm going to have to get up earlier.

On the other hand I was in the fog.

[Mira]

5. I take very deep breaths while just loving these!

Each simply gorgeous in its own way.
Will post one too, a bit later.

[Mira]

6. A couple shots from a morning at 5 min. to 5 am

I visited early rising friends in Costa Rica earlier this year. They got me up to see the sunrise.
The volcano is active, in the center of the country: Volcano Arenal.
I have not been up this early since.

[DisgustipatedinCA]

8. Amazing photo

You got to shoot an active volcano. It looks like the place most likely for a triceratops to walk into the frame. It's a great picture, Mira.

[Solly Mack]

7. Wow!

[Gamey]

9. Inspirational

[Gamey]

10. Awesome