![\"\"](\"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/12\/sunrise-4292-ron-dudley.jpg\" "\\"sunrise-4292-ron-dudley\\"")
<\/p>\nI rarely get lucky twice in the same photo.<\/p>\n
After something like ten days of stormy weather that dumped over a foot of snow in many of our valleys and brought the snowpack in our nearby mountains to 148% of normal for this time of year, yesterday’s forecast was for “sunny” statewide. So early yesterday morning, after being stuck at home for so long by gloomy weather, I made the very long drive in the predawn darkness to one of my favorite remote birding locations.<\/p>\n
So you can imagine my disappointment when I arrived at my destination just before sunrise to discover that that area was socked in with dense clouds and lake fog when it was clear everywhere else. I spent nearly three hours touring the area anyway and found quite a few birds but because of dim, flat light I didn’t get a single traditional bird photo I was particularly proud of.<\/p>\n
But precisely at sunrise I did experience about 30 seconds of magic.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
1\/320, f\/8, ISO 500, Canon R5, Canon EF500mm f\/4L IS II USM + 1.4 tc<\/em><\/p>\n As I slowly drove down the remote road with my tail between my legs and a grumpy disposition, this<\/em> happened.<\/p>\n A narrow sliver of the rising sun peeked out between the mountains and lake fog below it and the dense clouds above, creating some truly spectacular color in the freezing (12\u00b0 F.) landscape. I knew it wouldn’t last long but I took a chance and used some precious seconds to drive my pickup to a position that would place this remote ranch house directly below the sun.<\/p>\n It was an almost impossible exposure to get ‘right’ because of the very high contrast between the incredibly bright sun and the ranch house that was still almost in the dark. But I did the best I could in the few seconds I had.<\/p>\n And then I got lucky again.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n When I pulled my pickup into this position it just so happened that there was a small pond right next to the road on my left. There were about a dozen Canada Geese on the pond that flew off to the east when my pickup flushed them, so for a few moments I considered the very remote possibility that they might fly near the sun and allow me to include them in some of my photos.<\/p>\n I watched them for a few seconds but when they veered too far to the north and away from the sun I turned my attention back to the colorful solar display and took about a dozen photos as I fumbled around with my camera settings in an attempt to get at least one photo that had an acceptable exposure.<\/p>\n While looking at the sun through my viewfinder I had no idea where the geese were. By then I didn’t much care. I had other priorities.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n 1\/320, f\/8, ISO 500, <\/em>Canon EF500mm f\/4L IS II USM + 1.4 tc<\/p>\n But suddenly, there they were, at the top of my viewfinder.<\/p>\n I had barely enough room in the frame to include the geese and the ranch house but I got four photos where I think the composition worked out reasonably well (although I do wish I had more room at the top of the frame. I might even consider adding canvas up there.) While I was processing these photos my instinct was to increase the exposure a little more because as they are I think they might be a little too dark. But when I did so it caused even more color banding<\/a><\/span><\/span> around the sun, so I didn’t. Besides, this is pretty darn close to what the scene really looked like.<\/p>\n I don’t know squat about landscape photography so I’m not very confident about my composition (centered) or in the way I’ve processed the images.<\/p>\n But I’ll tell you what. Whether the photos are any good or not, I’ll never forget those few magical moments when that portion of the sky lit up so dramatically and colorfully for just a few seconds. And then the geese flew over the sun.<\/p>\n Ron<\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" I rarely get lucky twice in the same photo.\u00a0 (2 photos)<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/12\/sunrise-and-geese-4306-ron-dudley.jpg\" "\\"sunrise-and-geese-4306-ron-dudley\\"")
<\/p>\n