Accidental Sunrise (or: Never Trust the Forecast)

coscorrosa

I'm taking Wed-Fri off this week (vacation has maxed out - use it or lose it!). I decided to spend a few days in Portland to check out the fall color, I was going to leave last night but was too tired after taking photos all day so I left this morning (at 4:30 AM) instead.

I did not intend to shoot the sunrise, I just wanted to arrive early enough when the light wasn't going to be too harsh, as the forecast wasn't promising, and also to beat morning rush hour traffic.

As I drove along I-205 over the Columbia River from Washington to Oregon I looked to my left (east) and saw an jaw-dropping silhouette of Mt. Hood.

I'm not at liberty to say what happened after that, but I'd like to thank the Portland Police department for their generosity in not pulling me over.

Here was the result, I made it barely in time:



This is a blend of two exposures (0 and -2), with a polarizer and a 3-stop hard split ND filter (which I slid up and down in an attempt to make it a 3-stop soft split ND filter, with mixed results) and merged with Photomatix, after which I dramatically reduced the saturation (yeah, it may not look that way, but the colors were naturally insane).

I haven't gone through my photos from today yet, but there's a good chance this will be my favorite and it's not even one I had planned on taking. There's a lesson in here somewhere...

Nacho

Ron, I love that serendipity when things just come together. Gorgeous shot. It must have been an interesting moment, setting up the gear while saying to the moment "please stay a bit longer," "just a wee bit longer while I get this set up!" I've found myself many a time muttering those words after happening onto a great shot!

Thanks Ron, fine fine shot.

Nach

ritewinger

Yes, this is really nice! But, all of your work is just great. Thanks for posting, it is inspiring.

Darren Troy C

Wow!

kdog

Sweet shot!

dlplumer

Beautiful Ron, and a great story.

torags

Wow. Beyond capture... Nice work.

philipw

Beautiful.

Philip

ront

Most excellent photo Ron. What ever you did works for me. I have to say that your photography is fast becoming some of my favorite. I live in Spokane now and we lived in Portland also for a while so I am familiar with a lot of the areas you photograph. Nice work indeed.
Now about the police... .

Ron

jsedlak

Short version: wow!

Long version: wooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooow!



This is the most inspiring, jaw dropping photo I have seen on this site to date.

coscorrosa

Nacho wrote:

Ron, I love that serendipity when things just come together. Gorgeous shot. It must have been an interesting moment, setting up the gear while saying to the moment "please stay a bit longer," "just a wee bit longer while I get this set up!" I've found myself many a time muttering those words after happening onto a great shot!

Thanks Ron, fine fine shot.

Nach

Those aren't the *exact* words I say (those who know me can probably guess what the exact words are), but that's definitely the feeling

It took me about 3 seconds to get out of my car, 15 seconds to run to the place, 30 seconds to pull out the camera and setup the tripod, and about about 5 seconds to bump the tripod during the first exposure.

I was *very* lucky to get this spot in time, a few minutes later and the light started to deteriorate (still exceptional by normal measures, but I got it at peak).

coscorrosa

ront wrote:

Most excellent photo Ron. What ever you did works for me. I have to say that your photography is fast becoming some of my favorite. I live in Spokane now and we lived in Portland also for a while so I am familiar with a lot of the areas you photograph. Nice work indeed.
Now about the police... .

Ron

Thanks Ron

I went to college in Portland, but didn't pick up photography until about 5 years after I graduated. I didn't start to appreciate it until after I left and started taking photos.

coscorrosa

jsedlak wrote:

Short version: wow!

Long version: wooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooow!



This is the most inspiring, jaw dropping photo I have seen on this site to date.

Heh, thanks, appreciate the complement

schmoo

Once again I love your sense of humor. And I am sitting here shocked that you have so much vacation left over when you go out every morning for fantastic sunrises. :oogle I thought that's what vacation was for!

coscorrosa wrote:

This is a blend of two exposures (0 and -2), with a polarizer and a 3-stop hard split ND filter (which I slid up and down in an attempt to make it a 3-stop soft split ND filter, with mixed results)

I won't ask what those experiments looked like, but since I don't own any graduated ND filters myself I did try Marc's "wave the hand in front of a longish exposure" technique with no success before. I can guess, but maybe there's your missing lesson.

thumb

coscorrosa

schmoo wrote:

Once again I love your sense of humor. And I am sitting here shocked that you have so much vacation left over when you go out every morning for fantastic sunrises. :oogle I thought that's what vacation was for!

The majority of my shooting is on weekends, and occasionally I'll take a day off work and go shooting during the weekday (usually in exchange for working on the weekend). Earlier in the summer when the sunrises were before 6AM I would do crazy trips out to Rainier and then head into work afterward. That's not really an option this time of year

schmoo wrote:

I won't ask what those experiments looked like, but since I don't own any graduated ND filters myself I did try Marc's "wave the hand in front of a longish exposure" technique with no success before. I can guess, but maybe there's your missing lesson.

thumb

I love it, poor man's grad ND filter! I can see how it might work too, but I can barely line up the filter when I can see through the viewfinder, there's no way I'd be able to do it with the shutter open. My grad ND filters are so dirty and scratched (dropping them on the wet sand, mud, etc.), I don't know what's worse, that I take such poor care of the filters, or that I can't tell from looking at the photos that they're actually dirty

SC Dreamin

kdog wrote:

Sweet shot!

I agree.