The trailhead to Cat Rock, is about a mile from my house and given that it’s one of the few open easterly views in the area sunrise photos from the viewpoint feature heavily in my portfolio. However although I’ve scrambled and climbed up there on may occasions only rarely has nature let me down in terms of the view.

This photo was taken in May 2023, and on this particular morning I was hopeful that rapidly rising temperatures and high humidity from the previous 24 hours of rain would lead to a misty start to the day. What I didn’t realize was that the sky would also be choked with smoke that was slowly drifting south from Canada where they were having their worst wildfire season to date. (As of December 2023!)

When planning sunrise photography there’s a number of things to consider. Most obviously you need to know what time is the actual sunrise but you should also note that once first light has occurred there is a portion of time called blue hour, followed by a portion of time called golden hour, then, after golden hour is over the camera goes away the stove comes out, breakfast is made and coffee is filtered!! Unfortunately on this morning I was a little late, I totally missed blue hour and only got to the view just as the sun was coming over the horizon. However as you can see from the images my hunch had been correct, smoke and humidity were combining in all their hazy goodness to create some interesting conditions

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The Moment when the day breaks
is the moment when everything makes sense

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