Vermilion Morning

(For the first part of this story, see my prior image “Old Paria.”)

After playing with photographing the Milky Way, I crawled back into my tent and went to sleep. The weather report had predicted clear skies, and I was happy the clouds had cleared to expose the stars. With clear skies, there would be no sunrise to miss and I could catch up on my sleep. A little less than two hours later I was thoroughly enjoying my REM sleep when my rude brother woke me up with a start by slamming the car door.

I grumpily stuck my head out of the tent to share some carefully chosen expletives, only to find him madly setting up his tripod and camera to capture this scene. Turns out he wasn't sleepy after photographing the Milky Way, and had taken a night hike back up the road to the old movie set area. As he hiked back, the dawn kept getting better and better. By the time he was close to camp, he was running to grab his gear.

Despite his rush to photograph, he slowed enough to smugly call over “So. Are you going to photograph this, or what?” for a second time. He claimed the sunrise had been even better before he woke me up, but I think he just wanted to gloat.

Nikon D7100
Nikon 12.0-24.0 mm f/4.0 at 12 mm (18mm equiv.)
1/20 at f/4.0 and ISO 100