I love dawn. Besides the obvious fact that it’s the start of the day, it’s a way to get the day off to a beautiful start. If you’re looking for spectacle, sunrises don’t generally compete with sunsets. During the day the atmosphere gets churned and stirred up by the warming effect of the sun. Winds kick up dust, human activity creates pollution, all of which contributes to the warm rich colors of sunset. But during the night the atmosphere cools down and becomes quite, So that when the sun makes its way around the back side of our planet and is ready to begin its journey across the sky, the air is clean and calm. All of this makes for a clarity and purity that is the special realm of dawn.
The general rule of thumb for photographing sunrises is to arrive about 45 minutes early. By this time all but the brightest stars have faded and the eastern sky is beginning to glow. I prefer to arrive even earlier, up to an hour and a half before sunrise. At this time I get to marvel at the night sky, enjoy the constellations that are familiar from my childhood and experience the entire progression from night to day.
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