Tent camp in the Chugach National Forest, Kenai Peninsula, Alaska. Canon 5D Mark III, 24-105mm f/4L IS (40mm)
The power of a sunrise can infuse a day with tremendous energy. There is something about that first sparkle of light that begins a new day. My many days as paper boy in midwest America, watching the transition from morning darkness to the dawn of light has perhaps forever sealed in me a love for the morning.
Rising early for sunrise in Alaska however, is not always easy. That crazy ball of fire emerges over the mountains at some painfully early hours. But it is almost without regret when the will power is mustered up enough to crack out of a warm sleeping bag to grab a camera when camping. This particular scene was taken in the Chugach National Forest, and sun kissed the lush landscape for a very short while that day. People that were not awake at 5:15am, never saw it for the rest of the day.
Due to the expansive dynamic range in this picture (the range of brightness and shadows) I combined two photos of different exposures to create this one. In the blending process, I tried to make it look as real as possible, and not too much like an over emphasized HDR image, the likes of whichI’m not too fond of in general for landscape work.
