Tag Archives: sunrise

Sunrise Skies Over Seattle

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One morning, as I left home it was still dark, but it was just getting to the time when the sun was due to creep above the horizon. As I headed south, I got treated to a wonderful red glow in the sky. Even better, there was a nice lenticular cloud sitting over the summit of Mt Rainier which was catching the morning light very nicely. There was no way that I was going to miss out on this unless the light changed so quickly that I could get somewhere to take the shot. Fortunately, that was not a problem, and the sky stayed looking great for quite some time. Mornings like this are rather special and are something to appreciate here.

A Brief Moment with Great Light

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I was swinging past SEA one morning and, as I got closer, the sun was not much above the horizon and still below a solid cloud layer. I could see that departing planes were catching the light really well and diverted off my planned route to see if I could get a couple of shots. Things immediately went wrong as I got in a turning lane at the lights behind a coach. Two long cycles of the lights without our filter arrow turning green ate a ton of time up.  I eventually pulled out and turned right instead of left before making a U turn and coming back the way I originally wanted. By this time, I had missed a few interesting departures. I did get one Alaska 737 as it climbed out but, by the time it was level with me, it was in shadow. The next departure was almost totally shaded. The sun had risen enough to go behind the cloud bank. I went on my way, but I could have had some gorgeous light if the signals hadn’t screwed things up.

Sunrise on the Mountains

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The place we were staying in while in Canmore was on the edge of the town but had a great view across the town towards some of the mountains. The early light was from behind us and on to the mountains themselves. First thing one morning, I woke up and looked outside and saw some gorgeous red light illuminating the rock faces. What a wonderful sight with which to start your day.

Morning Tahoma

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An early morning flight was needed for a trip that I needed to take for work, and it was taking me south.  The departure time was before the sun was due up, but I hoped that I might get a view of Mt Rainier (also known as Tahoma) as we headed south so I had selected a seat on the left side of the plane.  The plan was a good one even if the quality of the window of the jet was not.  I have not seen such a scruffy window on an airliner in ages!  Some random repositioning of the lens to try different parts of the window resulted in some reasonable shots.  Nothing special but nice to get when you have to be up early anyway.

Sunsets and Sunrises Over the African Plains

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I may have spent a lot of time watching and photographing wildlife while we were in Kenya and Tanzania but the times of day when were out were early morning and late afternoon which meant that there were going to be sunrises and sunsets that I could photograph too.  We had quite the selection of lovely opportunities to take these shots and here are some of the images that I like the most.  We did also get some interesting skies with the light at either end of the day, but I shall give those moments their own posts.

Aloha Air Cargo 767

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A 767 freighter conversion made its way across the country and stopped off at Boeing Field recently.  Unfortunately, there was no way I was going to be able to get there to see it so I figured it was just one of those things I had missed.  However, not long after that, it showed up with a flight plan to SEA.  The flight plan was listed against Northern Air Cargo but the plane is marked for Aloha Air Cargo.  I was taking the day off and it was due in at the beginning of the day so I decided to head down to try and get a shot.

Sadly, the traffic was getting busy at SEA and, with plenty of departures and not too much on arrival, they put it on the outer runway.  It was a bit far out from where I was but I got some shots, although nothing too special.  I then saw it was coming back on the Sunday but this time it was due to land at 5:30.  With sunrise just after 5am, this would produce some good light.  However, I didn’t plan on getting up.

At 4:30 on Sunday morning, I woke up.  I thought this was an opportunity so decided to get up and head out.  At that time of the morning, no risk of traffic problems.  I got down there in good time and, while it was a few minutes early, I was ready for it.  The sun was barely up so the light was really excellent.  Also, with no departures at that time of the morning, they came in on the closer runway so a total win!

Winter Light on the Ferries

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I spent some time early one morning waiting for the return of a warship as covered in this post.  It was dark and rainy when I first got there but then the sun snuck under the clouds and the result was some very pleasing light.  I was down in Mukilteo which is the departure point for the ferry to Whidbey Island.  They leave every half hour and I was able to get a few departures while I waited and after the ship has passed through.  The white superstructure of the ferries glowed in the morning light with the dark background of the island behind them.

Sunrise and Moonset

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I had to travel up to Blaine for an immigration interview early one morning.  The sun was just coming up as I headed north and the nearly full moon was setting on the other horizon.  The moon was sitting just above the mountains of the Olympics and looked stunning.  Sadly, I was on the interstate so no option to get a photo.  I did eventually manage to find a spot to pull off near Mt Vernon and was able to get some photos.  The angle of elevation made it look a little higher in the sky and this far north there were some clouds on the horizon obscuring the mountains so it wasn’t quite what I was hoping for.  However, it still looked rather nice.

Sunrise over the Beach

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The sunsets at Tofino were beautiful and I included some shots of those in this post.  Sunrise was also pretty impressive.  Winter means the sun is pretty far south so the position it comes up is not so far off that in which it sets.  It does provide a very different light to things with some of the headlands that we could see from the hotel now having nice light on them.  When you wake up to a view like this out of your hotel window, you know you are a lucky guy and are likely to have a good day!