Timeline - Alarm: 3:53 am, Woke up: 4:07 am, In car: 4:22 am, At Cadillac: 4:38 am, Sunrise: 5:20 am.
The sky looked very promising for a beautiful sunrise as we drove up Cadillac Mountain in Acadia National Park this morning. Sure enough, there was a nice blanket of clouds glowing red as the sun rose above the horizon. I took this shot using a 3-stop neutral density reverse gradient filter (handheld). There's a brief window of a couple minutes to capture the sun just at the edge of the horizon. After that the light changes immediately and the moment is gone. So I like to arrive about 40 minutes early to: scout a location, set up, and have all the camera settings adjusted to capture the moment. This was the last MDI Photo Club outing of the season and a very successful one at that! Some Cadillac Mountain sunrises are spectacular, while others are ho-hum, thankfully today's was extra-spectacular. To learn how to create images like this, consider taking one of my nature photography workshops in Acadia National Park.
EXIF data: Nikon D800, 16-35mm @ 16mm, f/22, 2 sec, ISO 100, 5/3/14, 5:18 AM
Sunrise, Cadillac Mountain, Acadia National Park, Maine