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The image I shot this morning was planned out well in advance as it all started with a simple question. Does the sun ever rise right over Mt. Hood? The answer was inevitably yes and with that, I had to go! Wednesday was technically the best day with near perfect alignment, but I had work and Thursday would work out almost as well for the shot I had in mind. I have visited this location once before to scout it out when the conditions were much less than ideal giving me the vision for what I wanted the image to be.
The moment the sun appeared around the mountain.
I did not know how the actual light conditions would behave. As the sun rose it created a weird shadow above the peak that moved with the sun. It was truly a bizarre event as it rotated opposite of the sun around the peak. The other thing was just how quickly the sun would move across the scene while I shot. I knew the exact minute it would appear, but what I didn't know is that I had about 10-15 seconds to shoot before it was too large and flaring more than I would like. I got the shot in the end though, and what an image it is when processed and finished!
Taken just a couple seconds after the sun had originally appeared. The flare had already grown a substantial amount to the size I had envisioned when planning.