location: owyhee reservoir
season: spring
backstory: one of the motivations of getting great light for landscapes is being up and ready for dawn. while i appreciate the golden values of sunset, dawn light is my inspiration.
this means waking way before dawn to eat, get to that already found great spot, set up and take some practice shots. then comes patience.
when first starting out, i didn't leave enough time for this pre-dawn process. i found myself hurried and missed some great opportunities. the movement of clouds, wind and many other variables form an intricate dance combining with dawn light.
an extra benefit of arriving early and setting up is the subtle beauty of dark night shifting to blue hour shifting to dawn light. each experience of this daily light transformation seems fascinating and fresh no matter how often i witness it. for a blue hour example see: foree at blue hour.
this photo is one of many from leslie gulch on the owyhee reservoir; see: setting sun/rising moon, starry night over leslie gulch, dago gulch by moonlight. compare this photo to the same scene under a full moon in starry night over leslie gulch for insight into how light influences a landscape.
for scenes like this one, it's easy to get up early and witness the unfolding beauty of dawn at leslie gulch.