On our last morning in California, we headed out from Lone Pine to the Alabama Hills for sunrise. We were hoping to not only photograph the sunrise, but also the mountains through some of the rock arches.

It was a very cold morning with a bit of a hike in the dark to get to where we were going to be photographing from. But it was worth it.

Here’s the mountains to the east of us, as the sky was lighting up from the rising sun.

(c) 2009 Patty Hankins

Most of the group photographed  through one of the larger arches. Natalie showed a couple of us a smaller arch, where we could get great photos of Mt. Whitney framed by the arch. Here’s Mt. Whitney is purple and pink dawn light.

(c) 2009 Patty Hankins

As the sun rose, the light on the mountains was incredible. The arch made a perfect frame for the photo.

(c) 2009 Patty Hankins

A little ways down the hill from the arch, I had a great view of the light moving across the mountains and the rocks. The contrast of the colors between the rocks that were lit by the sun and those that were still in shadow was fascinating.

(c) 2009 Patty Hankins

Once the sun was fully up, the rocks lit up in amazing shades of gold, yellow and orange.

(c) 2009 Patty Hankins

As I was packing up my gear (and ready to head back into town for breakfast) I noticed that Bill and Alain were still up on the rocks photographing the mountains. It was so windy that morning that Bill only used his digital camera, he never took his large format camera out of the case.

(c) 2009 Patty Hankins

The sunrise and early morning photo shoot was a perfect ending to our trip to Death Valley and the Alabama Hills. We had a fantastic time with Alain and Natalie Briot, and all of the other photographers on the trip. Hopefully, we’ll see some of them again in December when we attend Alain and Natalie’s White Sands and Bosque del Apache workshop!