by hankinslawrenceimages | Jan 24, 2010 | Photo Locations
Bill and I had the opportunity to photograph a wonderful sunrise at Bombay Hook National Wildlife Refuge yesterday morning. Bombay Hook NWR is located in Smyrna, Delaware – just outside of Dover. It’s about 100 miles from Washington, DC – a nice easy drive. We’ve been to Bombay Hook a couple of times, and we will definitely head back there again.
We photographed sunrise from at Shearness Pool. We parked at stop #4 on the Auto Tour. From this spot, you can photograph out across the marshes to where the sun is rising, and catch the light the early morning light on the pond. It’s a wonderful place.
I started out photographing some of the trees in the distance – near where the sun was going to rise. The sky was filled with wonderful soft colors.
Each year thousands of Snow Geese spend the winter at Bombay Hook NWR. In the morning, you can see them take off from the water in large groups and they seem to fill the sky. Here is one of the groups taking flight in the early morning light.
As the sun rose above the horizon, I started looking in the direction of where the early morning light would be hitting Shearness Pool. I spotted a group of marsh grasses and thought they might offer some neat photographic opportunities. It was pretty windy yesterday morning – so the grasses were continually moving. As the golden light lit them up, they looked to be dancing the early morning light and wind.
As I photographed the marsh grasses, I heard a red winged black bird nearby. In the morning at Bombay Hook there is a wonderful peaceful silence – broken only by the sound of the birds as the new day in the marsh begins – geese taking flight in large numbers, ducks and swans on the pond, songbirds starting their sounds.
After sunrise, Bill and I headed back into town for breakfast and then returned to Bombay Hook to do some exploring. We saw lots of birds as we drove around the refuge, including some spectacular bald eagles soaring through the trees. At the pond just before the Allee House I photographed a few additional marsh grasses. By then, the sun was much higher in the sky so the grasses appeared to be light tan and white. What I loved was the contrast of the light colors of the marsh grasses against the deep blues and blacks of the water in the pond.
Bombay Hook NWR is a wonderful place to photograph. I’m looking forward to visiting it in the spring when the marsh and woodland wildflowers will be in bloom. My guess is that it will be spectacular.
by hankinslawrenceimages | Jan 17, 2010 | Photo Locations
Bill and I headed over to Blackwater National Wildlife Refuge in Cambridge, Maryland to photograph sunrise the other day. Blackwater is one of our favorite wildlife refuges to visit. We always see a variety of wildlife and for some reason – always manage to photograph a wonderful sunrise. This trip was no exception.
Our current favorite spot for sunrise is actually just outside the refuge boundries. We usually head to the bridge just past the intersection of Wildlife Drive and Golden Hill Road (Rt 335). From here, you get a wonderful view of the west end of the refuge. There’s a small parking lot at the boat ramp where you can safely park your car. And since we’re outside the refuge boundries, we don’t have to wait for the gate to open to get to where we want to set up our tripods.
As the sky began to lighten, about 30 minutes before sunrise, we were treated to a magnificent display of pink, orange and blue. The best way to describe the sunrise was peaceful.
(c) 2010 Patty Hankins
The contrast of the soft colors and the silhouette of the trees on the island was wonderful. As we photographed the sunrise, we could hear the snow geese taking off from the ponds in the middle of the refuge. Every now and then, we’d see them circling in the distance.
(c) 2010 Patty Hankins
We were a little surprised at how low the water levels were in the marsh. When the area lightened up enough to see just how low the water levels were, I started to see some wonderful patterns in the wet sand and water. They reminded me of some of the patterns I had photographed in Death Valley on the Playa.
(c) 2010 Patty Hankins
As the sun rose above the horizon, I realized that these patterns in the sand might be incredible if I could capture them in the golden light just after sunrise. So we waited. In a little while the magic happened and some of the patterns in the sand were bathed in some incredible light. It was one of those mornings when the amazing light happens shortly after sunrise.
(c) 2010 Patty Hankins
Once we finished photographing outside the refuge, we headed in for a quick trip around the wildlife drive. We saw all sorts of birds – snow geese, ducks, canada geese, some song birds and several bald eagles. Most of them were far enough away that even with my long lens the birds would have been mere dots in the photos. I did spot one red-winged blackbird in the marsh grass near the side of the road, so I stopped and took a few photos of him.
(c) 2010 Patty Hankins
(c) 2010 Patty Hankins
Blackwater National Wildlife Refuge is a wonderful place to visit. It’s located in Cambridge, Maryland, less than 100 miles from Washington, DC. So it’s an easy overnight trip for us. It’s also a great place to stop if we’re heading to Chincoteague National Wildlife Refuge or the Assateague Island National Seashore. I’m sure we’ll be visiting there again in the near future and I can only hope that our string of fantastic sunrises at Blackwater continues.
by hankinslawrenceimages | Jan 3, 2010 | New Mexico, Photo Locations
Last month while Bill and I were in New Mexico we had the chance to photograph an incredible sunrise at Bosque del Apache National Wildlife Refuge near Socorro. This was one of locations we photographed at as part of Alain and Natalie Briot’s Bosque del Apache and White Sands workshop.
Our first morning at Bosque was December 5 – and the only way to describe the weather was freezing cold. It was something like 12 degrees – before the wind chill. Fortunately, we had packed our heavy winter coats, long underwear, gloves and hats for the trip. We’d also stopped off at a local store to pick up some hand an feet warmers. Even with all this preparation – it was freezing cold standing outside for a couple of hours for sunrise.
But it was worth it. This sunrise at Bosque was one of the most beautiful sunrises I saw in 2009. The sky was an everchanging array of colors and clouds. The marsh was frozen. The best way to describe it was a contrast of fire in the sky – and ice on the ground. All morning – the colors in the sky were reflected on the ice.
We were photographing from an overlook known as the Flight Deck. This location is very popular with people who are visiting Bosque to see the birds. Each night – thousands of birds overnight in the ponds and marshes of the refuge. Many of the geese and cranes spend the nights near the Flight Deck. So in the morning just before dawn, there is an incredible moment when thousands of birds take off, circle around the sky, and head off to spend the day foraging for food. We were fortuate enough to see this the morning we were at the Flight Deck.
As the sun’s rays began to peek above the horizon, the light reflected off the clouds making the sky look like it was on fire.
(c) 2010 Patty Hankins
When the snow geese took flight – they filled the air. Seeing the huge group of the flying was incredible. I’d heard how wonderful it was to see the birds take flight from the marsh at Bosque, but until I saw it in person – I had no idea how magnificent it could be.
(c) 2010 Patty Hankins
As the sun continued to rise – the clouds higher in the sky took on amazing shades of pink.
(c) 2010 Patty Hankins
When I realized how beautiful the entire sky was lighting up, I turned and looked 180 degrees away from where the sun was coming up. The opposite was bathed in a beautiful golden light – with pale pink clouds in the sky
(c) 2010 Patty Hankins
And finally, some of the marsh grasses frozen in the ice. One of the amazing aspects of the morning was how the colors in the sky were reflected in the ice.
(c) 2010 Patty Hankins
Once the sun was up – we headed back into town for breakfast. Everyone drank lots of coffee or tea as we attempted to warm up. I have no idea when I’ll next get back to Bosque del Apache, but I know I will head back there one day and I can only hope to see another sunrise as magnificent as the one I saw in December 2009.
by hankinslawrenceimages | Feb 15, 2009 | Death Valley & the Alabama Hills, Photo Locations
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!
by hankinslawrenceimages | Dec 22, 2008 | Death Valley & the Alabama Hills, Photo Locations
The morning after we photograped sunset at Zabriskie Point, we returned to the same spot to photograph sunrise. At sunset, we watched and photographed the rocks as they went from direct light to shade. In the morning, we saw the light come across and highlight the rocks as the sun rose. Here are a few of my photos from sunrise.
Early on, the hills were not lit directly and the sky was wonderful soft colors of pink and blue.
(c) 2008 Patty Hankins
As the sun rose, the first place the direct light lit up was the mountains across the valley. The sky quickly turned very pale, so I’ve cropped it out of most of the photos.
(c) 2008 Patty Hankins
And then we watched and photographed as the light moved across the landscape directly in front of us.
(c) 2008 Patty Hankins
(c) 2008 Patty Hankins
(c) 2008 Patty Hankins
Our morning at Zabriskie Point was a good reminder that sometimes the best light is after the sun is up – when the gorgeous morning light moves across the landscape. There was so much more to this sunrise than just the soft colors in the sky before the sun came up.
