I recently drove up from Menlo Park to Bend, Oregon to participate in a weekend landscape photography workshop led by Sean Bagshaw and Zack Schnepf. The workshop started on Friday evening – so I headed north on Thursday around mid-day planning to stop for an overnight in Redding, California. But I got to Redding a bit after 3 PM and realized that I might as well press on and try to get up to the Klamath Falls area that evening – which would shorten my drive to Bend on Friday morning. (Checkout my iPhone shots of the amazing Sundial Bridge in Redding!)
I quickly changed hotel reservations – an iPhone is amazing for this kind of on the go adjustment! – and booked myself into a Klamath Falls hotel (Shilo Inn). I got to the hotel after 6 PM and initially thought I might be able to catch the sunset at Crater Lake that evening – but it turned out to be just too long a drive. So, instead, I decided to hit the sack early and try to get up early to head to Crater Lake for some sunrise shooting.
This image is one of the shots from that sunrise visit to Crater Lake. By the time I’d taken this shot – a few minutes after 6 AM – the sun had been up for about a half hour. I entered Crater Lake on the south side of the national park and drove up around the west side along the rim. I came across this particular venue and was taken a bit aback by the sunlight coming in from the left and lighting these trees, that marvelous dead tree and the rocks on this hillside.