I'm Up Before the Sun

Yeah I know, it almost never happens. This morning I was up (and awake!) at around 6:00 because I love to stand outside and freeze in the pre-dawn, sub-zero polar wind gusts with a camera in my hands, waiting for the sun to peak above the horizon and shed some rosy light on snow-laden Mt. St. Helens. (But I begin to wax poetic...) That was some serious cold! Of course once I got over the sensation that my fingers were going to say goodbye any moment, it was all worth it. :)


The sunrise was a watercolor painting (done on Arches 300 lb. cold-pressed paper, using New Gamboge, Alizarin Crimson, Cobalt Blue and maybe a touch of Raw Sienna with a #12 Winsor and Newton sable flat... ;) Very beautiful, though subtle at first.






After delivering a truckload of firewood to a family from church, I still had about 45 minutes to burn before class, so I revisited one of my favorite local parks, Klineline Pond, to photograph the waterfowl, specifically Widgeon and Canada Geese. There was frost on nearly everything. The ducks were a pleasure to work with--they're quite tame from all the exposure to humans at the park. Even though the sun did very little to penetrate the cold, the light at that time of morning is hard to beat and worth getting up early to enjoy.