Sunrise on the West Fork

Sunrise on the West Fork is late fall along the Trinity River is a great time of the year and day.  The fall colors add something to the river.  The fall is also a good time for a little bit of morning fog, especially around water and the river valley will get just a touch to add atmosphere.  Then ass in morning light and it is my favorite time of the day to photograph.

Too often, I seemed to have cloudless mornings, but on a crisp morning in the late fall, I could see a few clouds in the sky and hoped they might make for a good sunrise.  I got to the overlook above the river and knew it was going to be a better image down on the river and made my way down the hill in the dark.

I arrived at the Big Falls and knew I had made the right decision.  With the waterfall in the image and the sun rising beyond I had a great shot.  This is a place I have been many times as it is very close to home.  As I keep mentioning in this blog, it is also all but unknown.  That makes me like it all the more.

After getting a few images of the falls, I decided to get to the top of them to pick up more of an eastern view.  Up on the top I was able to frame up the river, the trees on the far shore, and the now peak of the sunrise colors for another nice view.

After working the view toward the sunrise, I turned southwest and worked the river and a few clouds to see if I could get a decent photograph looking upstream and produced this third image for my efforts.

As the dramatic reds and oranges faded into the colors of daylight, I continued to look for images and angles I could work.  After another hour I called it a morning.  When reviewing the images at home, I found it was those few minutes with amazing light from the sunrise that held my attention and these became the three I liked best.