Sierra Ponce Sunrise

After a late night photographing the Milky Way, I was up and out early to photograph Santa Elena Canyon.  A low cloud was forming right along the rim of the Sierra Ponce Wall at the entrance to the canyon.  

I have been here many times for sunrise but this was something I had never seen.  

The river was still up and flowing muddy and quick.  Terlingua Creek was still a mud hole too.  I made my way to the edge of the river where I could frame up the entrance to the canyon.  I had both my Canon 5D Mark II with the Bower 14mm as well as the Sony NEX6 with the Rokinon fisheye.  I wanted to be able to get wide and I was hoping the canyon entrance would light up with incredible colors.

The canyon lit up but and there was also light down the length of the Sierra Ponce Wall.  This is a big long cliff.  A 24mm lens horizontal cannot see the top.  A 17mm lens barely gets the canyon entrance.  The fisheye was the lens that really took it all in.

I took images with both cameras but kept going back to the huge view the fisheye could take in.

And even that was not big enough!!

I finally ended up with two images.  Both from the fisheye but neither being able to capture everything.

The top image was one I was able to capture the sun, the wall and the edge of the canyon but I had to do a second image to get the entire canyon, but then lost the sun off the edge of the frame.  I just could not get it all in one.

The obvious answer would be to stitch several shots but I did not have the right lens for that and stayed with what I had.

I photographed until the sun went into the clouds and the light was lost.  I walked away with muddy boots and many frames to look through.  It was another great sunrise experience at Santa Elena Canyon and why I keep coming back here year after year-trip after trip.