Davis Sunrise

I shared an iPhone image of this scene and my camera setup on social media while I was on vacation a couple of weeks ago. Although I love my iPhone, it’s no substitute for a good DSLR when trying to capture a low light scene with sunrise.

I had done some research on this location before I made the trip to the Davis Mountains with the intention of capturing sunrise if the weather cooperated. A storm had moved through during the night and when I got up to the CCC Overlook in Davis Mountains State Park that morning there was still a storm off to the south. The skies to the east were clearing and the hope for a nice sunrise was good.

I considered doing an HDR image of the scene as I wasn’t sure my DSLR could capture all the information in this scene, but after creating an HDR image and editing a single image that I had exposed for the sky with, I went with the edited single image. I am continuously amazed with how far the sensors in today’s cameras have come in allowing you to capture a scene like this with one single image.

One of the things I love about the mountains in west Texas is all of the layers when you look out across the landscape and to me, this shot really shows off those layers nicely in the early morning light. Forested mountains are great, but I’ll take these wide open treeless views any day. And the fact that the Davis Mountains were as green as I have ever seen them didn’t hurt either.

If you ever find yourself in the Davis Mountains, I highly recommend taking in sunrise from the CCC Overlook in Davis Mountains State Park. Hopefully you'll be treated to a sunrise as glorious as this one was.
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