WC #336 - Solstice Dawn

Last night at around 9:30, I began looking out my window at the shadows creeping their way up Thunder Mountain and exclaiming every few minutes, "someone should be out taking pictures!" My wife and brother, who have had their fill of photography related shenanigans in the last forty-eight hours agreed, but I made it no further than the driveway. I stood out there just after 10:00 marveling at the last alpenglow on the summit and the delicate clouds floating across the bright sky.

Four hours later, my brother left for home, and my wife had long since been sleeping. At 2:00, I just couldn't think of enough reasons not to grab my camera and head out into the night. My first inclination was to chase some clear skies on the horizon to make long exposures as the clouds moved in, but the clouds got to the end of the road before I did. After some unsatisfying experimentation, I was ready to give up and head home, but all night long there was a tinge of light on the bottoms of the clouds in the northern sky. I made it to the location I recorded this image just in time to prepare for the night's best performance.

The photo presents the hight of the color, which took place between 3:41 and 3:42. The sunlight never touched land as the clouds filled gaps and brought a morning rain. Upon returning home, it took uploading all the new photos in a dark room to convince my body that is was not time to be awake. I took a morning nap at 4:30. Last night is what the summer solstice is all about for me: one day blending into another with no real breaks in between. Far from the arctic circle, we have no midnight sun in Juneau, but on clear days, we don't have much of a night either.

D2x at ISO 100
18-70dx at 18mm
Manual blend of 5 exposures at f/14 so details got unfortunately soft in some places, but after a long PP session, it was finally ready.

Thanks for looking and reading. Enjoy the longest day of the year!