Sunrise at Shiprock

The final day of our labor day vacation, I got up for sunrise and drove from Farmington, NM to Shiprock. The thunderstorms the night before left some nice clouds through the night and made driving unfamiliar dirt roads with mud holes in the dark kinda fun.

I got as far up the road I was on as my nerves could stand about 45 minutes before sunrise. It was beautiful.

This first shot shows some of the great color to the east. Unfortunately I didn't have anything to put in the foreground.

As the sun broke the horizon it was below a thin layer and the light was really orange. The clouds were moving pretty fast but luckily there wasn't any wind on the ground.
Shiprock is very majestic from the south.

Canon 20D, Tamron 28-75 f2.8

After shooting for 20-30 minutes the sun was high above the horizon but still in and out behind cloud layers. I figured the best light was over so I started packing my gear up and loading the 4Runner. All of a sudden the sun broke out again and Shiprock lit up. I hurriedly snapped one frame hand held then ran back to get my tripod and shot while the light lasted. I'm glad I caught it! I only wish I'd gone back into the long grass.

Canon 20D, Tamron 28-75 f2.8

Shoulda, Coulda, Woulda
As I was driving in and watching the sky lighten, knowing the sunrise was going to be great, I really wanted to get to the west of Shiprock to shoot into the sunrise. But being unfamiliar with the roads and the dicey nature of the muddy sections, I wasn't able to. There is a very cool volcanic spine to the west of Shiprock that would have been a good setting to shoot from.

For fun, and to kinda visualize what it might have been like if I'd been able to get into the position I invisioned, I threw together this quick composite. It's a hack and entirely the wrong perspective on the monolith, but an interesting hint of what could have been.

Yeah, this just reinforces my belief that there are some killer comps to be had of Shiprock if your willing to put in some time studying the possibilities and then give yourself some opportuinities. I really like that angle you got with the grass, Kalin--clouds aint half bad either!

I especially like #2 nice shot, the horizon looks to be tilting to the left a little bit though, or is that a natural slope

Nice shots! Shiprock certainly is an impressive formation, and you captured it very nicely! I really like the light and the feathery clouds in the third image.

I like your shots, Kalin. My first thought on viewing these was B&W or IR. How close can one get to Shiprock? Is it on public land?

Excellent Kalin. The shiprock shot with grass is top notch.

Kalin, I like them all but I actually like the composite the best.

Thanks for the comments, guys.

Laurent Martres' "Photographing the Southwest, Vol 3" really helped for this shoot (as it usually does). I didn't have the chance to scout the access or any locations so I was going completely off of Laurent's descriptions, which were good.
It appears that Shiprock is on public land, at least there were no gates or other restrictions. I think it is on Navajo reservation land. I drove West on Red Valley rd from Hwy 491. Just before passing the volcanic spine that I mentioned there is a road that heads north towards Shiprock. I drove that road for 2-3 miles and got within 1/2 mile or so of Shiprock. The road continued and according to Laurent's description takes you to I-64 to the north but gets bad before it gets better. There was a small spur road heading NW from where I was. Based on the small roads and the tracks I saw, it looked like access was pretty open.

I've seen a lot of Shiprock compositions, but never one using the tall grass as the foreground.
It works very, very well here!
The second one is pretty sweet with the sun angle and the clouds.
I'd say you had a very successful morning there!

Shiprock is actually on Navajo Nation lands...not public at all!
That road is used quite often by photographers though, and I've never known any of them to ever be hassled about using it for access.

The grass and shiprock comp is awesome.

Indeed, the grass and shiprock is my favorite as as well - great clouds. A 2x3 ratio (crop off the left) might enhance the image.

Interesting idea on the crop, Jesse. Here is the cropped version. I didn't want to center in the original shot, but I like the crop too. Thanks for the suggestion.

The second image of Shiprock is great. The lighting and clouds really make this work.