Bandon Sunrise 11-28-08

As I was driving south from North Bend to Port Orford early this morning, I noticed a very nice sunrise glow already starting to appear to the east. I soon realized that I wasn't going to make it there in time for sunrise, and sped south on 101 as fast as I could to try and catch what looked like a spectacular show in the making. By the time I crossed the Coquille River bridge North of Bandon, the sky was absolutely on fire from horizon to horizon, and I was fighting the urge to just pull over and make the best shot that I could from the roadside. I decided that would be a waste, and kept going until Bandon, where I flew into the parking lot and raced to the edge of the cliffs to get a shot overlooking the beach looking to the south.

This sunrise was probably in the top 2 or 3 that I have ever witnessed in my life. The best had already happened by the time I arrived in Bandon. The photo shown here is virtually strait from the camera. Only a slight bit of fill light to bring some detail out of the stacks, plus my regular web presentation workflow.

I talked with several people I know along the coast today, and many of them witnessed the sunrise from as far south as brookings, and north to florence. I hope someone else was out there with their camera in a better position than I was.

A very hasty composition with:
40D
f/13
3.2 sec
@60mm
iso200
2 stop grad
and tons of regret for sleeping in...

Sounds like quite a light show Aaron. Glad you were able to catch a piece of it. I like this shot a lot. You did a great job controlling the exposure. Congrat on a nice shot.

Aaron, this is gorgeous. I can imagine what the peak of the light must have looked like. And to think you literally flew into the parking lot and threw up your rig in a flash in order to pull this off is quite a feat! Lesson learned for me here... I'm keeping my tripod in the van in a semi-ready-to-go state from now on.

I have been to this location many times and never witnessed a sunrise here like this. I usually stay at the table rock hotel which is a little south of where this was taken. from the hotel, it's a quick juant down the stairs and those rock formationa are right there. Very cool shot.

This is another valuable anecdote for us about keeping our gear close at hand for the unexpected...
Way to go, Aaron, for the great capture. A keeper for sure, my only nit is the comp feels a bit left-heavy.

Beautiful moment captured, Aaron. Love the contrasting warm/ cool colors.

Wow, nice going, Aaron! Dramatic color for sure!

I was in Garibaldi and unfortunately got out to take photos about 5 minutes before all the color of the sunrise disappeared so I only got one so so shot which could have been much better had I been there 10 minutes earlier. I do think you had a more vibrant sky farther south. I was very disappointed this weekend because the weather report on thursday was saying partly cloudy through the weekend and then it ended up overcast and rainy until sunday when I had to head back to portland.

GORGEOUS!!!!