Late October is the perfect time for lazy landscape photographers like myself to capture sunrise images. The sun doesn't crest the horizon in New Hampshire until well after 7 a.m. which means I can stay in bed until 6 a.m. and still catch a local sunrise.

On this particular Sunday morning, I knew there was a chance for an interesting sunrise. Before heading to bed the night before I had checked the weather maps for cloud elevations and things looked favorable for some color. With sunrise at 7:15 a.m., I should be able to arrive on site in time for the "nautical sunrise" color that started around 6:40.

Though I had planned to photograph Manning Lake in Gilmanton, New Hampshire that morning, traveling to my destination brought me along the shore of Crystal Lake where I could see the color was already starting to appear in the eastern sky. This warranted a quick change of plans. The north end of Crystal Lake offered a great composition that could include the sunrise location as well as an interesting landscape. What started out as a typical magenta-tinted sunrise quickly faded to a blue/gray sunrise before bursting open with amber and yellow colors. The calm waters of Crystal Lake reflected the colors against the contrast of darker reflections of the forests and shoreline.

Suddenly, from the cove behind me, there was a commotion of flapping wings against the water as Canadian Geese took flight in the morning light. They were nice enough to fly right through my scene just as a beaver crossed the causeway in front of me. After years of trying, Nature finally cooperated in a most unexpected manner. But this morning was not all Peace and Tranquility. Follow the blog link to learn the back story of this morning's attempt to do Nature justice.