Lessons Learned: Pre-dawn light

Here's the quick formula for getting beautifully lit pictures every time:
 Be there an hour before sunrise.

As you're standing there all alone in the dark wondering why you listened to that fool at dptv, notice there's a glow on one side of the sky. While you're waiting for it to evolve into a full sunrise, listen to the birds and critters waking up. It's quite a symphony.

But keep your eyes on that ever-increasing glow. Then look in the other direction and see how it paints everything with color (usually a pale pink) like the clouds in this picture. You'll soon find yourself shooting in both directions as the glow gets brighter and more colorful, then the first rays reach out and spotlight the clouds before moving down to tree- and finally ground-level. That's a lot of beautiful light to play with!

In this image, sunlight has touched the clouds but not the water. The resulting cloud color reflects across the moving waves in a well-placed accent panel against the aquamarine seawater as the wave shapes carry the perspective line up the coast. Definitely a quieter composition.