Sunrise over the Trail

I had another of those nights: up by 3 and mostly awake for up to an hour before that. I passed an hour or two listening an audio book. Eventually, I saw dawn breaking and thought to go out and try a sunrise photoshoot that I'd had in mind for about a year.

The Trans Canada Trail, now officially The Great Trail, passes near our place, so it didn't take much of a drive to get to the spot that I had in mind. 

From Wikipedia

The Trans Canada Trail, officially named The Great Trail between September 2016 and June 2021 is a cross-Canada system of greenways, waterways, and roadways that stretches from the Atlantic to the Pacific to the Arctic oceans. The trail extends over 24,000 km (15,000 mi); it is now the longest recreational, multi-use trail network in the world. The idea for the trail began in 1992, shortly after the Canada 125 celebrations. Since then it has been supported by donations from individuals, corporations, foundations, and all levels of government.

The sky was a little too blank for a topnotch sunrise photo, but of course, I fired away regardless. I mean, if I am going to be in place by 5AM, then I am going to try to come home with something. This ↓ is my first at a moderate telephoto distance, just before the sun came directly into view.

Here it comes in a closer zoom. The sun is beginning to light the trail.

It's over the trail now; I am using a long zoom. I think this is my favourite photo of the four. 

You see the problem, don't you? Although I blended a dark and lighter exposure in all of these photos, the sun is still blown out. This is not necessarily a terrible thing, but had there been a little more cloud cover, it may have turned out better – not too much cloud though, otherwise we'd obscure the sun. Picky picky. 😎

I took one more photo: horizontal, with the sun just slightly higher.

While I had wanted the sun right in the middle, directly over the trail, it was getting so bright that I decided not to hang around any longer. I think I should have, but I get impatient, which is not a good thing for a would-be photographer.

Maybe I will try again someday. I wonder what conditions will be like at the actual solstice. In some years I have gone out for a solstice sunrise, but it will depend on weather and sleep.

Whatever happens, I am glad that I made the effort to finally carry out what had been in my mind for some time.