I woke early today to go out for a sunrise shoot / scouting mission. My routine is pretty set. The night before I plan on shooting I put my clothing in the kitchen so that I can dress there in the morning. That way I won’t have to disturb Laura at 5:30am while I bumble about in the dark, looking for another layer to stave off the early morning chill. I get up, give a visual inspection of the sky, looking for holes in the clouds, and then I check the internet weather report. An hour or so before sunrise I am in my truck, heading… somewhere. I usually don’t know where I am heading. I take a breath and ask myself Where? Then I head in a direction, continuing to ask Where? as I drive along, slowly honing in on where Where is. Then it is huffing camera gear from the truck to some location worth exploring.
Today it was the Fremont Bridge from just downriver. I found a nice spot along the Willamette to set up my tripod and shoot the sunrise. I will usually try a spot for enough time to get my shots or until I get pulled to find another Where. This morning the sky was cloudy but I did get a hint of pink breaking through for a short spell. Once the clouds closed up again I headed off to my new Where?
I headed off down river, through the industrial ports that line the Willamette, looking for Where? but not sure if I would find it again. And then I did. I stumbled across a group of 8 deer grazing along some train tracks. I was able to quietly approach them and they let me take photos for about 20-30 minutes. Very unconcerned with me and what I was up to for the most part. Here is one of my favorites from this encounter.
By 8:30am I was headed back home, quite thankful for the morning shoot and what I found when I went looking for Where?
