Green Mountains Sunrise, Vermont I've had several posts in my blog here about how I like going back to the same places over and over to look for new opportunities. That also makes the locations stick in my brain and then when an opportunity comes up (sunrise, sunset, moon rise, moon set, fog, snow, etc.) it is easier to know where to head.

This time in Vermont was very different. The night before, I enjoyed a beautiful sunset view from a mountain side overlooking the valleys and lower ridges below. That view alone was enough to convince me that the only right thing to do was to set the alarm for 5 AM the next morning and head out to seek sunrise from down below. I wanted to get a sunrise over Mt. Mansfield but that's really not that easy to do away from home without the location know how. I read some pointers before leaving but those quickly proved to lack detail.

Anyway, When I headed out that morning I got more than I was hoping for. There was a dense fog all around filling the valleys and covering everything with a gorgeous veil. My problem was finding a location that could bring that veil to life. Not knowing the area proved to be quite a bit of a challenge and I wasted much of the densest fog and watched the sun rise over the distant peaks and burn it off. As I gradually left the bigger roads for smaller ones, I eventually ended up on some beautiful dirt roads through the countryside and at one point, I crossed a crest and this view opened up in front of me.

At that point, I had pretty much given up on a sunrise shoot and was simply soaking in the mountains and enjoying the quickly disappearing fog. So something like this was a gift, an unexpected but much appreciated gift. This was the first photo from that morning after more than an hour of driving around.

Now that I have been there and know the basic geographical features, I want to go back and improve on my first trip and add to my collection.

Have fun exploring new places as well as revisiting your old ones!