Location:Â Craggy Pinnacle Blue Ridge Parkway Milepost 364
A lovely sunrise taken from the peak of Craggy Pinnacle, milepost 364
Camera: Nikon D3100
Lens: Nikkor 18-105
Focal Length: 38mm
ISO: 100
Shutter: 1/80
Aperture: f/16
Filters: circular polarizer
Exposure: Aperture Priority
How I Got This Shot: When I captured this image in July 2011, I had used an SLR for a grand total of five months – I was definitely still in my learning stage then. I just enjoyed the thrill of climbing to the top of Craggy Pinnacle and seeing the incredible view around me – the sun rising over Mount Mitchell to the east, and a sea of fog to the west.
If I had a chance to shoot this one again I’d have shot a bit more wide open – I’ve found my sharpest images tend to be between f/8 and f/11 for the lenses I use. I also would have shot manual rather than aperture priority, and I would manually focus rather than depend on the D3100’s shaky auto-focus. I’ve upgraded to a D7000 since then, and it is a far superior camera in every way.
Having said all that, the D3100’s auto white balance tended to produce warm sunrises and sunsets, so when I found this image, unedited, on an old flash drive a week ago, I left the white balance as is when I went to edit it on Adobe Camera RAW, then on Lightroom. Other than some noise removal (the D3100 didn’t exactly produce clean images, even at low ISO speeds), the image looks more or less as it did out of camera. Not a perfect image, but certainly nice enough for the limited knowledge I had at the time.
Another thing: always keep your old RAW files, as you never know – you might find a hidden gem or two as I did with this one.
For More Information
- Additional photographs by Solitary Traveler Photography
- Categories where this photo is found: Blue Ridge Parkway, Mountain Horizons, Sunrises & Sunsets