If you're around photography very long, you'll hear people talk about the 'golden hour.' This refers to the time around sunset when outdoor photographers liking working. The color of the light is warmer and there is much less contrast between sunlit areas and shadows. During the middle of the day, colors are washed out and shadows become very dark or even black. (Personally this is when I tend to shoot with black and white film but even then the contrast can be a problem.) Technically of course there are really two 'golden hours': one in the morning and one in the evening......but it takes extra dedication to be up and ready to shoot right at dawn!
However, I'm sure I'm not the only photographer that tends to take most of my shots in an even more narrow window- in the very few minutes right around sunrise or sunset. I've got a series of shots taken at the San Rafael Reef in Utah right at sunrise as storm clouds rolled in. The shots were taken just a few minutes apart, but look amazingly different.
This particular shot was taken near the Agua Canyon Overlook at Bryce Canyon National Park. I went to this same area on 2 or 3 mornings in a row before I finally found the right location. I took a quick roll of 120 film (10 shots) on my trusty old Pentax 67 camera just as the sun peeked over the eastern horizon. Move too slowly, and the film can't handle the contrast in the lighting. If you expose properly for the east-facing cliffs, the shadows will be too dark, and if you try to keep detail in the shadows, sunlit cliffs will be blown out. In this case, it really was a 'golden minute.'
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