First light and last light always tend to be the sweetest light. Having observed many photographers during professional workshops and on location where at times even a hundred or more photographers may show up I have noticed that photographers tend to stand around waiting for the sweet light to appear. However, why wait? The light just before sunrise is often very nice as well. There may not be sweet light yet, but the light is soft and very shootable.

          There are some challenges to shooting before sunrise. It is darker so focusing may be a problem. For the same reason it may be more difficult to compose, especially in darker areas. You need to shoot at longer shutter speeds in order to get enough light to make a well exposed image. With such long shutter speeds wind can ruin your focus (because plants and leaves move in the wind). Here are some tips to help you shoot before sunrise.

• Locations with less plants work best; rocks do not tend to move when the wind blows.

• High deserts work well to because the plants (little rain is only attractive to more robust plants) tend to be more rigid and therefore also do not move as much.

• Pull out your flashlight, shine where you want to focus and focus there. Without your flashlight your camera may not be able to focus in such dark conditions.

• Use live view to compose. The image will not look good in live view (it will be full of ugly grain and noise because the camera has cranked up the ISO to be able to produce the image, but do not worry your image will not look like this) but hey, at least you can see the basics to compose.

• Work quickly in live view. You don't want to leave live view on for too long as your sensor will heat up causing noise when you actually shoot.

• Looooong exposures can only be done on a study tripod.

• Looooong exposures will often exceed your light meter's 30 second limit which means you need to set your camera on Bulb. You do not want to be touching your camera all the time while it is shooting in order to keep the shutter open in Bulb. This will cause camera shake which ruins focus. So make sure to use your cable release instead.

          Here is an example of what you can get before sunrise:

          Go attempt some shots before sunrise.