I headed out to Lake Casitas before dawn to chase a quick little sunrise and put a vintage Pentax Super Multi Coated Takumar on my Canon R5. I framed the scene on purpose with the fence in the foreground, because I like having something up close to anchor the shot while the light comes up over the lake. It was cold—about 40 degrees—and it’s always funny how you get colder and colder just standing there waiting. Between a nearby generator and cars ripping by, it wasn’t exactly “silent nature,” but the lake still made it feel special. Gear-wise, I’m shooting at infinity and I ran an ND filter so I could slow the light down and drag the shutter a bit. I usually live around f/11 for this kind of thing, but today I went to f/16. I also recorded some video on the R5 while I waited, then switched over to stills when it was almost time—because you really do get one chance, and it lasts about two or three seconds and it’s gone. After the sun popped, I wrapped it up and planned to go look for eagles and whatever wildlife might be moving around the lake.