It’s hard to tell what is better, a Ketchikan sunrise, or a Ketchikan moon set. Luckily, you usually see them at the same time.
One of the fun perks of my job is the ability to travel to new beautiful places for weddings, and this year I went with my good friend Barbie Hull to a wedding in Ketichikan, Alaska. Barbie is from Ketchikan, but it was my first trip to anywhere in Alaska. Where they say it rains and rains and rains there, we were fortunate to get 5 full days of sunny and 70.  On the non wedding event days, we got to play tourist (because Barbie is awesome), and she was down for some early morning landscape photography. One of the fun ways that taking pictures is purely for art for me.

Up and at’em at 3 am (yep… sunset at 10, sunrise at 3:30), we went chasing the sunrise. Mostly we ended up finding the beautiful moon set and , almost where the road comes to an end, we found the sunrise as well. The light was soft, the colors muted, the moon slowly going behind the horizon, while we were seeing the light of the sunrise rolling over the hills.

While 3 am is more likely to see me going to sleep after a long night of editing, this was a worthwhile flip of my schedule. Now to decide on what image to display in my home!

Keywords: Ketchikan Sunrise, July, Alaska, Rebecca Ellison Photography, landscape, rocky beach, ocean, sunrise, mountains, panorama