Alpine sunrise in Laws. Just moments after the alpine sunrise, the crew of the Southern Pacific's Locomotive #18 prepares to take their chunky Baldwin 10-wheeler to the depot in the yard at Laws, California, to pick up the freight consist they will take south to Keeler. The sunrise sequence in the Owens River Valley is an interesting phenomenon. First, there is the astronomical sunrise, which first lights the sky, but the mountains to the east and the valley floor remain in shadow. Then, as the sunlight is diffracted through the atmosphere, a pink glow, known as "alpenglow" begins to light the peaks of the Sierra to the west. This is followed shortly by actual sunlight reaching these peaks, with a bright golden glow slowly displacing the pink alpenglow. Then suddenly, as the sun pokes above the eastern mountains, the entire valley lights up. By the time this occurs, the red and yellow casts that are typical of astronomical sunrise are gone. So although this scene does not look like a typical sunrise image, it was in fact captured within a minute or two of when the valley became lit.
This image was captured during a March, 2023 photo shoot at the Laws Museum, near Bishop, California, organized by Lerro Photography
Images from the March, 2023 Lerro Photography photo shoots at the Laws Museum, near Bishop, California, featuring the Southern Pacific's Baldwin 10-wheeler #18 on her second visit since her 2017 restoration.
