I went for a week long road trip to Colorado & Utah this fall. The first 5 days, the lights were uninspiring and the foliage this year were kinda muted. I woke up 4 am that morning and drove from Moab to catch sunrise at the Mesa Arch. Arrived at the parking lot by 5 am, and found 7 cars already! I hastily hiked, got lost probably about 5x since I wasn’t familiar with the trail and the whole rock cairns deal in the canyonland. Finally reached the Arch 20 minutes later and all the spots behind the Arch were gone. I managed to squeeze through between 2 tripods and attempted for half an hour to get decent composition out of nothing. Finally settled with this, and then the sky began to catch fire! I’m glad I don’t have to leave Canyonland with the sun-star shot below the Arch that everyone has.
The sunrise that morning was so intense, it was a no-brainer to turn this shot into a Martian sunrise.
Sudip Das's Blog 