I usually put in a fair amount of planning for sunrise and early morning shots. This was definitely not one of those.

I was half way through a 3 day photo trip. I was covering ~500 mile loop, from Western Maryland into West Virginia, through Shenandoah country, Virginia, and ending up back in Maryland. I left long before sunrise in an attempt to get shots of dawn while driving through the mountains.

After the sun was fully up I was done and ready to put in some miles on the road. I was already thinking of arriving at my next destination. I packed up the gear in the back seat and started heading down the highway but I didn't drive long before this scene appeared...on the opposite side of the highway of course.

So what to do? Just pull over on the shoulder, grab the gear, scamper across the highway, median, oncoming lanes, and hop the guardrail. The fog was burning off quickly so I just started shooting.

Right place, right time.