Today I want to show you some photos of my favourite time of the day: the time before sunrise.

Before Sunrise
^{my favourite time of the day}

As you might know, I love places with no other people around me. That is one reason for me to prefer sunrises to sunsets: most people love to watch sunsets while less people like to get up early in the morning to enjoy a sunrise.

Photographers are different, I know, so I also try to avoid the honeypot locations, the photographer's hotspots. Even when I have been to the Dolomites, I tried to go off the official paths, but because so many other photographers are there at any time of the year, it isn't easy to find unique photo spots.

Before Sunrise in the Nock Mountains (Nockberge) - Johann Piber

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But back to this post's theme: the time before sunrise...

Before Sunrise in the Nock Mountains (Nockberge) - Johann Piber

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In August 2022, I have got up quite early because I had to drive about 1.5 hours to the starting point of my hike to the Malnock, a mountain in the Nock Mountain Range. My starting point of this circular hike was the free parking lot at the Glockenhütte (Website of the Glockenhütte) that was completely empty at 4:30 in the morning and then I hiked the sometimes quite steep path to the first peak that is called Klomnock and from there to the Malnock mountain.

Before Sunrise in the Nock Mountains (Nockberge) - Johann Piber

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Before Sunrise in the Nock Mountains (Nockberge) - Johann Piber

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Except the photos taken later in daylight, the photos in this post were taken in the area of the Malnock where I had some granola bars to eat and a hot tey to drink - my first breakfast that morning.

There's a cross on every single mountain peak, I believe.

Before Sunrise in the Nock Mountains (Nockberge) - Johann Piber

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Before Sunrise in the Nock Mountains (Nockberge) - Johann Piber

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My other and much more important reason for loving the time before sunrise is the silence: far away from cities and people and roads there's nothing that disturbs the silence while Nature is slowly awakening. Most animals are still sleeping or about to wake up, you can hear the first birds greeting the new morning and enjoy the first morning light and colours on the horizon.

Before Sunrise in the Nock Mountains (Nockberge) - Johann Piber

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Before Sunrise in the Nock Mountains (Nockberge) - Johann Piber

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My second breakfast was at the Rote Burg / Red Castle, a rocky hill that consists of red rocks and looks somehow like the ruins of an old castle. There I was watched by a curious marmot. More about that a little further down after the next photos.

Before Sunrise in the Nock Mountains (Nockberge) - Johann Piber

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Layer after layer after layer ... I love mountain layers and here you have some from that morning.

Before Sunrise in the Nock Mountains (Nockberge) - Johann Piber

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Before Sunrise in the Nock Mountains (Nockberge) - Johann Piber

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It got brighter and the cows woke up waiting for the sun to warm them up after spending a night outside.

Before Sunrise in the Nock Mountains (Nockberge) - Johann Piber

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The sun rose higher and told me that soon the time before sunrise would be over.

Before Sunrise in the Nock Mountains (Nockberge) - Johann Piber

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Before Sunrise in the Nock Mountains (Nockberge) - Johann Piber

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And there she was, rising right below the mountain peak - not a planned but a very welcome shot.

Before Sunrise in the Nock Mountains (Nockberge) - Johann Piber

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After the sun was up, I continued the circular hike. In the following images you can see the rocks of the Rote Burg / Red Castle that I mentioned in the beginning. Only at home on the big monitor I saw that the crow was watching the little bird on the rock to the left.

Before Sunrise in the Nock Mountains (Nockberge) - Johann Piber

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The marmot was watching for quite a while while I was having my second breakfast, but when I tried to get a little closer it said good bye and didn't see it again 😉

Before Sunrise in the Nock Mountains (Nockberge) - Johann Piber

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Before Sunrise in the Nock Mountains (Nockberge) - Johann Piber

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At the end of my today's post I want to show you my probably favourite photo of that morning: the wooded hill across the valley was still dark as well as the sunrays had no tfound the mountain behind it, but the mountain pasture on top of the hill was already completely illuminated by the morning sun.

Before Sunrise in the Nock Mountains (Nockberge) - Johann Piber

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You have reached almost the end of the post - thank you so much for staying till here. I'm wishing you all a wonderful week ahead.

Information

Nock Mountains - Wikipedia
Malnock mountain on Google Maps

^{All photos were taken with the Canon EOS R and one of these lenses: Canon RF 24-105mm f/4 L IS USM, Canon RF 70-200mm f/4 L IS USM, Canon RF 100-400mm F5.6-8 IS USM, Canon EF 16-35mm 1:4 L IS USM, Canon EF 50mm 1:1.8 L STM, SIGMA 105mm 1:2,8 DG MACRO HSM.
If you are interested in the image data, I leave all EXIF and IPTC information stored in the pictures.}

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^{Photos and Text: @johannpiber | Johann Piber | All rights reserved - do not use without my permission
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