To get this shot we hiked up a trail on the east side of Grandfather Mountain starting at 445 AM to get high enough that we could see views of Grandfather and about 180 degrees of view to the east, south, and west.

The clouds you see were formed by clouds and fog coming off of Grandfather Mountain, down into the Boone Bowl, and back up and out over the Wilson Creek Valley like a plume of smoke.

The sun was rising about 30 degrees to the left of the edge of view creating this pink side lighting in the sky.

One of the challenges of this shot was the wind blowing at 30 to 50 Mph coming off of Grandfather Mountain. Getting the foreground sharp required a high shutter speed which was tough to achieve in low light, and I wanted to keep depth in the shot. A really sturdy tripod with a 20 lb camera bag hanging from the center post kept everything in place and then it was being patient and being ready to shoot when there was a pause in the wind gusts.