The Columbia River Gorge is one of the crown jewels of Oregon state and being only 15 minutes from my house for 4 of the last 7 years, it was an obvious choice for me to go shoot. Vista House is one of the most iconic places in the Gorge as it’s a beautiful building that stands 600+ feet above the river. I had always known that twice a year the sun rises out of one of the peaks on the Washington side of the river and the sun's rays bathe Vista House in glorious backlighting.

I often shoot in complete darkness and the only way I can really pull details out of photos is by working with lenses that have very wide apertures (F 1.4, F 1.8) and a camera that can really perform under high ISO’s. Using the Nikon D850 and the Nikkor 20mm F1.8 allows me to have no fear of ISO and crank it to 10000 to get both a well-exposed sky and foreground with more detail.