Alpenglow is not sunrise. It happens before the sun clears the horizon, when the only light reaching the peaks has travelled a long, shallow path through the atmosphere and lost almost all of its blue on the way. What is left is red, and it lands on the highest ground first while the valley floor is still in night.

That is why a photograph like this has to be made in the dark. By the time the sun is actually up the effect is over, the light has gone white, and the mountains look like mountains again. The window is perhaps fifteen minutes, it is not every morning, and there is no way to know from the car park whether it is going to happen.

The river is the other half of the timing. The Snake runs fast enough in most places to break any reflection, and the still sections that mirror the range are few and small. Wind ruins it too. You need the light and the calm at the same moment, which is the same problem as every other photograph in this collection: the location is easy, the conditions are not.