It was Brandon’s idea to meet before the sun rose on this particular Saturday morning. I happily agreed as it’s been on my list to do for some time. I’ve always seen some spectacular shots of the sun coming up behind the city or some cool fog hanging over the rivers.

We started out by setting up the tripods and taking a few night shots right before the sun rose. The river was calm and reflected the city lights well. As the light started to fill the sky, right before the sun crested over the horizon, we could make out some clearing of clouds over town. I turned my attention to the North Shore, to see the contrast of the night lights against the pre-dawn light.

After a few shots of what appeared to be a boring pre-dawn, with clouds and a greyish blue hue all around, an orange sky appeared out of no-where. The orange sky reflected on the rivers and was accentuated by the orange and red of the fall foliage all around us. Even though there was a lot of green still in most of the plants, the ones that were changing colors were really visible in this light.

Just when we were about to call this a miss for a pretty sunrise, and about to pack-up, the sky came alive. The sun broke through the clouds and mixed the blues and the oranges with a strong purple and the beginnings of a beautiful blue sky.

After you scroll through the all-too-many orange-ish shots, you will begin to see some of my favorite shots I’ve ever taken of Pittsburgh. The sun shining through the beautiful old maple tree up on the Westend overlook with the city framed in the background against a gorgeous sky. Funny enough, I grabbed a shot with my iPhone and it wound up being nearly as nice, if not nicer than the shots with my “big boy” camera. I posted it to Instagram and you can check it out here.

After we were satisfied with what we captured from the Westend, I suggested to Branden, being a recent transplant to Pittsburgh, if he’d ever been to the Strip District on a Saturday morning and if he’d ever eaten at DeLuca’s Diner. Hearing a no, and given it was still early enough before the lines were around the block, we headed off to DeLuca’s for a delicious Pittsburgh breakfast. Afterward, we couldn’t help but get a bit lost in the vibrancy of the Strip District; one of my favorite neighborhoods of town.

The perfect start to an awesome Saturday in one of America’s greatest cities!