2011 Summer Solstice Sunrise Test Shots - All Photos Were Shot At Dawn On Monday June 20

The sun peeks over the horizon between the tents of the

Cirque du Soleil and the Biosphere on Ile Ste. Helene

The sun is like the yolk of a cosmic egg within the dome

of the Biosphere, formerly the U.S. pavillion of Expo 67.

The sun hovers over the Biosphere behind a thin band of

clouds which recalls the ancient Egyptian winged sun symbol.

A bird appropriately flys just below the disk of the sun.

The long "rays" of the sun are just an optical effect, i.e. a rather interesting form of lens flare that my Pentax SMC FA 80-320mm f/4.5-5.6 AF zoom lens displays when shooting directly into the sun. These long "rays" recall the long rayed sun symbol of the heretical Egyptian pharaoh Akhenaten aka Amenhotep IV father of Tutankhamun.

All of these photographs were taken with my well used Pentax K-x DSLR and the aforementioned Pentax 80-320mm AF zoom lens. I shot the actual summer solstice sunrise today using a 36 exposure roll of Fujicolor Superia Reala color negative film in my Nikon F90x 35mm SLR which was attached to a Tamron SP 300mm f/5.6 telephoto lens and a Nikon TC-300 2X Teleconverter.

Hopefully the results will be somewhat better than these test shots.