I can see the sunrises from my living room window, or, to be accurate, I can see them when it’s not necessary to get up in the middle of the night to do so. Chalk up one reason why winter is one of my favorite seasons for photography. In addition, it’s about a five-minute drive to a waterfront park that provides interesting foreground possibilities for photographing the sunrise.

Most mornings the answer to “Should I or shouldn’t I?” is fairly obvious: either a beautiful sunrise is in the offing or the sky is totally overcast. But then there are mornings when it’s not so obvious. And remember, this is December. Or January. The prospect of throwing on layers of clothing, possibly having to scrape frost off the car’s windscreen, and dashing through the streets, only to end up with nothing to show for it can seem uninviting. But some mornings beckon, “Take a chance. It could be worth it.”

And so this one morning in late December I did just that. It could have gone either way. But it went the way I had hoped, and I had time to set up my gear (never, ever, ever forget the photographer’s gloves on these chilly mornings) carefully, which means ensuring you’re not overlooking the ice that may have formed when the river flowed up the boat ramp. (The Hudson is a tidal estuary — not your typical river.)

Here are two of the results. The sky, initially red, turned to blue and thus obligingly provided some variety. A painterly version of the red one is currently on display (and for sale) at the Emerge Gallery in Saugerties. The blue one is for sale on my Pixels.com website. The days are getting longer and my sunrise photography may be over for a while — but then there’s always that brief window of opportunity when Daylight Savings Time begins, the clocks spring ahead, and the mornings are dark again.