1882 (mountain) at "sun rise". Early in the austral summer, the sun is up 24 hrs, but is low enough in the sky to cast very long shadows.

This photo was taken in the Dry Valleys of

href="http://snobear.colorado.edu/~gooseff/antarctic.htm">Antarctica

. It was early

in the austral summer season and the sun was low enough in the sky to

be hidden behind mountains at certain times of the day. I think the

photo gets close to what I was going for - that is, diffuse sunlight

emerging from the rough ridge of 1882 (the unoriginal name of that

mountain). To me, the snow in the foreground shadow is a little

distracting, does anyone else feel this way, or am I just being too

critical?

I don't think it's a successful photo, but not because the detail is distracting. If the shadow were completely black it wouldn't be interesting silhouette either. The real problem is that most of the frame isn't contributing anything to the image.