Smoke on the Horizon - IMG#8530

I was shooting on Red Lake in the Sawtooth Mountains for what I hoped would be an amazing sunrise. I set up and waited...and waited... and waited. It was almost like the sun didn't want to rise. The sky and clouds to my west never "lit" up at all and the peak, that was so nicely reflected in the water, never caught a glow. I was really puzzled. Until I turned around and saw this scene in the sky to the east. I immediately remembered that there were wild fires in the area and realized that the smoke in the air had to be blocking out most of the "good" light. Fortunately the before mentioned smoke turned all kinds of shades of pink and red and left distinct rays of light in the sky.