The eleven colors of the Mara dawn

One morning in July 2025 I took a photograph every three minutes, from 05:47 to 06:23, from a basket at 650 feet over Olare Motorogi. The colors below became the palette we use on this site.

Deep Night — #0A0B12. The color of the sky when the basket is being inflated, before anything else happens. You can see Orion.

Pre-Dawn Indigo — #141832. Seven minutes before first light. The horizon is not yet separating from the sky; you sense it by the way the air feels cooler on your right side than your left.

First Blush — #6B2D5B. Two minutes before the sun. This is the color photographers wait years to catch.

Ember Gold — #B87333. The moment the sun touches the horizon. Everything in the basket — your hands, your camera, the varnished wood — suddenly looks like this.

Infinite Sky — #87AACC. Six minutes after lift-off, when the sky has opened completely and you realize it is not one blue; it is an infinite gradient from horizon to zenith.

Nothing on this site was named arbitrarily. Every token has a minute.