I've been photographing seriously for over 50 years now. As a young photographer, I was 'wowed' by beautiful sunrises and sunsets. Whenever I saw one I would always stop, take notice and make photos of them. Most people appreciate a beautiful start or end to the day. But how many of those photos can you make? Yes, I know every one is different, but they are pretty cliché and, almost without exception, I quit making them many years ago. I'm not knocking those of you who like to photograph sunrises and sunsets. That is perfectly fine. They have just run their photographic course with me.
Another type of photo of which I’ve grown tired is of waterfalls. Not all waterfalls, but your typical waterfall. I still like cascading falls, but almost never photograph a single waterfall anymore. But that is just me.
In the last two posts, I wrote about my recent trip to Virginia’s Eastern Shore to photograph birds, wildlife, back roads, small towns, Americana and whatever else ticked my photographic fancy. You can find those two posts here and here. Interesting reading.
That said, during our recent photography trip my two friends and I spent most of our time in the Chincoteague National Wildlife Refuge. We were pretty much in the refuge from before sunrise and until after sunset. Of course I had all my gear and, well, the sun rises and the sun sets and winter sunrises and sunsets can be quite spectacular with the cold, clear air devoid of contrast and color zapping humidity. Clear air means intense colors. Add the low angle of the winter sun and sunsets are even more spectacular. Then there was my good friend standing there, tripod set, camera mounted ready to photograph the sunset. So, what was I to do? In the end I decided to make a few images of some sunsets. A rarity for me.
These images represent the three evenings we spend in the wildlife refuge. I made more varieties of sunset photos but I will post these. They are enough to represent what I saw.
UPDATE: I failed to mention that, to ensure I fully captured all the detail in the highlights and shadows that I had envisioned for the final photographs, I bracketed every sequence of shots. However, during the editing process I never had to merge any of the images as I found my initially judged exposure fully captured all the detail. That, my friends, is a nice testament to the dynamic range and capability of the Fujifilm sensor in the X-T4.
A few minutes later, I made this image. Much better, much less flare. (click to enlarge) |
Same sunset, just after it disappeared over the horizon. (click to enlarge) |
Same scene, different composition and just a bit later in time. (click to enlarge) |
This was the next evening and a different location within the refuge. (click to enlarge) |
I moved the sun around a bit to vary the composition and pick up the wading birds. (click to enlarge) |
Very wide angle showing more of the sky as I thought that was now a more important element than the foreground. (click to enlarge) |
And...don't forget to look behind you even though the sunset or sunrise is in front of you. These two images were looking east with the actual sun behind me.
This was what I saw when I turned around while making the top several images above. (click to enlarge) |
That last comment also applies for whenever we photograph. Always turn around and look behind you. You might be surprised at what you may be missing!
Enough already! My sunset/sunrise/waterfall quota has been filled for the next 20 years! Lol. Now back to your regularly scheduled programming...
In my next Chincoteague post, I'll have some representative images of the various kinds of birds and wildlife I was able to photograph. Stay tuned.
Thanks for looking. Enjoy!
Dennis A. Mook
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I think of sunrise and sunset as Mother Nature's way of saying "Good Morning" and "Good night".
ReplyDeleteI feel blessed every time I see one. Even when a promising scene is lost when the sun drops behind a distant cloudbank at the critical point.
A Healthy and Merry Christmas to you and your family!
Thank you.
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