On Sunsets

I’m a sky watcher. I just love the ever-changing colors and textures of the sky. Especially during sunrise and sunset.

Unfortunately, I’m not great at capturing them. I mean, I’ve gotten some interesting shots. But there’s got to be a way to capture the colors in the sky without ending up with too much light.

The problem with both is that the sun is usually glaring right into your camera. Automatic settings will adjust for that light, so everything else will be too dark. Adjust for the darker sky and you let WAY too much light into the camera. Sigh…

The sunset as seen from Port Aransas on Sunday was amazing. Yes, Janet, I was thinking of you!

I didn’t plan ahead. I just happened to notice the colors in the sky as I left the restaurant where’d I’d eaten dinner. So I drove over to the eastern side of the island, found a spot overlooking the bay, and grabbed a couple of pics. A “couple” in this case means about 60. LOL.

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Colorful sky, captured with the zoom lens.

To be honest, the cloud cover had been so low and dense for most of the day, I didn’t expect to see much of a sunset. As you can see in the next pic, the cloud cover was quite low on the horizon..

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Low, dense clouds. Captured with wide-angle lens.

I snapped some images in quick succession, alternating between the zoom and wide-angle lenses.

I’d about given up, thinking it couldn’t get much prettier, when the sun made an actual appearance as it dipped lower.

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Here comes the sun.

I had to edit these pics a bit to get the lighting right. And flatten my horizon. That’s another issue I sometimes have, remembering to make sure my horizon is flat.You know, so the world isn’t unnaturally tilted.

One day, I’ll figure out the proper camera settings for this light…

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Fiery sky.

 

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Nature’s pink palette.

 

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The sun was moving quite fast, so I didn’t have time to dally.

 

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One of my favorites, since you can see the blues in the sky, too.

I’m glad I noticed the wave clouds in the distance. I think this next image captures them perfectly.

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Wave clouds.

Isn’t it funny how the sun looks like a pixelated, flattened ball?

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My favorite. I think.

Which shot do you like best?

My next post will have more critter pics. I’ll bet you just CANNOT wait. LOL.

6 Replies to “On Sunsets”

  1. Kathy:

    Do you have “Real time” live view. My Sony has it. You can see the image as you adjust your EC down. Usually -1 or -1.5 should do it. I find when I underexpose the colours are more dramatic. If you shot RAW and set EC -1 you can adjust in the computer, either that or Bracket

    Anyway these are great whatever you did. Many times after the sun sets there will be the afterglow. The sun goes below the horizon and then shines back up into the clouds and you get a different effect. You generally need a day with less clouds than what you had.

    I think the wave cloud is my favourite one. I like the oil rig silhouette

    bob
    A weekend photographer or Riding the Wet Coast

    1. Thanks, Bob. No live view on my d Canon. I sorta bracketed manually, changing settings as I went. And lenses. I’m so glad I switched to the zoom for the wave clouds. I don’t usually shoot in raw because of the post processing. I’ll have to try that again sometime.

  2. Gorgeous sunset. Sometimes they need a little tweaking but I usually find that easier than trying to change the settings on the camera in time to capture the shots.

    Bobskoot is a whiz with cameras and could tell you exactly what you need to set it for. He has tried to explain it tome, but I can’t listen to the technical stuff too long.

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