Patience and Timing

Just when you think the light for the day is done, mother nature gives you one last surprise. We decided to take a quick drive to the lake last night. It was rather late for photography but it was a nice evening. I set the camera ISO to 3200 and opened the aperture to f/4.5 (it was really dark!!) and thought I would get a couple of shots of the sky and reflection in the water. It was a little windy and the water choppy. I didn't really expect much. This was not a photography outing but it was just to enjoy a moment or two by the lake. As I tried a few different compositions of the foliage silhouetted against the sky, I noticed the increasing color in the sky. As the sun drops on the horizon and the angles change, sometime the clouds become illuminated from the bottom and for a moment it can be spectacular! This turned out to be the case. As you can see in the progression below, in the span of 5 minutes, the sky changed dramatically.

The first image shown here was at 8:11 PM. The sun was about set:

The second image as taken at 8:12. You can see the color increasing but again, I thought this was the end of the show.

Not so fast. The clouds thinned out a bit and yet more color. The third was taken at 8:13.

Then, finally at 8:16 the final shot and the peek of color. I'm usually not one to seek out cheesy sunsets but I found this compelling. I used a 24mm focal and tried to frame it within the silhouetted foliage. I used this as my final shot.

All of these pictures were taken at the same settings except for the different focal lengths and I synced the processing settings in Lightroom so they should be an "apples-to-apples" comparison. Just goes to show you how waiting for the right moment makes a difference. Yes, I got lucky in this case but just wait. The best is yet to come.

--Bruce

#Patience #Sunset