Friday, June 26, 2015

Several Splendid Summer Sunset Skies

So I made another trip to Birch Bay, and was treated to one of the more colorful sunsets I've seen in a while, as well as choppier waves than I've seen there yet (or anywhere for a while). The first, from a few minutes after sunset, is probably my favorite. The clouds had turned a quite lovely color and some virga was starting to come down from them. Without further ado, here they are:




On an earlier day, I explored a spot by the Nooksack River to take some sunset pictures. The most interesting image, though, came a bit after sunset, when afterglow was still lighting the scene (especially Mount Baker). I used a wide aperture for this one, f/6.3, by default, since I couldn't get the whole scene in focus even with a narrow setting (the rocks were too close).

I'm not sure if I like it compositionally, but the colors are cool. Ideally, the rocks wouldn't be lined up in the center the way they are here. It might be worth a return visit to retry some similar compositions - now that I am familiar with the location, I'd be able to set up a shot more carefully. Anyway, here it is:



Next, a shot of the river and Baker from a bit earlier. While a wide depth of field worked better, the image isn't as striking overall. F/22.


This one was earlier in the evening, and I liked the warm color of the last bit of sunlight on the trees. F/20. This one took some trial and error with the polarizing filter - if I polarized it all the way, the blue of the sky became quite uneven and unsightly, so I had to back off a bit.


1 comment:

Colleen H said...

I'm especially taken by the first shot in this group. It looks like the splashing water morphs into fur or feathers. And the colors!