Tag Archives: sunset

Supermoon Rising

The combination of the Super Moon, the blue moon and the lunar eclipse was something a lot of people were interested in. Sadly, we were due to have a cloudy night so none of the excitement was going to be on show. As the sun was setting at the beginning of the evening that this was all due to happen, I was walking out of the office at the same time the moon was rising. At this point we still had a clear sky. I hadn’t planned anything but I did have a camera to hand so grabbed a few shots for the hell of it.

I decided to try and bracket for an HDR shot. The twilight meant there was something closer to an even exposure between the foreground and the background than you normally manage with a moon shot but it was still a wide range. HDR gave a bit more to play with. Then I headed home and the clouds rolled in.

Lake Washington Sunset

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Sometimes you are just in the wrong place when the conditions are right. We were driving across the floating bridge that takes SR520 between Seattle and Bellevue one evening. The sun was going down and the sky to the north was pink. The water of Lake Washington was smooth and was reflecting the sky beautifully. We were in a car doing 60mph so there was nothing to be done about it. Once across the bridge, I avoided the freeway and took Lake Washington Blvd towards home. It runs alongside the lake and, while a slower road, it is a shorter distance and a more pleasant drive.

As we got alongside the water, the sky was still looking rather impressive. The pink to the north had faded but the sky to the west still looked great. There is a park along the shoreline and I zipped in there to see if I could find a parking spot. Sure enough, someone had just left so I hopped out and took a few shots before the whole thing was done. The orange in the sky towards downtown Seattle was very intense and it all looked great. I guess I got a second bite of the apple.

The Sun is Setting! Too Late…

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The Thai delivery flight I wrote about in this post went out in lovely light. It was due to be followed by a Dreamlifter flight to Nagoya. That is a long leg so means a heavy jet which should use a good amount of the runway. The scheduled departure time meant it should be just before sundown. They didn’t start on time, though, and the light was beginning to fade. A bit of cloud on the horizon meant that sunset was going to be okay but the light was going to go before that. Meanwhile, once the jet called up, they advised the tower that they needed to burn down a bit of fuel to get to the required takeoff weight. Great, not what was needed!

By the time they were ready to go, the light was gone. However, I had waited long enough so I figured I wasn’t giving up now (although I was now getting pretty cold!). The ISO was being ramped up rapidly as I had to keep assessing the conditions while I waited and it got steadily darker. Finally, they called for departure and lined up. Looking up the runway over the ridge, I could see the jet approaching. Something interesting was making the plane look very squashed! Once it got over the ridge, they rotated and got airborne very close to me. Everything was very flat but at least it was something different to shoot.

Sunset on the Mountain Tops

The view from our hotel in Whistler towards the mountains was really pretty but never more so than when the sun was setting. A couple of evenings I thought I should get a shot but was either elsewhere or too slow. I did manage to get out there one time though, although I was still a little late. The shadows were creeping up the lower slopes of the mountains but I still had the nice color on the summits. The warm, evening light was really appealing and mountains look good at the best of times so this was a great scene to see.

Departing the Bay at Sundown

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This post may seem a bit symbolic but it is a bit of a cheat. I flew out of SFO heading up to Seattle to go to my new place. The flight left around sunset and, as we climbed out above the bay, I got some lovely views of the water, the city and the cloudscapes with the last light of the day. As the sunset on my time there, it was rather appropriate. (The reason it is a cheat is that I came back a few days later and left again by car. That wasn’t so dramatic so I shall stick with this version instead.)

Sunset on Big Island

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Gratuitous sunset shots are not usually my thing. However, where we were staying on Big Island provided a great place to watch the sun go down. It was easy to have the sun go down in line with a little headland by the beach so why wouldn’t I do that? I watched a couple of the sunsets from there. The sky was better for one of them but there wasn’t a lot of high level cloud to really light up.

It’s interesting to see how many people that came out for the sunset disappeared right after the sun went down. They missed some of the more lovely sky colors that resulted as the sun illuminated the clouds from below once it had passed beyond the horizon. A little patience is worthwhile, although it doesn’t seem like such a sacrifice for a photo when you are standing by a tropical beach.

Sunset Shooting at SFO

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A holiday weekend combined with an early closure of the office meant I had a bit of time to experiment with some things I wanted to try on the new cameras. Normally I don’t want to blow out a whole evening at a weekend but, with a bit of extra time, I decided to see what I could do with shooting aircraft in sunset and really low light conditions. There will be some other posts that look a how the cameras do in very low light/night conditions. However, to get there, I also got some sunset to play with.

At this time of year, sunset is not as good as it will be later. The sun goes too far north late in the day so, instead of getting good light on the jets, you end up with some backlighting. Even so, there are some good chances to get some more delicate light on the planes. You do get a bit too much contrast as the remaining light is on the nose and the fuselage sides are pretty shady but you can get some reasonable results.

I was interested to see how the camera dealt with the light. The use of exposure compensation becomes a bit variable in these conditions. The light starts to get nicely balanced but then you can end up with more brightness in the background with less on the subject. This can make things go a little dark. I found myself playing with the settings quite a bit as I explored how the camera reacted.

P-26 Peashooter

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One of my favorites when visiting Chino for the Planes of Fame Airshow is the Boeing P-26 Peashooter. A pre-WWII aircraft, this is the end of a generation of aircraft. Once the war started, aircraft really advanced quickly. For those that had been involved in conflict before the US actually entered the war, the aircraft had already moved on. The P-26 is a bit of a stranger in a time warp. However, the shape and technology combined with the colors make it a curious aircraft for me. Seeing it fly during the twilight show at Chino was cool and the evening light was a lot more impressive than seeing it during the day.

Sunset Over the Central Valley

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While out shooting the aircraft in the evening at Eagle Field, I also got to enjoy quite a nice sunset. The sky was turning a variety of lovely colors and, once the sun had dropped below the horizon, things really did light up nicely. Whether focusing in on a distinct part of the sky or going for the wider scene, it was a nice place to be for a while.

Some Nice Evening Light on the Planes

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During the evening of the Eagle Field fly-in, there was a dinner held in the hangar. I took the time to wander around outside as it had become a lot quieter and the chances to shoot the aircraft had improved. As the sun went down, things got considerably better and the evening light was lovely. Not all aircraft were well oriented to take advantage of it but there was still plenty of scope.