Simplicity
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Sometimes, simple is best. Two weekends ago I went climbing in Portland, Dorset. Because I was mainly supposed to be climbing, I took a very lightweight kit (it's all relative!) of only a 1D III, 16-35 and 70-200 f4IS. No tripod, no filters, no cable release. Basically nothing that was going to help shoot sunsets.
I hadn't intended on taking many pictures - just a few grabs of my friends climbing if the weather was good. Well, it turned out to be fantastic. The Saturday was clear and a little cold, and the Sunday was wonderful - deep blue skies and warm sun on the rock. Quite amazing for January in England on the south coast.
Anyway, towards to end of Sunday we'd finished with out climbing just before the sun started to set. I looked out across the sea. Being on the Isle of Portland I had a clear view west across the see to the sunset. With no filters I had to keep it simple and concentrate on space and colour. And then this airplane appeared, and the 70-200mm lens had just the right focal length to make the composition balance nicely with the sun bottom left and contrail top right.
It's an empty image really, just bands of colours, but it sums up the relaxed nature of the place.
Next time you're out shooting sunsets, think about where you are and the emotion you want to convey. Sometimes this just happens, sometimes you need to put more into it. an image with an emotion will ultimately be more memorable than one devoid of feeling.
As far as technique, I simply spot metered off the sky to the side of the sun and set it to be a little over two stops over-exposed.
Posted By: photopositive | Comment (6) | Places | Permalink