Last Rays

I really enjoy photographing the last rays of sun. That’s usually the most colorful part of the sunset as the diffusion process has more atmosphere to work with. This was the case when I captured this photo during my recent trip to Pedernales Falls State Park. I was trying to find a vantage point that would better showcase the falls along with the sunset. In order to do so I had to put my tripod in the rushing water. This meant that I had to anchor the tripod with my weight to reduce the vibration of the rushing water on the tripod legs.

When I took this photo I was thinking of triangle composition. There are actually dozens of “implied” triangles in the photo below but there are two that are very prominent. There are also leading lines in the form of the sun rays that lead the eye to the sun glow. Sometimes it’s hard to think about all these composition options when you are photographing but it definitely makes the photograph more interesting and memorable.

This image was taken with my Canon EOS 5DS using my Canon EF 16-35mm f/4 Lens set on 20 mm. The camera was set on Aperture priority mode with the aperture set at f/22, shutter speed at 0.4 seconds and the ISO set at 100. I captured five bracketed images (-2, -1, 0, +1, +2) and brought them together in Lightroom. I used Photoshop and Nik Color Efex Pro to finalize the image.

You can see other landscape photographs like this one by clicking here. Please use the section below to post your comments, questions or suggestions.

© 2016 T. Kahler Photography

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