Sunset Frustration

[Mt Spokane Photography]

I am a inpatient photographer.  Last night, there was a brilliant red sunset lighting up half the sky.  I went into the house, mounted my 16-35mmL, and back out to the front yard.  By then, it was mostly gone.  I took 4 or 5 shots a few seconds apart.
 
I admire those who wait and capture that right moment, but I never seem to make it.
 
Here are the examples, not processed or enhanced.  you can see how fast that sunset goes away.  less than 30 sec, and I missed about 2 minutes of it.
 
 

[Jim Saunders]

If it's any comfort I find them similarly difficult to capture well.

Jim

[rpt]

Yup! The sunsets I took from Newport Coast, I started up an hour before sunset until the light died out. The light changes so fast unless you have the camera (with the right lens on it) you are likely to miss it. You can try again tomorrow. Will it, ask for it and it shall be delivered to you

Darn! I almost sound like a preacher

[DJL329]

I love shooting sunsets, but you have to be outside with your camera ready before the sun disappears below the horizon.  I usually check the sky when I get home to be ready, but if there are no clouds, then I don't bother.

I'm fortunate that I live near a bridge that crosses high above a river near a park, so I have a wonderful, unobstructed view of the western sky.


On Flickr


On Flickr


On Flickr


On Flickr

[Jim Saunders]

I got this one, not as good at the previous ones by any stretch but not bad.  Jim

[scottkinfw]

That is so true.  On the other hand, when you get that one shot, it feels so great.

[Aglet]

I admire those who wait and capture that right moment, but I never seem to make it.

I'm impatient, hate missing a few seconds of good light changing lenses, so I use the following solution.
Virtually every consumer-grade DSLR these days is more than adequate as an imaging machine.
Spend a few hundred on some decent used ones and use them as back-caps on all your favourite lenses.
When a moment arises, grab the lens, there's a camera on it, nail the shot.

[Mt Spokane Photography]

I had my 24-70 on the camera, but half the sky clear to my overhead and horizon to horizon was bright red, so I changed to the 16-35L.  I should have just kept the 24-70 on my 5D MK III. and took what ever I could get at 24mm.  In fact, reviewing the shots, I actually zoomed out to 35mm but that was because most of the sunset was gone by then.

[Cali_PH]

As someone who's main focus is landscape (seems not that common here?) I totally understand your frustration.  I can't count the number of times I've been up early for sunrise or at some location for sunset, and walked away with no shot; there are so many factors, including luck. Fantastic sunsets seem to rarely happen when I'm there and ready for it.  Usually they're when I'm home and far away from a great spot to shoot from.

[Mt Spokane Photography]

As someone who's main focus is landscape (seems not that common here?) I totally understand your frustration.  I can't count the number of times I've been up early for sunrise or at some location for sunset, and walked away with no shot; there are so many factors, including luck. Fantastic sunsets seem to rarely happen when I'm there and ready for it.  Usually they're when I'm home and far away from a great spot to shoot from.

Heavy Duty lightning, wind, and thunderstorms for the next few days and nights, so no more photos soon.  I did get my leaky roof on my studio fixed this morning, so its just in time.  I have to patch it every year, so this time I had bought a large sheet of EPDM rubber to cover the entire thing.  Its all glued down and secured at the edges.   That should fix it unless I cut thru it this winter shoveling snow off.  I don't trust the roof to hold more than 24-30 inches of snow, that happens every 3 years or so and is due again.  I have a plastic roof rake that I use when I can, but when we get a lot of snow in a short time, it packs too hard to use the rake.
 
We hauled two loads of hay for the Horse and his goats today as well, knowing that the farmer had it on his hay wagon and it would otherwise get wet.  We have more to haul, but it is already stored in the farmers barn, so we will do that later.  Getting ready for winter each year seems to start around mid August.  I still have a big list of projects to do, but things are on schedule.
 
I had hoped to photograph the rolling hills of golden wheat in the Palouse this year, but no such luck.  Its a amazing site, totally different from the great plains where everything is flat seemingly forever.  They even invented special combines to handle the steep hills and hillsides.

[Eldar]

In general I believe most photographers are too eager to use their wide angel lenses for sunsets (or -rises). And when the sky looks like the ones DJL329 showed, they are great. But often you can, in my view, improve the images by using longer focal lengths and isolate parts of the sky.

[CarlTN]

I am a inpatient photographer.  Last night, there was a brilliant red sunset lighting up half the sky.  I went into the house, mounted my 16-35mmL, and back out to the front yard.  By then, it was mostly gone.  I took 4 or 5 shots a few seconds apart.
 
I admire those who wait and capture that right moment, but I never seem to make it.
 
Here are the examples, not processed or enhanced.  you can see how fast that sunset goes away.  less than 30 sec, and I missed about 2 minutes of it.

I'm surprised you would have any trouble shooting sunsets.  A sunset is one of the most photographed subjects there is.  I once had an exchange on a Photo magazine's website, with a photographer who judges photo contests...and had posted an article about how he was extremely tired of looking at sunset photos!   

I don't think it takes that much patience, you just have to be ready to shoot a bit before sunset.  Patience comes when you're standing out there without having applied deet, and you get bit by mosquitos!  It happens to me, sometimes even when I apply a ton of it...

Here's a recent one I shot at 120mm in portrait mode with my Sigma 120-400 zoom lens and my 6D, on a monopod with IS switched off.  I've done better sunset images than this (at various focal lengths from wide to telephoto, and with various cameras), but I still like this one.  It needs a bit more tweaking but it basically looked like this to the naked eye.  I kind of want it to look slightly more extreme...so far edited only in LR.

[CarlTN]

In general I believe most photographers are too eager to use their wide angel lenses for sunsets (or -rises). And when the sky looks like the ones DJL329 showed, they are great. But often you can, in my view, improve the images by using longer focal lengths and isolate parts of the sky.

I agree!

[tpatana]

Couple months ago the sky was really crazy color, here's shot I got. Not much tweaking done.

[privatebydesign]

I am not a sunrise or sunset lover, but every now and again even I am forced to acknowledge how cool they look.

Straight out of camera.