Mount Shasta glows in the warm light of sunset, Weed, CaliforniaThe setting sun casts Mount Shasta in shades of red and purple, Weed, California
This week I chose two photos of Mt. Shasta at sunset on the same day. The first shows more of the landscape surrounding the mountain, while the second just features the peak at the moment of sunset. I usually use the 3:1 aspect ratio when I stitch together multiple shots into a panorama, but sometimes (as is the case here), I crop single shots down to that ratio. In both of these photos, I thought that this aspect ratio created a more pleasing image, rather than showing an uninteresting foreground or a large sky above the mountain.
As the sun sets, it casts one final beam across wild lupine and granite boulders, Sierra National Forest, CA
This week’s photo is all about light. If you take away the dramatic lighting effects from this photo, you are left with something pretty mundane – a forest and some rocks. But with the sun filtering through the trees as a star burst, lighting the granite boulders and contrasting them with the darker forest, an interesting image is born.
Before this composition found me, I was pointing my camera in the opposite direction and quickly becoming uninspired. Sure, I was shooting from the edge of a cliff and had a large, open, forested valley below me, but no specific feature stood out and grabbed my attention. I turned around and saw that the sun was setting behind the trees, and knew then that I would use sunlight as my subject.
It didn’t take much hunting around to find this line of granite boulders illuminated by the setting sun. Now I had a decision to make – include the sun in the image or not? Since I was shooting at f/16 (as I often do with landscapes), I knew I’d get a nice, tight star burst effect from the sun. I ultimately decided to include it in the image because I wanted to balance the lower right of the image which included a lot of light, with the light of the sun in the upper left.
Another thing to worry about when shooting into the sun is that the camera’s meter can will be thrown off. If I shot this at the camera’s recommended shutter speed (I was in aperture priority), the forest would have been rendered brighter and the granite would have been completely blown out. I dropped the exposure compensation by two stops, which gave me a photo much closer to what I was seeing with my eyes.
I am pretty happy with the result. It is not the typical grandiose landscape typical of Sierra photography, but a more intimate scene. Hopefully it conveys more than just the visual aspect, but a real sense of place – the distant echos of forest birds, the sharp smell of pine needles, the thumping of the heart at high elevations. Ultimately for me, it was my latest reminder that when in doubt, I should always follow the light.
Watch for two of my images that will appear in the October 2010 issue of Backpacker Magazine. The following two photos will appear in an article about the Ray Lakes loop trail in King’s Canyon National Park.
Mist Falls is situated along the south fork of the King's River as it flows down from the Sierra Nevada high country, King's Canyon National ParkThe campsites of Lower Paradise Valley line the banks of the south fork of King's River, King's Canyon National Park
The sun peaks over the crater's rim, casting Crater Lake in the warm glow of sunrise, Crater Lake National Park, Oregon
On a recent trip to Crater Lake, I lucked out with a morning that wasn’t completely overcast. After shooting sunset the night before, I found myself back at the rim of the crater at 5:15 the next morning, trying to stay warm in sub-freezing temperatures. As soon as the sun’s glow started appearing over the far rim, I knew it would all be worth it.
Although I took many photos that morning, I think the one above is my favorite. The star burst effect on the sun is caused by using a small aperture (f/16 in this case). Below are a few more from that morning.
Light from the rising sun turns a blue sky orange and silhouettes the distant rim, Crater Lake National Park, OregonThe light of sunrise casts the overlook and the surrounding rim of Crater Lake in a warm glow, Crater Lake National Park, Oregon
