I am a real fan of pursuing close/far perspective images in the backcountry. I am standing up in Wyoming looking over the border up into Montana as the sun rises to the east/north east. The trees in the distance are in Montana. I’m one of the few photographers that can post most of the images I work on the borderlands in either states forums. I actually try to police myself if something is just Wyoming I’ll try to keep it only on Wyoming or national forums. Visa versa for Montana. The Islands of old grown trees on the ridge lines are testimony to their tenacity against fire/wind and lightning. The snag on the right lost it’s battle with lightning it seems.
So perspectives and warm mornings go together like peas and carrots. (classic reference intended). I’m not sure why this is but I’m drawn to the “close” details with a falling horizon exposing the sun.. All caused by the icy atmosphere in any of the fall winter, summer OR spring. We have alpenglow most of the year. There only has to be atmospheric ice suspended between the sun and the camera. Hundreds of miles of ice and air only let through that crimson/orange/gold light at this point. Earlier in twilight a lower angle only let through red wavelengths in twilight with crimson being the dominate colorcast that morning.
I take images with cameras that can look places your eyes can’t. You MIGHT be able to glance at this for a fraction of a second before you instinctively turned away. I watch this on a video screen and I know exactly what I just took a photo of without having to look at it. What I see on my screen is what I get here. (Actually I take very dark images only exposing highlight correctly. (If you must know). 📷
Here “Sneaky Pete” the windmill ( a long running narrative if your new to my world), has actually caged the sun itself. Once the sun found itself captured, it soon had enough, proceeded to sneak out the back and down behind the horizon. You could plainly see “Sneaky’s” confusion as the sun disappeared in the gathering dark. I’m sure he tries this every night but usually no one else is around to see it. Definition of insanity is to expect a different outcome the third time. I’ve wondered about his state of mind before 😜👀
Being a highly coordinated fellow to survive in the high wind environment “Sneaky” was “raised” in. Some “lubrication” may be involved. That being said, he is notorious for photobombing my landscapes, ‘lubricated’ or not…. Appearing in a highly disproportionate number of captures in my portfolio.
It’s not his fault, having an obsession with publicity is a disorder of course. A long time ago we had an agreement that he do his job and I’ll do mine. “Sneaky” apparently thought his job was to photobomb my job which is to take Landscape photos. So I end up taking his photo often as he desires. I think he works out some deals with the Pronghorns and the Deer to pose for me sometimes so I tolerate this regular transgression. Good thing I have a fence around my homestead or ol’ “Sneaky” would be down in my yard too…..
I was hoping the sun would set on the fenceline but my directions and timing were off a few degrees/seconds…. The sun will always appear to move from left to right as well as downward as it sets. Of course it’s the horizon rising but you already know that. (The sun isn’t moving here, the earth is spinning) . The earth is tilted on it’s axis .
Science Factoid: That tilt is relative to the solar systems flat plane called the ecliptic. All the planets are circling the sun on that plane. The earths north/south axis Currently, the Earth’s axis is tilted 23.5 degrees from the plane of its path/orbit around the sun. But this tilt changes/wobbles like a top. Wobbles during a long wobble cycle that averages around 40,000 years. (Based on good scientific work eh? 👁 )
The tilt of the axis varies between 22.1 and 24.5 degrees. Because this tilt changes, the earth is exposed to differing amounts of energy from the furnace over that interval. Paleoclimatology is something I have dabbled in with an advanced degree in Paleo stuff… . I will tell you the sun is the driver of our climate so one would assume that global changes occur as the way you face the sun. Yup, the climate has been changing since it all started as a pool of molten rock accumulated in a gravity well lol.
SO back to Looking into the Furnace : This time of year, sun sets dramatically from left to right as the horizon rises here. But it rises from left to right at sunrise. (The phrase to google here is Ecliptic solar system). So tracking this and watching it change by the minute was very impressive.
Photographic Musing: Bright bright bright stuff. Shutting the camera down to light ALMOST taken with the lens cap on (it’s that bright lolol)
You only have 3 main things to set on your camera by working it on manual mode. They are: “ISO” (Camera Sensitivity), f-stop (aperture or pupil size of the lens) and Shutter Speed in parts of a second (s). Figure out what is important to you (deep focus or freezing motion?). You set f-stop high for deep focal field . F-stop low for shallow depth of focus field. F-stop takes away light so high f-stop (small hole in the lens) is good for high light situations.
Priority 1 taken care of. Your next priority (2) is ISO (camera sensitivity). Low ISO is ALWAYS best because High ISO give you too much light AND a grainy appearance in the image. So LOW camera sensitivity (or slow ISO 100). High ISO is best for LOW LIGHT situation. Really HIGH ISO over 2000 is for the dark if you need it only. I consider ISO evil to go high with. Last thing on the list is shutter speed which is your variable to adjust the total exposure. You adjust until you get the result you desire.
On an older DSLR reflex type camera, you look at the image on the LCD on the back of the camera body AFTER you take the photo. With a Mirrorless Removable Lens Camera though, you get what you see on the screen INSIDE the camera, WHILE you are moving the dials the image reflects the changes you make. What you see is what you get. Instant feedback, MUCH easier for you to learn on.
So if you made it this far in my text, and your looking at cameras, pick a mirrorless model, preferably a full frame/large sensor camera. Full Frame cameras have higher dynamic range than smaller sensor cameras. 📸 Disclaimer: Don’t USE a standard DSLR camera to take sun photos and YOUR camera may not be rated to take this heat. Large sensor cameras spread out that light and don’t melt like some smaller sensor cameras would here. More important, don’t blind yourself in a DSLR even trying this. Seriously!👁 Location: Bliss Dinosaur Ranch, Wyoming/Montana borderlands.
I do a bit of close up photography of the sun and the moon. This is the sun on a smokey summer night as the horizon rose to meet it. Usually one would have to either totally shut down the camera to light or use a glass neutral density filter on front of the camera to photograph this. With enough forest fire derived smoke in the atmosphere, the picture becomes easier.
This sun as are most of the sun images I’ve taken at the solar minimum show no sun spots. We are literally at a sunspot low since 1913. Low sunspot numbers lead to a cooler climate on a general level due to a large number of reasons. We are in solar cycle 24 (since 1755 when they were first noticed and subsequently recorded. These cycles from low to high sunspot numbers with an average 11 years. This is a very interesting time to be an informed geologist watching the climate “debate”. I’ve been following this since 1976.
The Maunder Minimum was an extended period from 1645 to 1715 where it got cold as the sun (the furnace) turned down the heat. Known as “the Litle Ice Age, the growing season in Europe shortened by a full month. Crop losses caused mass famines . The population of Iceland decreased by about half. . Exceptionally severe winters were the rule in North America. China had to change the crops it had grown for centuries to adapt .
If the furnace turns itself down, famine with hard times follow. Warm times geologically have been periods of high biological activities. We better hope it doesn’t get colder….. During Maudner: (Solar radiance was down about .24% lower than current levels so it doesn’t take much)
When the sun starts rising, I’m working very long lenses looking at little postage stamp at arms length sized areas of the sky. The tree was hundreds of yards out from my position as getting it in focus was a priority. Distance from the foreground object is your friend.
If camera settings need to be known, looking into a really bright scene like this, LOWEST ISO number, Higher fstop number and really fast shutter speeds. Most camera users need a neutral density filter in front of the lens but I don’t need them with this Sony Alpha 7. I really don’t like them on my cameras as I often get ghost images in really bright off lens center axis photos. Never use em. Neutral Density filters reduce the over all light coming into your camera.
Set your priorities and start working in Manual Mode folks. You can’t take images like this without it.
