How to take photos at sunset vs How to take photos in the middle of the day: Today through my lens (#2)

Hello and welcome to the second edition of "Today through my lens", a photographic series where I share with you some of the photos I took over the course of a day and share how I took the pictures, and why my eyes were drawn to these compositions, Enjoy!

Due to my busy class schedule, today's edition of Today through my lens, was split between two very different photo walk; one in the middle of the day and the second around sunset. My first photo walk of the day took place after my communications class and was precipitated by me sitting next to a window and spending the whole time daydreaming about how little I had been out to take photos this winter.

Photo walk 1 of 2 (mid day):

The weather outside was crisp and brisk with a clear blue sky and -15 degrees temperature. Since my first photo walk took place in the middle of the day, the light in the sky was quite flat and therefore not ideal for landscape photography. The above photo (taken of the Rideau Canal skateway here in Ottawa) showcases this, as the lack of colour in the sky and lack of golden light on the landscape meant that little stood out in the image. Therefore, for the rest of my photos during this photo walk, I would have to look for compositions which made certain components of the image stand out and account for the poor light.

With the image above and to the left, I took the same scene as the previous photo, but instead of taking a landscape photo, I chose to focus on the large distance marker in the middle of the ice which had very striking colours. These colours also contrasted those of the sky instead of complimenting them, allowing for an image that stood out more and in my opinion looked better.

In the photo above and to the right, I was struck by how rich the greens were in this pine tree and decided to take a semi-macro photo of the tree. Instead of taking a picture of the whole tree though, I chose to go close and really focus on the beautiful and intricate details of the pine to get my photo. To achieve the look I wanted, I used a very high aperture of f/2 to separate the individual branch that I liked from the rest of the tree.

The two above photos uphold the same photographic principles which I explained above, except with different subjects. With the first photo, I decided to get low down on the snow and make use of the little bit of light shinning down on the plant, thus bringing out its detail. With the second photo (to the right), I used the tree in the foreground as a way to both juxtapose nature against the large building, and also to decrease the amount of plain blue sky in the photo. I thought this second photo turned out really nicely in terms of mitigating the issues with the light which I brought up earlier.

Photo walk 2 of 2(Sunset):

The first photo walk lasted about an hour before I was forced to go back to my nearby university to attend my last 3 hour lecture of the day. However, half-way through that lecture, I realized that there would be a beautiful sunset, and I became extremely frustrated that the length of my class would mean that I would have to miss it. Luckily, I finished my in-class assignment early and was able to run from school and capture a few photos before the sun went down.

Now that the sun was setting, the light in the sky had completely changed. Instead of being the plain blue of midday, the sky was now lit up orange, then yellow, white and finally into a deep blue. This meant that the sky now became a defining part of my composition and image. In the above photo, my aim was to capture the power and beauty of the sun. To do this, I lowered my aperture to f/11 capturing all the detail in the image and also allowing the camera to capture the sun rays which you can see in the image.

This image was based on a similar principle. However, this time I used the photographic principle of leading lines. I used the bright yellow line in the middle of the road as a way of drawing one's eye and attention to the center of the image. While I wish the setting sun and the line of the road ended in the same place, I was still very happy about this image.

I also wanted to thank all of you that made it this far down the blog for reading and supporting my creative work! Make sure to leave a comment so I know who you all are and so I can come and check out your work too!

Until next time,

Tristan

You can read the previous edition of "Today through my lens" here:

https://steemit.com/nature/@tristanoliff/sunset-on-the-ice-and-a-walk-through-the-frozen-forest-today-through-my-lens-1

And if you want to read more about me and my story, find my introduce yourself post here:

https://steemit.com/introduceyourself/@tristanoliff/this-is-me-and-this-is-what-i-m-going-to-do-introducing-tristan