Sunsets are the most magical time of the day..I call it the twilight zone between daylight and darkness when everything takes on a magical, glowing appearance.
My first award winning photograph was in 1956 while attending college, and it was a sunset scene. Ever since that time I try to have a camera with me at sunset time…but over the years I have missed many more wonderful shots that what I have taken.
When you take a photograph of a sunset,..If you have a camera that sets itself automatically…aim it a the bright part of the scene. That way your sensor will read the brightest light and provide you with a more colorful photograph. Otherwise your photo will end up very dark and the brilliant colors that you saw in the scene will be non existent. Take three or 4 different views with the subject in a different part of the viewfinder…or the viewing screen.
Always try to have some object in the foreground to provide more depth to the scene.
If you have a camera that you can set the exposure, be sure you have it set for a sunny daylight exposure. This will help you catch the bright colors in the sky. Many times you will end up with silhouette sunset and you have captured the best of two worlds. But, sometimes you will end up with a glare on your photo as well. Try to hold your camera at an angle so that you are not shooting straight into the sun. In the photo of the week, the sun was off to one side of the scene and there was no glare. I took five different views and the I one selected I thought was the most dramatic. I was amazed at how white the sun had become.
The first photographs is Evening Fishermen, the one taken in 1958 on a small lake in Minnesota.
This photograph was taken along the beach near Ft. Pickens at Pensacola in 2011. It is a very low angle shot showing the sea oats in the foreground.
This scene was taken at Joe Patti’s Seafood Market Wharf in 2011. It almost appears to be a black and white photograph that has been colored, but it is not the case.
The Boat Dock scene was taken in Central Illinois in 2010. There are at least three boats at the dock. Do you see them?
The sun was just setting behind the bridge on this bayou in Pensacola. If you look very closely you can see a small boat on the water near the bridge. Photograph taken 2011.
A favorite black and white of mine, a sunset on a bay close to my house. The wind was blowing the reeds and the sun was partially hidden behind the clouds. Photo taken in 2005.
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Frank Brueske
Award winning photographer, Franklin (Frank) Brueske, is originally from Southeastern Minnesota. He became interested in photography while in elementary school and purchased his first camera from a rural community drug store when he was is the sixth grade. It took 127 film, was fixed focus, but had sun and cloud adjustments. He still has that camera today. More about Frank
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The black and white sunset “reeds blowing in the wind” is my favorite, I think, of these. Of course I love black and white and sepia. But then I really like the “boat dock” sunset too….love the deep color.