Sunset Bench
Overlooking Narragansett Bay from Colt State Park, Bristol, RI.
Overlooking Narragansett Bay from Colt State Park, Bristol, RI.
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Sep, 2014Views
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rjcameron
April 19, 2018
Thank You for the kind words about this photo. When I arrived at this location that afternoon the fog was so thick that I didn't expect to get anything. My patience was rewarded as the sun broke through and provided this beautifully framed image over the bay. I'm glad I stuck around for this amazing show. Thanks again!
Same photographer See allBehind The Lens
Behind The Lens
Location
I found this location close to my home in Bristol, Rhode Island while walking through Colt State Park. There are both hike and bike paths as well as a roadway that all paralell this shoreline vista in the park where every evening people gather for occasionally amazing sunsets. There is also an outdoor Wedding Chapel up on a hill overlooking this very same area.Time
Earlier, that May evening, the skies were very clear and the seas were calm; not very good conditions for the type of sunset that I preferred to shoot. Luckily I decided to stick around for a while just to let things play out because not long after 7pm a very heavy fog bank rolled into the harbor. The fog gently filtered the bright light of the sun and created a beautiful silhouette in the foreground.Lighting
It was a beautiful clear bright day when I arrived at my location and the sun was beginning to set so I had no real lighting issues as I would be shooting directly into the sun. However, I did come prepared with a circular polarizer and both a 3-stop and 6-stop ND filter in case I needed to control all of that direct light. With a small aperture (f/16) and the CP in place I found that I was able to control enough of the sunlight in-camera that the ND filters weren't necessary.Equipment
This scene was shot a Canon EOS 7D with a Tamron 18-270mm, f/16, 1/400sec, ISO 1600 with a Hoya circular polarizer, mounted on an old Slik aluminum tripod.Inspiration
I've shot hundreds of sunsets in many different places, most times relying on the sunlight and cloud cover to speak to me, but on this occasion I was inspired by the silhouette of the tree and that empty park bench. It was a serene almost spiritual experience. I had to move my position relative to the sun a few times in order to find that perfect composition of the tree framing the bench just as the sun dipped into the haze of the thick fog.Editing
Truth be told I really did not need to do much post processing for this image, but it was shot in RAW so I used Lightroom to crop, straighten, and do some minor adjustments before exporting it as a JPEG.In my camera bag
As an amateur photographer (not specializing in any one area of photography) my large Lowepro bag is full of stuff. It always contains my Canon EOS 7D ready-to-shoot with the Tamron 18-270mm super telephoto attached. I also have a Canon 50mm f/1.4 prime and 75-300mm f/4-5.6 lens, and a Canon Speedlight 430EX with diffuser. I carry a Hoya Circular-Polarizer and several other filters (3-stop ND,6-stop ND, Red, UV in a nice foldable filter pouch by Pearstone, a few different sized microfiber lens cloths including an X-Large one from Zeiss and a small one that stuffs into a small neoprene pouch that is attached to the Lowepro top pocket zipper for easy access. I also have a Lens Pen DSLR Pro kit to keep all of my lenses and filters dust free. Backup Sandisk memory cards (3), batteries (2 Li-on camera, 8 AA flash), Maglite, headlamp, mini flashlight (3"), corded Canon RS-80N3 remote switch for those long exposure tripod shots, note pad and a few pens, quart ziplok bags (2) and I usually stick some form of ID inside the bag. I use membership cards that I receive as junk mail from charitble organizations I support like the USO or DAV, as long as it contains my full and correct name. One time I was returning home on a flight from Europe and someone had mistakenly taken my camera bag from the carry-on compartment. Luckily, they realized their mistake and left it at the Lost Baggage office where I was able to prove it belonged to me because of those cards stashed inside the bag. The bag I use also has a compartment that will hold a 17" laptop, but that only gets used when I'm traveling (usually flying) a long distance to a location.Feedback
Anytime you are planning to shoot directly into the sun you must be prepared and able to reduce the amount of light hitting your sensor. A small aperture of f/16 to f/22 and a polarizer will help but many times even they may not be enough. Hard and Soft Graduated and Solid Neutral Density filters are the way to go here. Their ability to reduce the light entering the lens without affecting the colors in your composition make them a necessity. I carry both a 3-stop and 6-stop solid ND that mount directly on my lenses. I don't have any Graduated filters at this time but they are on my "wish" list. These graduated filters are generally rectangular and require additional adapters to mount them onto the lens itself. You can even forgoe the adapters and just hold the grad filter in front of your lens as you shoot. The upper half of a hard grad filter will be dark with a solid (hard) line transitioning from the ND directly to clear glass on it's bottom half (best for well defined solid horizon lines), while the soft grad gradually transitions more slowly from dark to light. And don't forget to adjust the ISO in-camera as needed to maintain reasonable shutter speed for your subject. There was a slight breeze in the air, rustling the leaves of the tree, the evening that I shot this silhouette so I adjusted my ISO to get to 1/400 sec shutter speed which froze the movement.
