Good night Ha Long
Sunset over Ha Long Bay in Vietnam. The overcast and hazy conditions made for poor photos during the day but, made for a most memorable sunset!...
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Sunset over Ha Long Bay in Vietnam. The overcast and hazy conditions made for poor photos during the day but, made for a most memorable sunset!
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Jan, 2014Views
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Awards
Action Award
People's Choice in Mountains and sunsets/sunrises Photo Challenge
People's Choice in show the first photo you uploaded onto Viewbug Photo Challenge
Peer Award
Absolute Masterpiece
Superb Composition
Top Choice
Outstanding Creativity
Virtuoso
All Star
Magnificent Capture
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Impressed
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Behind The Lens
Location
This image was taken in Ha Long Bay in Vietnam on board a Junk ship.Time
It was sunset on 12/23/2013 and if the clock on my camera was set correctly, it was 16:54. (Whatever the time, I think it's safe to say it was during the golden hour.)Lighting
The weather was extremely overcast and hazy all day so, with a gray sky and flat lighting, the scenery in Ha Long Bay was hardly worth taking a picture of. At least that's what I thought all day. I didn't realize the conditions would make for such a memorable sunset. The haze was so thick that it created a smooth flat background that allowed the sharp definition of the disc of the sun to be seen with only a small amount of color in the sky. On the other hand, the haze wasn't so thick as to make the sun completely disappear before it's turned a color worth photographing as it often does on hazy/cloudy days. The haze was so perfect that I had a surprise when I started reviewing the pictures at 100%. There were several spots in the image that I assumed were caused by dust on the sensor but, after noticing the spots remained in exactly the same place on the sun from image to image, I realized they were sunspots.Equipment
Canon EOS 70D with a Canon EF 70-300 F/4-5.6 IS USM lens (non-L) at 95MM. The shot was taken at 1/200 & f/5.6 with -1/3 exposure compensation. The shot was taken hand-held on board a boat but thankfully, it was a large boat and the water was extremely calm so there was no problem with camera shake that the IS couldn't compensate for in this image at 95mm and in others that were at 300mm.Inspiration
I think the inspiration for the photo is self evident. Perhaps this sunset was just another one of may like it on Ha Long Bay but, for me, it was a sunset unlike any I've seen before or since.Editing
I post-processed in Lightroom 5 from the RAW image. My intent was to make the image look as close as possible to what the scene actually looked like. Straight out of the camera "as shot", the RAW looked flat and washed out so, I darkened the shadows, increased the contrast, decreased the exposure and increased the saturation. I also cloned out a small boat that was visible in the distance as it was a small distraction that didn't add anything to the image. I've certainly "enhanced" other sunset pictures I've taken to make them look more dramatic than they really were but, this one was post-processed to look as close to the original scene as my memory of it allowed.In my camera bag
Canon 70D, Sigma 8-16 f/4.5-5.6 DC HSM, Canon EF 24-105 f/4.0L IS USM, and now the Canon EF 70-300 f/4.5.6L IS USM to replace the non-L 70-300 I used for this image. The non-L 70-300 can yield great images but, I experienced inconsistent & slow focusing with it on too many occasions where timing & speed mattered so, decided to replace it with the L version.Feedback
Be in the right place at the right time!! Equally important was that I took plenty of shots of this sunset at different focal lengths, with different framing throughout the 15-20 minutes it took for the sun to set. Even so, there were only a few "keepers" and I wish I had taken even more shots that I did. Many of the ones that didn't cut it looked great when I reviewed them on the camera's LCD but, failed when viewed on a reasonable size monitor, mostly due to poor composition. So,don't be shy with the shutter button and make sure you have a good size memory card.
