Cats and Trails and Garden Tales
Musings on cats, travel, gardens and life
Rainless in Seattle and the Orange Sun
As if it wasn’t enough to break the all time record for rain earlier this year (144 wet days, and almost 45 inches of rain between last October and April) we are now set to break the record for most days without measurable rain (51 days) tomorrow. To top it off, the uncharacteristically hot weather and the smoke from wildfires up north have made for vivid orange sunsets.
About an hour before the sun went down tonight it hovered low in the west looking like a blood orange. I don’t know how to capture that kind of color; maybe some day I will. In the meantime, I found the glow through the trees quite beautiful.
But I sure do miss the rain.
~ Susanne
Cats and Trails and Garden Tales 
‘Missing the rain’ is not something you would ever see me typing, Susanne. Sorry about the wildfires though, at least we never have those.
For photographing into the light (sunset) you have to remember that your camera will receive too much light. It will try to compensate for that, but will tend to overexpose the shot. If you have exposure compensation on your camera, you should try using that. Here are some tips from the Internet..
‘Underexpose. This is the most important tip for taking pictures of sunsets. Slightly underexposing the sunset will make the colors look more rich and defined. The entire scene will become more dramatic. You can underexpose by using manual mode and selecting a fast shutter speed, or you can shoot in aperture priority and use exposure compensation.’
‘Shoot at a variety of exposures – if you let your camera decide what shutter length to shoot at you’re likely to get a shot that doesn’t really capture the beauty of the light. Quite often the shot will be under exposed because the sky is still reasonably light. Instead of relying upon the camera’s auto mode a sunset is an ideal time to switch your camera into aperture or shutter priority mode and to take a variety of shots at different exposures. The great thing about sunsets and sunrises is that there is no one ‘right’ exposure and that you can get stunning results using a variety of them. Also keep in mind that different exposures (aperture and shutter speeds) will produce a variety of different results so it’s worth taking more than just a few shots – the key is to experiment.
I tend to switch into shutter priority mode and start with a relatively quick shutter speed and then slowly work down to slower ones.’
And watch this.
Best wishes, Pete.
Thanks Pete. All this is helpful as I’m still learning photography and my new camera as well. That sun was a brilliant red orange and nothing I tried would capture that. All these tips and the video too should help! As far as the rain goes, I can’t wait! Bring it on! 🙂
I wish Elijah were here. . . . (1 Kings 18:41-46)
You mean like this? “Elijah was a man of like feeling with us, and he earnestly prayed that it would not rain; and it did not rain on the earth for three years and six months. And he prayed again, and heaven gave rain, and the earth sprouted forth with its fruit.” James 5:17-18
Wow – feast or famine!
Seriously! Crazy Seattle weather.