I’m sure at some point in its life every camera gets aimed at a sunset scene – they’re the kind of settings that, like snow covered land or cityscapes, somehow create the most magical and dramatic pictures from what would otherwise be the ordinary and the everyday. Add in a silhouette, or water reflecting the light and you have an instant subject. Last evening, after a strangely cloudy day (it had been a beautiful clear and sunny late autumn weekend), I looked out from the patio at the Midlands landscape that is my daily inspiration and noticed the first tinges of pink starting to highlight the clouds. I must confess – I have never really done sunsets before – somehow they’re too predictable a subject. As iNhlosane became a mere outline (my silhouette) I fetched the camera.I learned yesterday that with sunsets, when the light strikes just right you have to seize the moment – and pronto. Hardly had I had time to check the lens (an atom of lens dust can ruin a shot that depends on lighting), and camera settings – ASA, exposure compensation, sharpness, white balance, F Stop, focal length (infinity), colour depth (vivid) – when I knew it was time to shoot. After a mere ten minutes the sky had darkened, and the moment was over.
