Monthly Archives: September 2022
We had some nice, white puffy cloud cover most of the day, so I anticipated a spectacular sunset. The clouds got gray going into the evening, but I was still hopeful. I checked out an app I have called “Ephermeris,” which tracks the cycles of the sun & moon with angles and times with a slant toward photography. I haven’t really figured it out yet, but I’m starting to.
I rode into D.C. and parked along East Potomac Park, taking a few shots of people along the way, and planted myself where I thought I would be able to get a good sunset behind the Lincoln memorial. The sky was pretty gray, and there wasn’t a lot of color.
So I didn’t get the shot I was looking for, but I am not unhappy with this one. Editing is very minor, other than the 16:9 crop, and a little clarity and dehaze, it’s how it came out of the camera.
I have some other shots that I will share from later, but this makes the shot of the day. Some of the others were taken with something other than the 17-40mm, so they weren’t under consideration. And I won’t cheat and use today’s shot on another day, that would defeat the purpose.
EXIF: ISO 400 @ 25mm f:/9.0, 3/10 sec.
My son Jason and I met after work and chased the sunset on our bikes this evening. This photo was taken at the Pass Mountain Overlook in Shenandoah National Park. That’s Luray, VA mid-left.
Part of this challenge for me is to train myself to find the shot with the lens on the camera, rather than chasing the lens. I want to develop a better understand of what the tools I have can (and should) do. One thing I have learned about the 17-40mm is that it does suffer from some corner vignetting at the lower end, easily corrected in Lightroom. I’ve also quickly come to realize that these wide shots benefit from the 16:9 crop, and I’m learning to find that in the camera.
I used a Manfrotto tripod with a Benro geared head, and shot remote using Canon Connect on a Samsung tablet. You can’t get a shot like this hand held.
EXIF: ISO 2500@ 17mm f/16 2.0 sec
In case you are keeping score, I have posted 3 photos so far in this challenge. That’s 3 out of 39 photos.