The trouble with sunsets...

[gilliebg]

...if that when I turn up, they don't! I really thought there would be a really good sunset yesterday, but it was a bit of a damp squib. This was taken on the Big Bend of the Gulf of Mexico, where the Withlacoochee river meets the sea. I notice a thin white edge to the trees and white dots in the clup of trees in the center of the horizon; this has happened to me before, but I am not sure why, so any ideas would be helpful Gillie

[FrankMi]

Hi Gille! A sunset is usually a 'catch as catch can' and usually unpredictable. I find the best luck is when a storm has just come through and the skies are just starting to clear at the Western horizon. As the sun drops below the horizon it can shine from beyond the curvature of the earth through the clear western sky to illuminate the bottoms of the waning storm clouds.

By watching the weather forecasts for these conditions you can improve your odds of being prepared and in the right place at the right time. The best sunsets are usually from 15-45 minutes AFTER the sun dips below the horizon but depending upon sky conditions it may be earlier or even later so give yourself a good hour and be patient.

This image (#121) was taken at 7:27 PM as the sun was setting. I thought the whole exercise was going to be a bust.



But I figured I was there and other than not being able to see all that well and darn near loosing my balance in the dark and slipping into the lake, by 7:58 PM the sun was well down, it was getting dark, but, I took image #195 as the sky was doing this...



A few minutes later it was pretty much gone.

I had taken multiple exposures and blended them into following in post processing:



Hope this helps!

[gilliebg]

Thanks for your reply, Frank. A very interesting exercise in getting the best from a sunset; I hadn't thought of blending several exposures, but I shall in future. I need to find some scenery nearer home that will look good with a sunset. Here in Florida the weather can change so drastically and quickly that when I go to the coast I never get it right - it can look really promising at home, and on the weather channel), but 40 miles away it is completely different. Gillie