Sunset, Ecola State Park

This is another image from my Oregon Coast series. This was our second night on the coast, and that day the marine layer moved in and left it hazy for us all week. At first I was disappointed, but realizing that it wasn’t going away I tried to find images that worked with it. One good thing that it did do was create great color as the sun lowered in the evening sky. I am a black and white shooter, but when you get color like this… well, what else can I say. It did set the stage for some wonderful, romantic evenings.

I love the strong horizontal composition in this image paired with the wonderful warm tones of the sunset suggesting peace and tranquility, warmth and comfort. Capturing a silhouette like this is not to difficult a technique to master. Using a spot meter, meter the sky and increase the exposure about 1 stop. In this case, my meter read f/16 at .6 seconds, so I shot at 1.3 seconds, obviously with the camera on a tripod. To avoid camera shake I always lock the mirror up on my Canon 5D and use a cable release.