The Golden Hour

I am a professional photographer specializing in architectural portfolio views. For years I used a 4X5 and 8X10 to photograph my subjects. There was much angst associated with film photography as I never knew for sure that I had the captured the light. There was also the anxiety associated with having film ruined by the local color processing lab. Most projects included shooting at twilight as the inner glow of the building began to take over as the light source. You really have to be prepared as you only get to shoot a few views as the light changes quickly and dramatically. What is so wonderful about digital  is that you get to see your results immediately and you can rest assured that the job is done right.

Recent photo shoot

Alpenglow (from German: Alpenglühen) is an optical phenomenon. When the Sun is just below the horizon, a horizontal red glowing band can sometimes be observed on the opposite horizon. Alpenglow is easiest to observe when mountains are illuminated but can also be observed when the sky is illuminated through backscattering.

Since the Sun is below the horizon, there is no direct path for the light to reach the mountain. Instead, light reflects off airborne snow, water, or iceparticles low in the atmosphere. It is this circumstance that separates a normal sunrise or sunset from alpenglow.

Although the term may be loosely applied to any sunrise or sunset light seen on the mountains, true alpenglow is not direct sunlight and is only observed after sunset or before sunrise.

In the absence of mountains, the aerosols in the eastern portion of the sky themselves can still be illuminated in the same way by the remaining red scattered light straddling the border of the Earth’s own shadow (the terminator). This back-scattered light produces a red band opposite the Sun.

Time exposure at sunset

Words to live by!

To evoke in oneself a feeling one has once experienced, and having evoked it in oneself, then, by means of movements, lines, colors, sounds, or forms expressed in words, so to transmit that feeling that others may experience the same feeling – this is the activity of art.  – Leo Tolstoy

“The Journey is the Destination”

If your pictures aren’t good enough, you aren’t close enough.
Robert Capa

A photograph is a secret about a secret. The more it tells you the less you know.
Diane Arbus

The more specific you are, the more general it’ll be.
Diane Arbus

A good photograph is knowing where to stand.
Ansel Adams

There are no rules for good photographs, there are only good photographs.
Ansel Adams

There is nothing worse than a sharp image of a fuzzy concept.
Ansel Adams

Photography is about finding out what can happen in the frame. When you put four edges around some facts, you change those facts.
Garry Winogrand

There is nothing as mysterious as a fact clearly described. I photograph to see what something will look like photographed.
Garry Winogrand