Sunsets December 4
I’ve been doing a few sunsets recently. I have a plan to launch a line of Alameda, CA postcards. This is one of the test shots leading up to that. The weather has been excellent the last few days– completely clear and cool, which does not make for spectacular sunsets, but makes for very predicable results about 30-45 minutes after the sun goes down.
This was taken adjacent to the Alameda-Oakland Ferry Terminal. I’m looking almost due west at San Francisco, with the Port of Oakland to the right. The old boat in the left of the frame and the grass in front of the camera is lit with a flash just camera right. I didn’t want the boat to show up in silhouette, like the pier does, so I hit it with a warm color-corrected flash. The boat also managed to block the brightest part of the sunset, letting me expose up and catch the colors over the city without completely blowing out that part of the sky.
However beautiful, I’m not thrilled with the composition. Cropped from an earlier shot, here`s the composition I want to get closer to:
This one is further back, and shot with a longer lens. It brings the city much closer to you, and crops out the cranes (which are not necessary to the image).
So I think this is the shot, but I’ll reshoot this one (lighting from A, composition from B) the next time the weather gets around to this.