Crownsville Renaissance Festival is a great place to visit. This year it started from 25th August and runs till the 21st October so you still have time to visit. There is something for everyone. There are games, varied live performances, music, artisan shops, and plenty food to suit all different tastes.
If you come in the morning, you are likely to run into the King and the royal court at the entrance.
In the morning a bridge can be enchanted, just imagine your picture on this bridge with sunlight coming through the trees.
The morning is so beautiful at the festival, just walk around and find a quiet spot, not so difficult when you come early and you can just sit down, observe and rest.
Throwing axes in the Stupid Hat Area is pretty popular. And it is not just for the fellows! If you like music, there is plenty live music, just take your pick.
Giant soap bubbles are plenty fun for everyone and you can take quite spectacular images through the bubbles.
Once you have seen acrobats, plays and all the other fun, you can just sit some more and relax.
A not so unusual question is “Travel or not to travel?” to photograph beautiful sunsets. I will hope to give you some idea of what you can achieve from your own living room or for that matter close by where you live. And before you say “my view is nothing like that”, there are still tricks that can let you photograph sunsets by just walking a few minutes down the street, up to the top floor of the building, into a garden or park… I hope you get an idea. If you live in a city take a look around see where the sun sets and how you can get a good view. If it is from your apartment, it makes it very easy.
The below series of images are from a living room of an apartment complex. My camera is always ready to be picked up for a photoshoot, so if you are serious about capturing moments in life make sure that yours is also.
The second set of two images show quite stunning texture of the clouds, fabulous color and light. There was no travel involved and the pictures turned out very interesting.
If you do travel to some of the most amazing National Parks, there are sites which are recommended to see at sunsets or sunrises. Look at the maps, ask the rangers, check on the web. While travel photography and landscape photos are frequently astounding, remember one thing, the photographers frequently spend a few days trying to capture this one perfect moment you are admiring now. When you travel, most often you may not get a perfect weather, too many or too few clouds. So can a beautiful photo be taken during a normal family travel? Yes, just try to focus on what and when to photograph. Plan ahead of time where you want to go and explore some photos online to try and figure out what would be the best spot to get the view you want. Once you are on site you will probably change your mind, as to what you want to photograph.
Before my trip to Arches National park I knew of two locations I definitely wanted to photograph. The first, perfect for sunsets – Windows at Arches and the second, for sunrises – Delicate Arch. Sunset was quite interesting with few clouds over the arches but the setting sun changed the illumination of the rocks, altering the color.
The moment of the perfect light on the rocks. Stunning color lasted just a few seconds.
This image was taken while waiting for the sunset light to focus on the windows. Colors are very different, partly because of the angle of the sun but also due to the clouds in the sky.
Within minutes sun is hiding beyond the horizon, beautifully colored windows become dark and uninteresting. At the same time cloudscape on the horizon is capturing everyone’s eye.
In order to finish this sunset series, I wanted to share one more image with you. This one is a Lumia 950 image of lake Champlain in Vermont. Great destination for those from outside Vermont. However, if you live close by, this can be your perfect sunset location. The sun is going down behind the mountains on the west bank of the lake but the light is still visible in the sky.
Enjoy taking pictures of sunsets and if you take any, you can tag me in your images on instagram.
I hope you enjoyed the first part about sunsets. This time we will head out to California for some really stunning sunsets. My two favorite places in California are San Diego area and Malibu beach. Both offer really amazing sunsets as you will be able to see.
Let’s head to Malibu beach with its great views. The beach is quite long and on both ends enclosed by a hill. What you can visualize on a photo will depend on the position of the sun, especially if you want to capture it going down over the water. Taking a wide angle lens can be helpful as you can create a very unique view. My favorite subject on this beach are the lifeguard towers, creating beautiful silhouettes on the orange to red sunset light.You can also capture birds in flight as in the second image.
San Diego area is definitely great for photographing sunsets. You will meet lots of people coming to watch the sunsets in La Jolla, Del Mar or Solana Beach. They are different every day and very beautiful. The golden sea of one day turns into a dark red sunlight disappearing beyond the horizon.
Solana Beach is another great place to see sunset and the difference is that you can capture a very tropical image, complete with the palm trees. View of the beach is relaxing and peaceful.
You can see most of those images on my FineArtAmerica site or on Picfair in the landscape collection. They can be licensed or purchased from both sites.
The last of the Sunset series, coming soon, will focus on some unique shots of sunsets from Virginia and from Arches National Park. It will show that even when you do not travel far you can still take amazing shots of sunsets.
Sunsets are probably one of the most photographed subjects. What makes sunsets so attractive? Obviously colors and light, but frequently there are also clouds and their texture or shape that makes the images unforgettable. Many tourist attractions or scenic views attract crowds every day to admire the setting sun. It is often hard to find a perfect spot to pick for taking pictures.
What makes a spot perfect? A place allowing you an unobstructed view of the sky, a city skyline or another particular feature. Remember that moving along your location may reveal a very different view. Also turning a camera slightly from the same point can deliver a very different image. Therefore, even if you have been to a particular spot before, every day and every sunset is different. You can see below how different are the four sunsets. All are taken in Arlington, from the same spot in a little different direction to best capture drama in the sky.
Framing your view is important, what do you want to show in the image besides the changing color and light. Are there any shapes, buildings, trees, anything interesting that can play a central role in your photograph? Remember that each sunset only happens once and what you are trying to convey is a particular moment, one that cannot ever be reproduced. It is important that if someone looks at your picture they can relate to the moment you captured. There has to be something that makes it unique.
As the sun sets there is less and less light. So two things become important, having a fast lens and a tripod. Wide angle lens can help in capturing sunset or sunrise, many of those are also fast lenses. The above images were all shot without a tripod and through glass, so not under the best conditions. Using a Canon EF85mm f/1.8USM lens gives enough angle and allows to take pictures at relatively slow speeds.
City skylines and glass skyscrapers offer a great subjects to photograph at sunset. There are two ways of doing it.
One way of shooting a sunset, is to capture a moment when it happens and is spectacular. You can see examples of those types of shots below, San Antonio on the left and New York on the right. In NYC, a late afternoon stroll to Times Square was rewarded with this image of sky looking like a fireball. In this case I did not use any image enhancement for the NYC picture, it was extremely dramatic without a need for any additional changes. On the other hand, in San Antonio, I was strolling back towards the hotel, when the reflection in the windows captured my eye. You can see how different floors of the building reflect different colors of the sunset. When I turned around, the sunset was spectacular with amazing colors and textures. Finding the right angle and putting a camera on a tripod was a race, which I think I won with the below image of the sunset in San Antonio.
The second way, is to pre-plan your sunset trip to a scenic location around the city, set up and wait till the sunset starts happening. This is a well tried approach and beautiful shots can be made, especially when there are clouds in the sky. Skyline of Seattle and New York show different lighting conditions and directions of the shots. In Seattle, Kerry Park is one of the best places to see a sunset, as it offers an unobstructed view of the city. A panorama image taken from Long Island towards Manhattan shows just one of the great places to photograph a sunset in NYC.
As this story draws to a close, I wanted to share an image from Durham, NC, taken from the parking lot of the Southpoint Mall. I am sure you are thinking why this location? An explanation is simple. As I was driving along the road I have noticed the most gorgeous sunset one can see, colors, clouds everything so perfect. There was just one problem, I was on a highway, no way I can stop and take pictures. By pulling into the mall parking lot I was able to capture at least some of the beauty of this evening. It is not the perfect image one might want but it captures a unique moment in time.
The bottom line is do not get discouraged when it looks like you may miss a beautiful moment, try to capture it. If you are lucky enough to not be a driver, you can attempt taking pictures from the car. This requires a bit more than just a good eye, it needs a steady hand, good road and a bit of luck. Taking pictures from a moving car that is a separate topic, that I hope to get to later this year.
And to leave you with something actually not accidental for a sunset, here is a sunset in Toronto, Canada, over the lake. Enjoy and I will be back with more images of sunsets.
Agnes Caruso Photography 