Catalpa Leaf

Golden Hour: Contrary to what Pirates of the Caribbean would have you believe, sunsets are good for much more than just green flashes trans-world travel. For example, it is a fine time to observe God's power and majesty, or propose the the love of your life or even, if you are in the mood to do more than just praise or love, do some smashing photography. In the world of photography, the hour before sunset is often referred to as golden hour. The simple reason for this being that the angle of the sun in comparison to the earth's atmosphere changes in such a way that it causes the lighting to be much more warm in tone, meaning it is much more red, orange and yellowy. This style of lighting is very popular due to its appeal to the human eye in photography.

When doing photography at this hour, it is often advised to keep the sun at your back, since facing the sun will give you more dark figures that are heavily lit, like the catalpa leaf above. However, it can provide some lovely results to shoot in this manner, but like any sort of photography, there are some points that are good to keep in mind. First, use the LCD screen on your camera, not your viewfinder if possible. Why is that? Because the sun is REALLY bright! If you don't believe me just ask your mother. She will tell you the exact same thing. Second, cover the sun in most circumstances. If you do not cover the sun, you will get glares across the lens or have you shot washed out. These problems can lead to artsy results that can be very lovely, but they are not terribly predictable and tricky. Third, whenever shooting a sunset it is good to have another subject in the shot because even though the sunset looks sweet to you, 9 times out of 9 and a half it will not look very good on paper. So, put a silhouette or something in the picture to have the sunset simply be a backdrop for.