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I suppose I have to thank my kids for missing the school bus the other week.
Why? Because, on the way home from the school I noticed the sun shining through the fog and decided to whip out my camera. ( Luckily I had my camera on me. I am trying to get in the habit of taking it every where. I can not count the times I have missed a great picture because I forgot to bring it along, like the morning on the way out of the school parking lot when it was foggy and the sun came out and illuminated the fog behind a grouping of trees. I was kicking myself all the way home for having forgotten my camera that day). You never know when you will come across something that moves you and the artist in you demands you take a photo for reference later.
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The sun was so bright streaming through the trees that I had to shoot virtually blind on most of these. I would aim as best as I could toward my desired focal point and click hoping I’d gotten it, without really being sure because all I could see through the viewfinder was a bright glare.
It is really important to make sure to check the settings on a digital camera. I normally leave mine on the highest resolution setting possible, however I had recently put it on low resolution for some pictures I took for the sole purpose of illustrating my blog posts on framing and for my post on recycling candles. I had already taken several pictures when I realized I had not returned the settings to high resolution. which is too bad because the second of these is one of my favorites of the ones I took that day.
Early Morning Sun Rays #3 by dlmtleArt
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I love how the sunburst causes such a contrast with the deep early morning forested shade. It is all so peaceful and ethereal in its beauty. The light is not often so perfect for taking such great photos. I got a bit carried away and took around 40 in very short order. The refracted light in the camera lens also caused interesting patterns of red and blue hexagons to appear in the sunburst images.
Early Morning Sun Rays #2 by dlmtleArt
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Once I had several images that I felt captured the gloriousness of the bright sunburst I hiked in a bit further and started taking pictures of the more delicate effects of the sun rays themselves.
Early Morning Sun Rays #5 by dlmtleArt
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more of Dawna’s photos in part 2,
part 3part 4
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February 14, 2009 at 7:10 pm
Chris
How do you take great sunburts shots like this?
February 14, 2009 at 9:09 pm
dlmtleart
First make sure the lighting is good. a light layer of fog or mist with bright sunlight seems to work best. then early in the morning or late in the evening stand where some trees are between you and the sun. The trees and water droplets in the fog cause the sun rays to break into visible beams and shadows. shooting directly towards the sun also causes lens flare, which can enhance the effect.