Photographing architecture with HDR

I’m really like taking photographs of bridges and while in Phx. I did this HDR capture of the bridge and some architecture. I waited until sunset since the sky was hosting some great clouds.

When’s the last time you looked at a sunset? No, I mean really stopped, sat down and watched a sunset develop. Well my friend this is the first step to being able to capture a great sunset photograph.

Yes we all have busy lives and we see the sunset every day as we perform our many daily tasks so we don’t need to study a sunset to take a picture right? Wrong, if you want a sunset image that everyone wishes they photographed one must know a few things first.

Ok, here’s the deal, one day a mate comes along  and asks me “You mind Googling Sunsets?” so yes we consulted the mighty Google   <– a quick Bow here –>  and we got many sunset pictures to view and compare.

Arizona sunset in gates pass

Now the question was “look how awesome that sunset picture is”, and over here is one with similar clouds, color etc. but just looks like another average sunset picture. Why does the first one have these awesome rays of sunlight bathing across the landscape, really rich colors and the 2^nd sunset pictures although it’s a nice sunset it just not that knock out picture like I want to capture.

You see kind readers, they shot this sunset picture at the wrong time for the type of picture he wanted to capture. Seems logical I know but let me explain, I give myself about 1 hour on location to photograph a sunset. A sunset lasts lets say 10 to 15 minutes max (at least the sweet spot of a sunset) and out of that the time we have about 5 to 10 seconds to actually capture those perfect rays of sunlight that bath the desert floor.

These precious few seconds when the sun is dropping below the horizon and at just the right moment, presents us with a bouquet of beautiful sun rays that disappears in a blink of an eye.

Take a moment to water the local plant life and you’ll miss it, grab a water out of the cooler, you might see it but you won’t capture it, give the sweetheart a few smooches while enjoying the beautiful sunset… it’s gone! (Ok maybe in the last case we don’t care and we’ll come back another day to get the shot.)

You get the idea we have to be ready, prepared, anticipating the moment, and you’ll have the killer sunset image that everyone wishes they had photographed.

Yes I agree there are many beautiful sunsets photographed before and after this short window of time, but if you want to get more images like this, take the time to study and enjoy a few sunsets, we can easily prepare ourselves for that narrow window of time that produces this type of sunset image.

A Monsoon Lightning Show over Tucson

Lightning in TucsonLightning strike over south side of Tucsonlightning out in the desert

Nice Tucson sunset with a monsoon storm

lightning out in the desert

While out on a photography assigment the Monsoons rolled in and put a hult to the current project scheduled for the evening. So after packing up to head home the lightning was close by and I pulled of setup and captured this shot.

Lightning strike over south side of Tucson

Photography by 520 memories

Arizona sunset in gates pass

Another advantage to capturing Arizona Sunsets is monsoon storms,  they often bring lovely sunsets afterwards. As the sun was setting the glow was awesome I couldn’t pass up photographing this sunset.

Another Sunset at Gates Pass in Tucson

Photography by 520 Memories

While I was in Phoenix doing a photography job at ASU I wanted to do some HDR images at sunset so  after finishing up I found a spot that I wanted to do a couple of HDR shots. While photographing the HDRs I noticed all the planes over head making an approach to the airport and did this Time Lapse of the planes and lightning.
550 frames captured for this movie, 13 frames a second for the movie.

Saguaro Catus

Black and white pictures can be some of the best ways to showcase the Arizona terrain. Sometimes I will set out to capture images in black and white and timing is important. For a good black and white image I want good contrast and so I shoot these early in the morning or later in the evening as the sun is setting. I look for spots with good cross light to really pop the contrast in the mountains.

picture by 520memories