Robert's Ramblings

I often hear about 'the golden hour', that last hour before sunset where everything becomes bathed in the soft remaining sunlight.

Sure this is a lovely time to create images but then there is that last 2 minutes. It begins the moment the sun touches the horizon, the last moment when full face of the sun shines its yellow light on the landscape. This is the brightest yellow and most horizontal the light will get. Actually at this point the sun has already dropped below the horizon. It is only still visible due to refraction and the sun's rays being bent by the earth's atmosphere.

From this moment the light begins to dim and the yellow begins to fade. One minute later the sun is sitting as a semicircle on the horizon and the colours in the landscape begin to cool towards the grey blues of twilight. After two minutes the sun finally dips below the horizon and the landscape's transition from yellow-orange to blue is complete.

A two minute window to capture this is not long, but not so short that you can't enjoy the experience and take photo.


Photo: Robert Rath, ‘Day 498, The Last Two Minutes' 1/13s f/9.0 ISO125 15mm

Today's annular eclipse probably went completely unnoticed, at least here in Adelaide anyway!

For those in the Northern part of Australia and living within the 150Km wide transit path the experience would have been a surreal soft yellow ambiance. For those actually observing the eclipse they would have seen the moon fitting neatly inside the the sun creating a fiery donut of light in the morning sky.

Here in Adelaide we only got to see a 33% partial eclipse. As I was capturing this image a high school student walked by. I showed him the eclipse in the camera display and he was dumbfounded how nothing around hinted at what was happening tin the sky.

If only there were a way to show both the sun and the moon in the same frame rather that just its silhouette. Still I think this image is dramatic enough on its own with surface texture and sunspots visible.

More about today's annular eclipse can be found at http://eclipse.gsfc.nasa.gov/OH/OH2013.html#SE2013May10A


Photo: Robert Rath, ‘Day 497, An Odd Shadow' 1/8000s f/32 - ND ISO160 400mm