{"id":183,"date":"2019-03-22T23:04:18","date_gmt":"2019-03-22T23:04:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.markyrowls.com\/?p=183"},"modified":"2022-09-23T19:48:38","modified_gmt":"2022-09-23T18:48:38","slug":"golden-hour-and-the-moment-i-finally-got-it","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.markyrowls.com\/personal-experiences\/golden-hour-and-the-moment-i-finally-got-it\/","title":{"rendered":"Golden Hour and the moment I finally ‘got it’"},"content":{"rendered":"

Ever since I brought my first DSLR back in 2017, I’ve spent many hours reading photographic blogs and articles to improve my knowledge and understanding of the subject. One of the topic I came across again and again was ‘golden hour<\/a>‘ (the period just after sunrise or just before sunset)\u00a0 and why it was the perfect time for taking photographs. Now I understood the theory behind golden hour and why it was such a great time to get out and shoot. When the sun is near the horizon, its light has to pass through more of the earths atmosphere. That atmosphere acts as a giant diffuser which softens the intensity of direct sunlight. The problem I had was I never really felt I’d experienced or noticed the effects of golden hour when out with my camera. Looking back, perhaps this wasn’t that suprising as I was still very new to photography and still had an awful lot to learn!<\/p>\n

I’ve seen the light!<\/h2>\n

This all changed one evening in August 2017.<\/p>\n

Back in 2017 my main interest was wildlife photography, mainly birds so I’d often visit some of the local rivers and costal locations close to my home in North Essex<\/p>\n

On that August evening in 2017 we were walking along the River Stour at Mistley, Essex<\/a> hoping to catch a few wading birds on the river. It was a beautiful still evening with almost no breeze and the water was like a mill pond. A small group of Mute Swans were drifting along on the slow current and as I move down closer to the bank to take a few shots it suddenly struck me how clear and blue the water was and how clear refelections of the swans were on the water.<\/p>\n

\"Mute<\/a><\/p>\n

I still remember taking this shot above and a few others and thinking to myself:<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

“Now I understand why golden hour is the best time of day for photography”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

 <\/p>\n

It really did feel like a light bulb had just switched on in my head. Apologies for the shocking pun there!<\/p>\n

Once I had loaded the images into Lighttoom and viewed them full size, I was delighted with the results. Although at the time I was very inexperienced and the compositions were not great, these are still some of my favourite wildlife images.<\/p>\n

Final Thoughts<\/h2>\n

Since I took the very first first photo with my entry level DSLR (a Nikon D5300), there have been numerous occasions when I have tried a new technique or experienced something for the first time, but this still one of the most memorable moments I’ve had and helped me understand that I had to really look at a ‘look’ at a scene from every perspective.<\/p>\n

Have you had one of those ‘light bulb’ moments during your photographic journey? I’d love to hear your experiences in the comments below.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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