Some Light Is Just Plain Golden

Did you know that the majority of photographers have a favorite time of day to make photographs? That time of day is referred to as “golden hour,” and oddly enough, it happens twice a day! Most people only think of Golden Hour happening in the afternoon, and they’d be right… mostly. You see, Golden Hour happens right before sunset when the light is warm, soft, and beautiful. The photo I’ve chosen this month was made in Yosemite National Park of a famous rock structure named Twin Sisters, reflecting in a still section of the Merced River during the afternoon Golden Hour. The “other” Golden Hour happens first thing in the morning, directly after sunrise. You late risers probably fear that and prefer your warm bed, but for us early birds, morning Golden Hour is amazing. There are other periods of light such as Blue Hour, Twilights, Daytime (very harsh light and hard unflattering shadows) and Nighttime. Utilizing these times takes planning and sometimes, a lot of it. Fortunately in this day and age, we have tons of information and planning tools at our fingertips, such as Google Maps and an app for your phone called Photo Pills. You can plan where to stand to take that amazing landscape photo with the push of a button. The only hard part for some is waking up for the morning image or planning your day to arrive on time to set up for the afternoon image. But what do you do if it's cloudy or overcast, or if there's a forest fire and smoke has blown into your beautiful location (yes, that happened to me recently). Well, that is exactly what we’ll be discussing next month! See you then!