Smoky evening sun + repost

We are on the edge of one of the horrible California fires, not directly threatened now, but a bad smoke pall has descended on us and yesterday about an hour before sunset I saw this and had to run out with a camera, holding my breath. Canon 5D4, 100-400 + 1.4X at 560mm, ISO 1600, 1/250 (HH), f/18 to get the sun in focus well enough while focusing on the tree. Very minimal LR adjustments, into PS for NR (not needed at this size). Minor crop to remove about 20% of the frame.

What technical feedback would you like if any?

What artistic feedback would you like if any?

All comments welcome!

Pertinent technical details or techniques:

(If this is a composite, etc. please be honest with your techniques to help others learn)

If you would like your image to be eligible for a feature on the NPN Instagram (@NaturePhotoNet), add the tag ‘ig’ and leave your Instagram username below.
2 Likes

Excellent way to make some lemonade from the lemons; these fires can really muck with photography when you are hoping for clarity.

I think the capture works very well. I’m arguing with myself about the sun touching the tree. On the one hand, it almost acts like a pedestal which I like. On the other hand, the branch encroaching breaks that effect a bit. You might play with cloning that out, so the right branch is just at the edge of the sun like the left, then it would really look like the tree was cradling the sun.

Thanks John – I was able to change the relationship between the sun and tree by moving a few steps right or left, or waiting a few minutes, and I shot several compositions, but I liked this one for the tentative nature of the tree’s contact with the sun, hopefully suggestive of some deeper meaning for the viewer to think about or feel.

Quite a scene from the times here in CA. I have seen a few suns like this recently. I quite like @John_Williams 's suggestion about the clone of the intruding branch. Otherwise, it looks quite good.

Here is one before the sun touched the branches. It has a little less of the trees on the bottom, but I could do a pano with the bottom of the other frame. For me, the limb barely touching the sun puts attention on the interesting curving trunk that is reaching up. For some reason, the shots with the sun separated don’t do that.