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"SUNSHINE SKYWAY"
Planning the Shot
I have received a lot of compliments regarding my "Sunshine
Skyway" photo (October 1, 2005), so I decided to share some tips and
how to go about taking this photo.
LOCATION
Fort DeSoto, located at the southern tip of Pinellas County, is an
incredible location for photography. In the November 2004 issue of
Popular Photography & Imaging, an editor named the park as one of his
three favorite places to photograph nature. It was rated as
America's Best Beach (even above the Hawaii beaches) by Doctor Beach (www.drbeach.org)
for 2005. In addition to being a great beach, a wide array of
wildlife makes Fort DeSoto its home. You can expect to find
dolphins, herons, egrets, spoonbills, etc. on a regular basis.
But, what really makes Fort DeSoto unique is that you can photograph
both sunrises and sunsets over water from the same location. The
park is surrounded by water with the Gulf of Mexico to the west and
Tampa Bay to the east and south.
MAKING THE SUN APPEAR LARGE
To begin with, when you take a photo of something with the sun in
the background, the farther away you are from the object, the larger the
sun will appear in comparison. If you want the sun to appear
larger, move farther away from the object and use a zoom lens. In
the two graphics below, you can see that the farther away from the
bridge the beach is, the larger the sun appears in comparison (note the
red line where the bridge is).
Therefore, if you want the sun to appear large in the photo, you
should be as far away from the bridge as possible. I used a 400mm
lens so that I could zoom in on the bridge and appear closer than I
actually was, making the sun appear much larger.
DON'T FORGET TO ADJUST
As the sun rises, you will find that more and more light is entering
your camera. For the best results, you should constantly monitor
your camera's settings. Settings that look great one minute may
give you an overexposed photo the next as the sun gets brighter and
brighter. The same rule applies to shooting sunsets as well.
Your photos will begin to be underexposed as the sun sets, unless you
adjust your camera's settings.
PLANNING THE SHOT
Now that you know how to get the sun to look larger in the photo and
getting the correct exposure, planning the shot is next. As you
know, the earth is always moving. The tilt in the axis of the
earth is what causes our seasons. This also causes the sun to rise
in a different location every day. In the winter months, the sun
rises in a more southern location than in the summer months. The
sunrise here in St. Petersburg can range from approximately 63° to 116° where 90° is due
east. The following image shows the direction the sun would rise
from a point on the beach at 63° and 116°. As you can tell, there
is a large difference.
Knowing where the sun will rise will play a key role in
planning the shot. The idea for this shot came to me in April
2005. After shooting a photo of the bridge with the sun just south
of the spans, I decided to look at a map and see exactly what direction
the bridge was from the beach. Next, I looked at a sun position
calculator to see what day the sun would be in the direction I needed.
The ideal date for the photo would've been around September 21st.
Unfortunately, I had prior plans the weekend following that date. The photo was
actually taken on October 1st. On
that morning, the sun rose at 7:23 at a direction of 93°. Using a
satellite photo of Fort DeSoto (I used
Google Maps), I was able to draw
a line of 93° to see where I should be on the beach to have the sun
centered between the two spans of the bridge.
The area where the red line meets Fort DeSoto is known as the East
Beach. That is where the photo was taken. As you can tell
from the satellite photo, the two spans of the Sunshine Skyway are
nearly due east of Fort DeSoto. Had I taken the photo closer to
September 21st, the angle would've been closer to due east and therefore
I would've had to go farther southwest on the beach to take the photo
and, since I would've been farther from the bridge, the sun would've
appeared even larger in the photo.
YOUR TURN
By knowing where and when the sun will rise or set, you should be
able to plan your shots, knowing that the sun will be where you expect it to
be. Your only limitation is your imagination.
RESOURCES
The following calculators can be used to help you know in advance
exactly where the sun will be.
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