“The biggest cliché in photography is sunrise and sunset.” — Catherine Opie, photographer.
It’s true perhaps that these natural spectacles have been overused as photographic subjects. Yet should you happen to have a camera in hand when the landscape is lit by the shades of twilight, it’s pretty hard to resist taking just one more shot.
During a holiday this year on pretty Marco Island, Florida, my daughter and I actually started laughing when I picked up the camera for the fourth consecutive night to try and do justice to the crimson, orange and magenta tinting the sky above the gulf. Every night the blend had offered subtle differences in tone, each seeming more memorable than the one before. However, in checking the results it was difficult to tell where one session began and another ended. With dozens of very similar images, my efforts had indeed become clichéd.
The question now then is whether I can change that. Tomorrow, I’m heading out on a little mini-break to a favourite summer destination along one of the Great Lakes. Known world-wide for its spectacular sunsets, it attracts groups of people to its shoreline every evening as the sun begins to drop below the horizon. They stroll the beach or wander out to the breakwater to sit and experience the event surrounded by nothing more than the water, rocks and quiet.
Having walked among the horde many times over the years, I’ve used the opportunity to photograph dozens of those glorious sunsets. After Marco Island, however, this time I debated about leaving the camera at home. Did I really need another picture of that incredible vista? Other than changes in hue and tone was one really any different than another?
However, as the packing began, the camera found its way onto the list. It must accompany me on my twilight strolls to the beach. I know that I will capture as many sunsets as I’m able to witness. There is, you see, the same quest we seek with any picture —to create magic, to capture something even better than what we view through the lens. Imagine, then, improving upon Mother Nature’s most glorious spectacle.
While Opie might feel photographing a sunset or sunrise has become cliché, they are among her subjects. She has said “I like that time is marked by each sunrise and sunset whether or not you actually see it.” We are all drawn to them, to this colourful step towards day’s end or to its new beginning. The opportunity to try and create something original from a sunset is difficult, though. Is there really a way to improve upon perfection?
I intend to find out. Here are some tips that I hope will take my sunset photography from banal to brilliant:
5 Tips for Great Sunset Photos from PictureCorrect
10 Ways to Amp Up Your Sunset and Sunrise Photography
