Photobird Daily

Photo © Copyright Matt Soave

We’ve written a lot about composition. It’s the single most important element of taking great photos. Everything else comes secondary, in my opinion. Here’s an article in the Photobird Daily in which we’ve written about an excellent primer on composition. Here’s another one. Here’s all of our articles in the Photobird Daily that mention composition.

Now then, for you intellectually creative types who enjoy puzzles on a planetary scale, once you understand the basics of composition, you may be interested in trying your skills at calculating when celestial objects will appear in specific, compositionally-appropriate locations on Earth, just like Matt Soave explained in this article.

When Matt first envisioned taking this photo, he thought that it would be pretty easy to shoot. Just wait until the sun sets and then take the photo. Unfortunately, he found out it’s not that easy because the sun sets in that exact, specific location only twice a year.

Matt further explains that he initially thought his ideal photo was still going to be impossible because he found out that the pier doesn’t actually point directly west, where he assumed the sun always sets, but instead points more northwest.

Not to be defeated, Matt continued to conduct research to determine if his ideal photo was indeed possible. He used Google Maps to get an aerial photo of the pier, Adobe Photoshop to determine the angle of the pier (shown below), Stellarium which is planetarium software, and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Solar Position Calculator website.

Screenshot © Copyright Matt Soave

Using all of these resources, including his own determination, creativity, and astronomy knowledge, he was indeed able to shoot his ideal photo, shown at the top. It’s really a quite impressive feat.

Be sure to read the entire article at the Digital Photography School website.

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