It was a cold December afternoon, but dry, and the sky had some great cloud cover; I decided to get out and take a few sunset pictures - where was a good place to go?
I often just jumped in the car and headed out, not caring where I would end up; I usually ended up nowhere in particular and was left void of any inspiration to take pictures.
I live near The Norfolk Broads, an area of outstanding natural beauty in the East of England. The Broads consists of connecting lakes, rivers and dykes spanning over 120 miles of waterways across Norfolk and Suffolk - perfect for reflective sunset pictures.
I had two hours to sunset; the Golden Hour was just an hour away - I decided on a place called How Hill.
How Hill, located on the River Ant - has a windmill on the edge of the river that I wanted to capture during a sunset.
This would be my second attempt at shooting this scene. I failed the first time due to a lack of preparation. I knew roughly where the sun would set, but I needed to think more about how the sun would interact within the scene and, more importantly, how the scene would interact with the setting sun.
On the first attempt, back in June, I arrived at the location. I immediately noticed the sun was going to set to the right side of the windmill; this was unfortunate as I was hoping the sun would be on the left side, in line with the end of the river from my view.
The other challenge faced in June was tourists; there are well over a million visitors to the broads each year; I am sure I had most of them with me that day at How Hill!
This time, it was six months later, out of tourist season, and the sun will set in a different position in December than in June.
Due to the Earth's rotational and axis tilt, the sun will rise and fall in different places as we move through the seasons. I wanted to know more about this, so I downloaded the Photographer's Ephemeris app; this app calculates the sun's position from any location on the planet.
The shot I wanted to record was to have a setting sun to the left of my main subject, the windmill, away from the reed beds on the river bank and nice reflective still clouds on the water. Reviewing the details within the App, I knew I had to be looking at ‘December time’ for the shot I wanted. The other consideration was the weather - today was forecast for light clouds and no rain, potentially good for sunsets.
Arriving at How Hill ahead of the sunset, I positioned myself on the river at the location identified in the app; from this position, the sun will set on the left of the windmill in line with the river's end. I framed up my shot, I waited a few minutes for the sun to drop a little more, and when the Sun was in line with the river, I took my shot.
Gear: Nikon Z7II with Z 24-70 /F4 S - the lens was set at 24mm (f/22 @ 1/13 - ISO64)
The Photographer’s Ephemeris is available as a Web or Mobile App - check out the link below.
