Sunday, June 28, 2015
Pine Buff, Arkansas

I have a few rules for shooting sunsets, the first two of which are paramount to see and capture the entire process:  One, get there before it starts; Two, stay there until after it’s over for the last hurrah.  Three, mount the camera level on a tripod, use a cable release, and shoot early and often.

Fortunately, I reside just minutes away from what I consider to be one of the finest locations on the planet to observe and/or photograph sunsets, to wit:  the southeast shoreline of Saracen Lake in Pine Bluff, Arkansas.  From that point, I am shooting over a long expanse of water toward a low, uncluttered horizon, with nothing but a whole bunch of due west behind it.  On this occasion, I set-up on the northwest corner of the Saracen Landing pavilion.

The afternoon skies were full of fluffy clouds, most of which will normally dissipate about the time of sunset unless they are connected to a storm.  These weren’t, but it appeared that a few would stick around — and that would make for a nice sunset.  My prognosis was correct.

This particular sunset was more or less tame.  The changes it went through as it matured were subtle — not so on many sunsets, which move and reshape like a wad of snakes.  Despite the benign behavior of the sunset,  I found it necessary to change the focus point a number of times.  It is my theory that each sunset offers a sackfull of different images if you work at it.