Week 36 - Golden Hour

Week 36 - Golden Hour
Photo by Jr Korpa / Unsplash

Ask any portrait or landscape photographer what their favorite time of day to shoot is, and you'll get a nearly unanimous answer of golden hour. Why is that? Well, simple, because the light during golden hour is well... golden. Simple enough, right?

What is golden hour?

For those of you who might not know what golden hour is, it's the hour prior to sunset, and/or the hour after sunrise. The light (when not cloudy, obviously) can only be described as magical. Over the years, I have gotten some amazing images during golden hour. Clients typically love having their images done during this time too.

Golden Hour #1

I wanted to do a landscape image for the weekly challenge, since I figured it would have more of an impact. I love this particular tree, especially during golden hour. Of course, bonus points because there are no people to muddy up the shot (despite the fact there were a bunch out of frame).

Golden Hour #2

Same tree, but a little closer to sunset. I love that the clouds were there to add some moodiness, but wish they were a little less flat. I kept waiting for them to get a bit more colorful, but that did not happen.

While editing these two images, I did alternate edits that were pretty artful looking. I did not finish those edits, but I think I will go back to them when I have time and finish them for an additional post. I typically shy away from editing a photo to the point where it looks less like a photograph and more like a digital painting, but it might be fun to do some of that to spark my creativity in the future and be more open to different arenas of art.

Bonus Photo Time!
Golden Hour #3 (Sarah)

After I realized that the clouds were going to be boring, I decided to get a few shots of Sarah, who was kind enough to accompany me on my outing for the tree photos.