Have you ever seen a sunset that was too spectacular? One with too much color? Well, I didn’t think it was possible, but I saw one during my term as the Artist-in-Residence at the Necedah National Wildlife Refuge in Wisconsin. My time was nearly up, and it had been raining pretty steadily for the last several days. But, when I stepped outside to check the clouds on the second-to-last day I saw a great big patch of blue sky overhead, and tall clouds surrounding to the north, east and south.
I grabbed the camera and headed to the overlook area along the entrance road. The colors were just getting started when I arrived, and I shot a number of frames. All of the photos were looking east, away from the setting sun. While it’s normal to get some color in the east, I’ve never seen a show like this one. The red and magenta colors were as intense as they could be, contrasting brilliantly against the blue sky around and yellow grass in the foreground.
Even though I loved the sunset, I ended up rejecting most of the images. The sky was just too bright and bold for the subject. In order to get the photo above, I stitched two frames, each taken with an extreme wide-angle lens. The total field of view is about 160 degrees, so it encompasses the view north, east and south all at once. It seems to be the only way to tame the colors so that they don’t complete drown out the rest of the scene.
I’ve never before tried to photograph a sunset (or sunrise) that was too spectacular, but I sure I hope I get to try my hand at another one someday.
