Once again, Flickr Explore
Just like last time, I woke in the middle of the night, phone vibrating every few minutes. And I knew what it was, but I waited until the morning to discover which photo was selected. This time it was my after sunset photo at Anderson Dock, in Ephraim, Wisconsin. As of today, about 36 hours in, the photo has had about 7400 views and close to 300 favorites. It has now overtaken my sunset photo of Ellison Bay, Wisconsin as my most viewed and favorited photo.
This year has been my best year of photography, and it's because I did not let myself get into a rut. I traveled all over the country and rediscovered my love of getting out with my camera. And got out locally very often as well. My photo editing skills have gotten so much better too, finally spending lots of time in Photoshop versus Lightroom. I feel like 2023 is going to be big!
If you're interested in the story behind the picture, read on.
This photo at Anderson Dock was one location I researched before going on this "not a photography" trip to Door County, Wisconsin. I had a few ideas before visiting the spot, Google Maps/Street View is good for that, and then after visiting one day mid-day, I locked in on a composition I wanted to photograph at sunset.
When I returned for sunset, I arrived 30 minutes before, and the light was starting to really look great. I got set up, and took a few test shots. My composition looked good, but I decided to focus stack the image by using the R5's in camera 5-image stack. A few more test shots and I decided I might have to exposure bracket too.
At that point, I realized, I made a rookie mistake. I was trying out a new magnetic filter system by Haida. I brought the filters, and the step-up ring, but I forgot the magnetic ring.
Moving on without filters, every minute or two, I snapped off 5 image focus brackets and 3 image exposure brackets. Everything was looking great. Then, just as the sun was a few minutes from dipping below the land, a truck drove down on the dock and parked right in front of the building. A cleaning crew. Damnit!!!
According to image times, it took them less than 10 minutes, but I still missed when the sun dipped behind the land. Now, all I had was the post sunset light. While it wasn't the best I'd seen, it was still pretty epic.
The end result is seen below. I ended up using 2 focus stacked shots, one for the foreground, one for the building and blended them together. Shot at f/11 and 1/4, shadows and highlights were easily recoverable, so I thought the sky and foreground both look as I remembered. Cropped it to 4/5, ready to print. What do you think?
