The photos themselves were nothing out of the ordinary, but it was an important milestone for me because on working up the resolve to get off my derrière and out to take some shots, it opened the door to many more photo-excursions over the next eight months. From that day, I tried to go out every time I had a chance to take some pics, near the hotel at first, later trying to convince whoever was driving to go further out into the beaches and piers nearby after work until I got to the point where I would go out by myself if needed with a more structured plan (having more experience at my side and some pretty nifty tools like google earth and TPE) to be precisely when and where I wanted to go shoot.
I’d like to think that after 8 months, I’ve grown as a photographer. I think I learned to deal with the lightning of sunsets, and I’ve learned to make more interesting compositions than just shooting 20 pics of the setting sun centered in all my photos. I’ve also learned important lessons regarding planning, gear selection, making it on time and learning to deal with the weather and other unexpected factors. And like most lessons in life, I learned most by messing up... but I think the good thing is at least I learned.
Selecting one favorite photo out of thousands shot over this past months wasn’t easy... and that’s why I picked two hehehe. Well, I picked two because my favorite pic is an HDR shot and I think that might make a difference so I picked one with just basic post processing as well:
I think I’ve definitively improved since I started... but that doesn’t mean these pics are “perfect shots” either. I’m well aware that it’s an improvement but I have still much to learn and nothing would make me happier than to be able to do another post in X months where I can compare these photos with some current ones and be able to say once again “I think these are definitively an improvement from last time”
Is this the end of my Florida sunset pics? Well... only time will tell. For the immediate future it’ll be, there’ll be not enough time to go out to shoot now. But they say that “where a door closes, a window opens” and that’s exactly what I think will happen. With the change in daylight savings time I’ll have time to brush up on my nighttime photography (well, I’ve already started that) and I might even have enough time to go shoot sunrises again for a couple weeks so it’ll be a time of changes and I only hope I can keep learning some more.
So, stay tuned... with a little luck I might crack the formula to time travel or time dilatation fields... I might learn to function with even less sleep than my average 5 hours... or I’ll just try to squeeze every second of the day I’m not working or asleep (like typing in an really awkward position in an Embraer RJ145 jet while flying home from Florida) to try and post more frequently.
Till next time, ZERO.
