Different By 15 Minutes

If you saw My Final Photo for Saturday this will look familiar. It’s the same street and wall. The photos were made 15 minutes apart.

The above photo at 4:02. My Final Photo made at 4:17.

Fifteen minutes isn’t usually considered very much time unless you’re late for a date, late for a church service, or late for the start of a movie in a theater.

When making photos at sunset, 15 minutes is a few seconds in photographer years.

The spray of light is reflected off the building across the street where the surface of polished tiles has only a minute or two when the reflected light is focused along the bottom of the wall with little spray into the street.

Minutes before it’s more diffuse with less contrast. It’s also less focused because the entire opposite wall acts as a reflector. Waiting 15 minutes lets the shadow from the Holmes Hotel cut into the wall creating a more narrow shaft of light.

This lighting condition happens this time of the year as the sun reaches it apogee from Ohio and the more severe angle creates this effect. It will look slightly different at the same time tomorrow and different every day at the sun works toward winter solstice.

This is a great time of the year for strong light at sunrise and sunset. The angle is sharp, and the skies are typically clearer than in other months. It’s worth getting up early, making photos, taking a nap after lunch, then returning for photos at sunset.

I think I’ll follow my own advise.