I knew that I had just a few minutes to make photos and wasn’t sure exactly where I wanted to go to make it happen. The sunset golden hour varies depending on your location and the condition of the sky. On clear days like today, it’s minutes long because of the lack of clouds that usually act as filters to lessen the impact of cool colors and emphasize warm colors as the sun passes through the air close to the ground.
I began at Red Bank, above. Made several photos using foreground objects with trees along the shoreline. I much prefer people to trees in my photos and there wasn’t anyone at the park but me.
Quickly traveled to the Walnut Boat Ramp but again, there were no people and there were few foreground objects there.
Although I knew there wouldn't be any people at my next stop, I parked at the Columbus Water Department building near the dam to see what the still waters and the golden sunset on the eastern shore looked like and to put the boathouse in the foreground. The mirrored surface of the lake worked well with the shape of the boathouse.
As I traveled to the city building I noticed a single car in the lot just north of the building. Returning, I saw there was now a second car in the lot parked at an angle and jutting out into the parking lot. Three people with spotting scopes stood just off the lot scanning for birds. The water was still smooth, but the few minutes of golden light was now almost a shadow.
As I quickly parked my car and grabbed cameras from my trunk, I noticed my car parking was as oblique as the birder who’d rushed to get to the lakeside in pursuit of a prized observation.
The resulting photo became My Final Photo and doesn’t have the strong characteristics of a golden hour photo but does include a ribbon of gold on the horizon and reflected in the lake. I didn’t have to rush to get to this spot. Plus, it was the only one with people.
