Planning and shooting a sunset

I never get tired of watching a sunrise, sunset, moonrise or moonset. All these events are always beautiful to watch and it's also very exciting because you never know what might happen regarding light and atmospheric phenomena.

Last Sunday the weather was looking good for the evening and I had looked up a location that would give me a nice foreground, in this case a large building. I think planning your shot is half the fun and that's something I really enjoy doing. When planning my shot I usually use Google Maps and tools like The Photographer's Ephemeris. Other useful tools are planetarium software like Stellarium 

Always be careful when shooting the Sun since its so bright, you could damage your eyes. Never look straight into the Sun through your camera. Regarding filters, this sunset was quite cloudy so I didn't need any filters, otherwise you could use a ND-filter to dim the Sun.

As soon as I arrive on the location I've planned, I start by checking the surroundings to see what I can work with regarding foregrounds etc. I also double check that I'm in a spot where the Sun or the Moon will pass behind the planed distant object. Then I usually start off by taking some wide angle shots while the Sun is above the horizon and I got some really nice a warm light.

Here's a shot showing lake Storsjön and you can see the building to the right of the Sun. Above the Sun you can see a faint Sun pillar.

Nikon D810A, 1/250 sec. ISO 200, 70 mm f/8

As the Sun gets closer to the horizon I switch to a longer focal length to really get up close with the Sun. In this case I was shooting at a focal length of 1,200 mm. Quite extreme but in that way you get a much more dramatic scene. The building was located 13 km away from me at the time.

Nikon D810A, 1/2000 sec. ISO 400, 1200 mm f/11

In the shot above you can see two sunspots on the solar disc. Both these sunspots are about the same size as the Earth's diameter. As you can see the clouds can sometimes work with you adding a lot of drama to the scene. The sky above the Sun looks much better with this thin layer of clouds that it would have done without them. But I would have preferred not having the lower thicker clouds to get a cleaner solar disc, but they also adds a bit of drama.

Later on the Sun passed behind the building as planned.

Nikon D810A, 1/500 sec. ISO 400, 1200 mm f/11

The image above is a panoramic image of three shots. I did that to get the reflections of the Sun in the water. You should always be alert to whats happening in the scene regarding light, reflections or shadows. For just a brief moment there could be something that you don't want to miss.

So, how close will you get with a focal length of 1,200 mm? Here's a 100% crop from a photo I took later on.

Nikon D810A, 1/500 sec. ISO 400, 1200 mm f/8

As you can see a really long focal length can create some dramatic shots but it's also really hard to get sharp shots. When you enlarge a scene using a longer focal length, you also enlarge all the errors. So if you have lots of turbulence in the air you will have a hard time getting a sharp image. In this case I was shooting over water and that usually gives a much sharper image due to stable air.

So, keep shooting those sunsets, it's not cliche, it's so much fun and excitement.

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Earth to Moon solar filament

Here's a photo I took of the Sun today showing one huge filament stretching over the surface of the Sun. I've included a scale sized Earth and Moon and the distance between them and as you can see, the filament is just about the same length as the distance from Earth to the Moon. Otherwise the Sun was quite calm but this filament was very impressive through my solar telescope.

Edit: Today April 30, this photo is featured as Astronomy Picture of the Day at NASA.

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Sun and Moon halo on the same day

Yesterday we had excellent halo conditions here over Östersund, Sweden. During the day I took a photo of the 22° solar halo. And later that night, 10 hours later, when the Moon was in the same position in the sky, I took another shot of a 22° Moon halo taken from the same position. It's quite interesting to see these two halos side by side.

The image below shows the two images merged together. This image was featured as Astronomy Photo Of the Day at NASA

Phil Plait, the Bad Astronomer, did an article explaining the this photo and phenomena more in detail, you can read it here. The photo also appeared on Gizmodo and Peta Pixel.

Sun halo left and Moon halo right

Here are the two shots separately. The photos were taken 10 hours apart.

Sun halo taken 10:21 (UTC standard time)

Moon halo taken 20:30 (UTC standard time)

The Tree of Sauron

Lots of snow in the air and the Sun behind a tree can give some dramatic optical effects.

Sunset over Åreskutan

Photo number 4 in my 2014 recap.

Besides moonrises and moonsets I also did a lot of sunrises and sunsets. Here is a shot from April that shows an obscured Sun about to set behind Åreskutan, the biggest ski resort in Sweden.

Unusual Sunset

For some time I've had an idea that I would like to shoot a scene during sunset and work with silhouettes against the solar disc. In October of 2014 I finally got around to do it and I called up a couple of friends to see if they were willing to do some acting.

I originally hadn't planed to use sword fighters, but I thought it could be an interesting concept to have some theatrical action in the scene. My two friends are trained amateur stuntmen and used to handle swords so I felt confident that no one was going to get hurt.

A lot of time went into location scouting, I wanted a hill clear of any big trees and buildings and with an even surface so that the action would be clearly visible and the actors easily could move around.

An interesting part in the movie is at the 01:30 mark when you see the exhalation lit up by the Sun.


Music Koke Nunez Gomez - Soul of Warrior

What if...

This is a composite image of white light photography through a normal tele lens and a shot of the sun through a hydrogen alpha telescope. The size of the hydrogen alpha Sun is scaled to match the size that was seen through the tele lens.

Just imagine how it would be like to see a sunset like this.

Shot taken in May 2013 on the island of Frösön close to the city of Östersund, Sweden. The church in the foreground is Rödö kyrka.

Sunspot AR2192

Today I finally got some clear skies and a chance to see the huge sunspot AR2192. It was a fantastic view through the solar telescope and I don't think I ever seen such a huge sunspot.

This is a shot I took today, in the center of the Sun you can see a very long filament. It's longer than the distance between Earth and Moon.

Behind the scenes of Solar Superstorms

Here are some behind the scenes footage of the work I'm doing on the upcoming Spitz Incorporated movie Solar Superstorms together with Thomas Lucas at Thomas Lucas Productions. The work is coming along just fine and I have some serious amounts of data to process. I will continue shooting during October so let's hope for some sunny days ahead. Read more about the movie.

Solar Superstorms

Finally I'm able to share some news about one of my biggest ongoing projects. It's a upcoming movie production called Solar Superstorms, a movie about our closest star, the Sun.

It's produced by Spitz Incorporated (USA), the world's leading projection dome supplier. They specializes in planetarium theaters, projection domes, architectural domes and custom immersive theater attractions. They also offer the industry's most comprehensive fulldome show library.

Spitz partners in this project are Thomas Lucas Productions (http://www.tlproductions.com) and the Advanced Visualization Laboratory at the National Center for Supercomputing Applications (http://avl.ncsa.illinois.edu).

My task in this project is to deliver several different scenes of the Sun and some of the affects it has on Earth. I'll start shooting in the coming weeks so exciting times ahead. I'll also keep you posted on my progress and hopefully be able to share some behind the scenes footage of my ongoing work.

Solar Superstorms is scheduled for launch early in 2015. You can read more about the movie in the attached image.

Sunset With Sunspots

Yesterday I went out to shoot a sunset I've planed since last summer. This time of the year, the Sun passes right behind a big radar tower if you stand at the Swedish National Biathlon Arena in Östersund. The radar tower is located about 10 km away from the arena in a small village called Ås. I shoot the movie using my solar telescope to capture the structures on the Sun. The timing was perfect and the Sun looked really nice since it was full of sunspots and big filaments.



Music: Chris Zabriskie - Cylinder Three