Mysterious Sunset?

[Richard Smith]

Oklahoma has some fantastic sunsets. This one was at a local lake in Oklahoma City. It's being used as the cover of a book with a pretty large press run. Since it sold through a stock agency, I don't anything about the book but my wife thinks it's probably a scary book.

Canon 7DII, Tamron 70-300 VC @ 218mm. 1/640 @ f6.3. ISO 100.

[Adhika Lie]

Beautiful sunset, Richard. The sky and the sun makes the image extremely nice. But, I am torn about the out of focus foliage in the FG.

[Richard Smith]

Thanks. One of the others from the set looks like almost nuclear. It was certainly a dramatic evening. I think the only place the FG bothers me is where the OOF leaves impede the clouds in the upper right. But it was a long lens and the scene probably changes too fast for a really good bracket to stack.

[Andrew McLachlan]

Gorgeous color in the sky...congrats on the book cover usage...my preference would be for the out of focus foliage not too merge with the distant trees.

[Don Railton]

Hi Richard,

Congratulation on the cover also.. The OOF branches help form a vinette of sorts which covers that they are OOF, I might consider bluring them more to help with that concept. But I presume you have sold the image so what do I know.....

DON

[David Stephens]

I remember the Oklahoma sunsets, looking out my window at the BOK Tower in Tulsa (I think it's now Williams Center). They were almost as nice as here in Colorado. ;-)

I think the vignetting caused by shooting through the trees is perfect. The mast is ambiguous (I think it's a sail boat, but I'm not certain) but then it may be perfect for a book cover with a tie in to sailing. (Oklahoma has some wonderful, large lakes). I don't think that I'd change a thing. When I point my camera at the sun, I always wonder what I'll be getting, since the sensor's limitations never give you exactly what you see with your eyes, but it's often very interesting, like this.

Congrats on the cover. I hope you got a nice check.

[Morkel Erasmus]

I quite like the dark framing around the sunset. Ominous mood yes.
I do wish that long pole wasn't there - is it the mast of a yacht?

[Richard Smith]

Yes it's a mast although I would hesitate to call the sailboats on our little lake a yacht. I like the mast. I included it on purpose. I think it's kind of a hint at an incomplete story that kind of leaves you wanting to know the rest.