Its Friday after work and got that Friday feeling, the weather forcast is great for the whole weekend, sunshine and more sunshine.  Its a nice Friday evening too and decide to go out in Pershore to see if can capture any nice sunset photos over the Malvern hills and or Pershore Abbey.

What inspired this decision was being out on the Pershore common the weekend before and getting some nice shots of the Pershore abbey minus any sun.

At the time I thought this would make a great sunrise or sunset photo depending on the angle of the sun relative to Pershore Abbey.

The Photographers Ephemeris

A great resource for photographers wanting to determine exactly where the sun will rise and set relative to a specific position is the Photographers Ephemeris.   You can plot your anticipated position on a map and then watch the sun rise and set relative to that position.  It was a good time of year for both dusk and dawn relative to Pershore Abbey.

Conflict of Interests

So the problem was one of timing, just getting up there to see for myself.  Sometimes the two pastimes of photography and walking can be in conflict.  The best time for photography is low light sunrise and sunset, but for me, especially early spring when the sun is shining the best time for walking is all through the day.  So sacrifices have to be be made, no one said this was going to be easy.  I also enjoy sleeping which makes sunrise near on impossible, but if you want great photos then these are the times you should already be setup with your tripod waiting for that glorious life giving ball of fire to rise and fall.

Look Behind you

The sunset over Pershore with the sun behind me was not so impressive, hoping the last rays of light would highlight the stonework of the Abbey.

I looked behind me, always a thing you should constantly be doing as a landscape photographer, and that great ball of fire was just setting behind Worcestershire beacon and the Malvern hills and the skies were turning orange, yellow and red.

I ran to a vantage point but just missed the sun going down behind Worcester beacon, but still captured that beautiful warm color rich sky.

Over exposed Bredon Hill

I experimented taking some low light photos of Bredon hill with a row of new builds stretching out.  But exposing to the right is not something you should do in low light.  Dont follow these photographic rules religiously.

That sensor in your camera is so sensitive to light, getting a correct exposure in the camera is not a correct exposure as the eye sees the scene.  The photo of Bredon hill is overexposed.

Red Sky at Night

Its been a while since I have done some sunset, low light night photography and come home a little dissapointed that I was just not good enough, but that means my comfort zone is about to expand.  You learn alot post processing your photos in lightroom.  Post processing your photos in lightroom can almost be as enjoyable and time consuming as going out on these photography walks. I mean you really dont know how good those photos are until you see them on the big screen.

Maybe sunrise over Pershore would be better, but had to get out of bed early for that, no easy feat.  Still red sky at night shepherds delight, I was looking forward to going out walking in the sunshine this spring weekend, I had the Black Hill Herefordshire in my targets.