Quick sunset shoot - OM-D E-M1

Having recently purchased a back-up OM-D E-M10, I've been concentrating on setting it up for my shooting style and trying it out (see previous post). But I certainly have no intention of relegating my E-M1 to the back of the camera bag. So with that in mind, and a small window of clear weather, I took it out the other night to capture the sunset at my local beach.

Cobden Beach, Greymouth. Olympus OM-D E-M1 with 12-50mm EZ. f/5.6 @ 1/640th, ISO 200

There's on old saying that goes 'Make hay while the sun shines'. You certainly have to follow this advice if you live on the West Coast of the South Island of New Zealand. It's 'lovingly' referred to as the 'Wet Coast' by some (not me, honest) - with very good reason. So when the weekend's forecast wasn't looking too flash, I decided to make the most of the decent weather and head out after work on a week day - not something I usually do. 

The previous two nights had seen beautiful colours at sunset - clear skies and an intense variation from golden orange through to deep blues. I was hoping for the same on this particular evening, and early indications were promising. 

Sunset, Cobden Beach. OM-D E-M1 with 12-50mm EZ. f/11 @ 1/10th, ISO 200

To show off the clear skies with intense colour, I wanted a very simple, mainly silhouetted foreground. This photo was going to be all about the colour in the sky.

So I headed out to my local beach, to capture the rocks a the end of the tiphead that stretches out into the Tasman Sea. It's a scene I've captured many time before and I like the simplicity of the composition I can get from this view.

But to my horror and disappointment, as I was driving out toward the area I intended to use as my foreground element, I discovered that the road was cordoned off! It seems that the local council are doing some redevelopment of that area, and a rather large digger was working right where I had wanted to park. That's not good. On to plan B.

Beautiful evening for a surf. OM-D E-M1. f/11 @ 1/4sec, ISO 200

For Plan B I decided to stay in the same area, but move further along the beach so I could use the tiphead itself, jutting out into the sea, as the silhouetted focal point. To be honest, I think I actually prefer plan B to my original idea. It's still a fairly simple composition, but a few more elements come into play to make it a more interesting photo.

I normally leave the image format of the camera set to the native 4:3 aspect ratio - knowing that I can always crop later in post. But on this occasion, I actually set the screen on the back to the 16:9 wide screen view, as this was how I was visualizing the scene anyway. Since I always (well, mostly always) shoot in the RAW format, all the aspect ratio crops can be changed and altered after the fact anyways. Only if you're shooting in jpeg is the aspect ratio 'set' into the final image.

In the above image Beautiful evening for a surf, I love the way the composition is broken roughly into thirds. The bottom thirds consist of the waves and surfers (who positioned themselves perfectly), the middle third is the silhouetted tiphead itself and the orange band of colour on the horizon line, and the final third is the dark strip of cloud with the blue of the sky. So even though the horizon itself is almost exactly in the middle of the image (usually a compositional no-no), the actual effect of the overall image still reads visually in layers of thirds.

Sunset Strip. Olympus OM-D E-M1 with Zuiko 12-50mm EZ. f/8 @ 5 seconds, ISO 200

The final image was taken in relative darkness, well after sunset. And yet the sensor, with a 5 second exposure, has still managed to pick up some of the remaining orange glow on the horizon. This photo also has the three distinct layers, although this time it is more traditionally composed with the horizon placed on the lower third.

Overall I'd say the shoot was a success, although the evening never quite matched the display of the previous two nights (of course - Murphy's Law).  

Fantastic images were to be had at all times of the evening, although I think my favourite is Beautiful evening for a surf. All the elements came together to make a strong photo. This includes the most intense light, the surfer's in the water, the silhouetted landform (with digger making an appearance), and even, if you look very closely, a fishing boat coming in for the day - also placed perfectly on the right hand third of the horizon (directly below the puffy cloud). Thank you God. Your timing, as always, is perfect.