Sunsets At Crex Meadows

Crex Meadows State Wildlife Area is near Grantsburg, Wisconsin. For the past year I’ve been working on a project to photograph the area. Here are some sunset pictures plus a one of the moon.

Watch the weather forecast. Look for partly cloudy skies from an hour before sunset to an hour after. Forecasts of sky conditions are accurate to the hour for the next 24 hours.

Clear skies can work. When I’m faced with clear skies, I look for something between me and the sunset that will make an interesting silhouette. Here I used a small group of tamaracks.

Pay attention to the foreground, the terrain between the camera and the horizon. Look for reflections in water, snow, or ice. If the foreground is devoid of interest, make sure that it takes up only 10 to 15 percent of the photo.

Be patient. The most impressive skies can happen a half-hour or more after the sun sets.

I like to under expose my sundown shots to emphasize the colors and contrast in the sky. This runs contrary to the oft repeated advice to “expose to the right”, meaning to over expose as much as possible without losing details in the highlights.

Don’t forget to look behind you or to the north or south. You might see something unexpected. On this night, I saw the Wolf Moon rising in the east and illuminating the snow.