2 Better Available Light Digital Photography
Although the early bird usually gets the worm, the key word here is usually. This is what it looked like one
early March morning—hey, it’s Colorado—when Joe looked out his window. There wasn’t going to be a Golden
Hour today, and that happens as many times as it doesn’t happen. So don’t be disappointed when you make
the effort to get up early and Mother Nature doesn’t cooperate. The time will come when she does and that
will make up for grim mornings like this one! © 2003 Joe Farace.
The golden hour
You will be waiting for the fi rst rays of morning light to illumi-
nate the sky; waiting for the warm glow of dawn to fl ood
across the landscape. What you are waiting for is the Golden
Hour—those precious fl eeting minutes when the quality of
light provides photographers with images that truly separate
photographs from mere snapshots. Is it worth the wait? You’d
better believe it is.
A sunset can happen rather quickly, so it’s important to have
most of your work done in advance. You should already know
which ISO setting and lenses you are planning to use. In order
to do this, Barry suggests that you should have also previously
scouted the location and determined the best spot to place your
camera; but Joe confesses to being more of a “shoot and scoot”