I am a huge fan of the Hudson River School art movement. One of my favorite artists is Frederic Edwin Church. One of his works "Mountain Landscape" is part of the permanent collection at the Brauer Museum of Art at Valparaiso University where I attended, and I also worked as a gallery attendant and volunteered as a docent. You can view the work here on the museum website. Since Church as with many of his works does not specify time of day in the paining, interpretation is left to the viewer. As part of the docent training, we would meet and discuss the various works in the collection. When discussing "Mountain Landscape" I was surprised to learn that some viewed the scene as a morning sunrise, while I had always considered the painting a sunset. The question I pose to you if you see a photograph can you tell the difference between a sunrise and a sunset? Look at this collection of photographs of sunrises and sunsets on Green Lake and take a guess, unlike Church, I will at least give you an answer. As with any exhibit, click on the photo for additional details to see if you are correct.
The first series in the Sunset Sunrise collection. This is a sunset. With the sun obscured by the clouds this photograph gives a clear view of the green wild growth of the field with scattered pines, and the sunset colors in the clouds overhead.
A vertical perspective of the sunset. As the sun slips further below the tree line the colors become more dramatic. The field dips into cooler tones of green. The colors at the horizon become brighter and the vertical perspective shows how they fade from bright to pastel to dark blue in the upper atmosphere.
A different perspective on the Postcard Perfect Sunset. A change in orientation give greater focus to the color transition from earth to sky.
A small glimmer of sunlight breaks through the tree branches at this angle. This shot also establishes better than the others perspective on the field, trees, and road arrangement in the landscape.
The sun breaks through the clouds on the horizon as it settles on the ridge of the tree line in the distance. Since this location is at the top of a hill this is not the true horizon. The sun has a way to drop before reaching the sunset horizon which is out of sight from this viewpoint.
First is a series of 8 sunrise photographs. See the last for photo for an explanation for display order. This photograph is the only one of the series taken at the shoreline. It is also coolest of the series in terms of color. On this morning, the grey clouds and orange sun reflected in the water result in either a warm tone or cool tone depending on which is reflected more.
This photograph features the largest and longest reflective trail of sunlight on the water in the series.
As the sun rises over the cloud bank it passes into clouds in the upper atmosphere. You will notice that the light gets distorted, and the sun grows as a result compared to earlier when it is just over the horizon.
How can one have a second sunrise? When the sun must rise over the clouds of course.
I love the mirror like quality of the water and the texture of the waves. Having done CGI work the type of waves seen in this photograph are one of my favorites to reproduce in the digital realm. To have a highly reflective surface that captures the highlights, but you also get those dark patterns in the surface when it is pointed away from the sun. When first doing CGI images I created a test render with beautiful water. At the time I was not that experienced, so I know I had to have modified one of the water presets just slightly, but I only have the test render image, and never saved the file. I have never been able to reproduce the water texture from that test render despite the fact it could not have been complicated for me to make. Moral of the story even when starting out, save your work. You do not know what your success and failures will be, but you can learn from both. If you do not save it, you cannot go back to it.
This photograph is a focus stacked image. That means two photographs are combined one focused at the shore, and the other focused on the water in the foreground. Since this is a vertical shot, it is not always possible to get both in focus at the same time. This technique of blending the two images allows for a final shot that gets both the foreground and background in focus. Occasionally, a mid ground shot is needed too. In this photo the turbulent water texture cannot be distinguished from out of focus in the mid-ground unless you zoom in very closely. So, a third shot was not required.
A bald eagle soars over the lake at sunrise, while a family of ducks swim past. When I first saw this photo playback on my camera display, I thought I had dust on my sensor. It was not until I zoomed in that I saw the eagle in the shot. I did not notice it at the time I took the photograph, and I didn't capture it in any other photos.
Encouraged by my neighbor to capture the sunrise. I got up one morning but not early enough to catch the rise right over the treetops but still early enough to capture these images as the sun rose over Sugarloaf on Green Lake. Presented last in series of 8 sunrise photos. Photos are intentionally presented in reverse order so when viewed sequentially the sun falls towards the horizon. Does the optical illusion make the sunrise look like a sunset?
These photographs could be tricky to place since the sun is absent. However, these are sunset photographs. This is a panoramic photograph from the combination of two photos. The sun is behind the camera and below the tree line and hill directly behind me at the time I am taking these photos across the lake.
A different perspective of the sun's light in the clouds over the lake. On the left side the sun's light is still able to directly reach the clouds which are in the warmer and brighter yellow tones. However, since the sun is low on the horizon the trees and hill block the light from reaching further across the lake.
You have reached the last series of photos in the Sunrise Sunset collection. These last two photographs are another sunset set. The bright and bold colors in the sky are the same ones seen at the time the photos are taken there is no photo enhancement taking place. A few minutes after these photos are taken the colors start to soften a little and become more subdued.
The final photo in the Sunrise Sunset collection. What you might not realize unless you have paid close attention to the photo details is that you have only seen one single sunrise and one sunset in this collection. The sunrise is easier to tell since they are grouped together and look similar, however, compare the dates of the sunset photographs. They were all taken on the same evening. This shows how lighting can dramatically change the landscape. The first series and last series of photos are taken at the same location while the intermediate series is taken in-between but over the lake.