Glimpse of Sunset at Baker Beach

Baker Beach has one of the best sunset views in San Francisco as the sun reflects on the bridge. While we were there on a foggy evening, a slight break in the clouds let in some light. Swimmers were in the water watching the light in the clouds.

Sunset light illuminated the clouds over the Golden Gate Bridge, providing a surreal image.

Glimpse of Sunset at Baker Beach

Clouds at Golden Gate Bridge

A Shining Light

A sunburst through the slats in a building is strikingly highlighted in the monochrome version. An optical phenomenon called diffraction causes the starburst effect; as light passes through a small aperture, it is diffracted (or spread out) across the lens’ aperture blades.

A Shining Light

Sunburst in Monochrome

A “Starburst” of “Sunburst” in photography refers to capturing the sun in your photo where you can actually see the sun’s rays in a star like shape. The sunburst effect is created from pointing your lens at a bright source of light such as the sun. As the light passes through the aperture blades of a lens, it renders the sun’s rays in a star like shape with points of light radiating out from the center.

Here is a monochrome version of a sunburst captured at around sunset on the river front in Washington, North Carolina

Shooting Against the Sun

Pigeon on a Branch Silhouette

We end our series of unusual images of shooting against the light creating traditional silhouettes or a combination of black foregrounds and colorful backgrounds. Here is a normal black silhouette – an image of a person, animal, bird, object or scene represented as a solid shape of a single color, usually black.

Pigeon on a Branch Silhouette

Watery Silhouette

An unusual composition of shooting against the light with a lighted sky, but creating silhouettes of domed buildings and a lamp post in Munich, Germany. The splashing naturally lighted water in the foreground adds an interesting element to the image.

Watery Silhouette