So yesterday I was up at 3:30 am to be at the job site by 5:00 am to set the gear to shoot the morning light by 5:30 am. The building is in the San Francisco area & it is summer time. This building’s better option was a easterly aspect shot. But had it been an option to shoot morning or evening which is preferred? So it got me thinking about the golden hour for us photographers when all our exposure values are close and everything just seems to look grandiose. Take away the early morning pain that accompanies most of us and let’s think about the factual attributes of Sunset vs. Sunrise.

Sunrise -the light starts off dark and get’s brighter, so adjusting your shutter’s speed jumps to faster times as the shoot progresses vs. Sunset where the light gets darker and the shutter speeds slows. What about light quality? At sunrise the light quality seems more pure but disappears faster as the sun gets “harsher”. Sunset there is haze in the air (California) and the sun’s glow hangs for longer.
Typically sunrise has less people so if that is the look you need consider that otherwise sunset is when most people are out.

I tend to be a sunset shooter as I prefer the light then.

The Guardian a U.K. news service is reporting that Kodak is ending production of the 73 year old film. The film was introduced in 1935 and was used in the creation of Steve McCurry’s 1985 portrait of an Afghan girl with green eyes on National Geographic’s cover. As I learned from this article the film is hard to produce and even harder to develop as there is only one place in the country (USA) that can develop it Dwayne's Photo in Parsons, Kansas. The film constituted less than 1% of sales at Kodak and the clear choice for all photographers professional or amateur alike is digital capture as 70% of Kodak’s revenue is from the consumer and commercial digital business.

Both the Paul Simon song and the film itself remind me of my father and his love for photography, which has had a profound impact in my career. Thanks Dad. Thanks Kodak.

The Article:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2009/jun/23/kodachrome-colour-film-ph...