I was half watching an episode of The Gridwhile catching up on backlog today and found myself disagreeing again with the expressed idea that you shouldn't shoot landscapes at anything other than dawn and dusk. Yes, the light is immeasurably better at those times of day if everything else aligns for you.
It's just that most photographers don't get to enjoy the luxury of returning to a location time after time after time waiting for the stars to align. This is particularly true for those togs like myself who usually only get to travel with the family and have to make the best of what we're given.
We're like the assignment photographer who has to return the shot that day irrespective of whether the light cooperates or not.
I took this photo South from the Top of the Rock when I was in New York with my family last summer. We had three days in the city on the way back from England to houston and had a full agenda. There was no time to repeat any locations. This image was made from three frames from a total of 45 I shot at the Top of the rock. Since I shot three frames for each view and each view in both landscape and portrait orientations, that was essentially 8 scenes. 8 scenes and move on.
Yes its harder to get a pleasing image outside of the golden hours but it's not impossible, and not everyone is trying to win an award with every photo.
So my perspective is take the shots you can when you can, but note the ones you'd like to take again in better light and return if the opportunity presents itself.
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Production Data
Camera: Canon EOS 5D Mark II (B&H)
Battery Grip: Canon BG-E6 Battery Grip (B&H)
Lens: Canon 24-105mm f/4L IS USM AF Lens (B&H)
Processing: Lightroom 4.0
Processing: Photomatix 4.02
Processing: Photoshop CS5
Processing: Nik Software Color Efex Pro 4 (Nik Software)
