Lucky Shot

Some photographs are about great planning while others are luck.

I'm planning a great picture of a local canal around 11 March 2013. The Sun is due to set on a bearing of 259 degrees on that day and that's the direction of the canal. I know these things because of careful measurement of the canal on the relevant OS map and the Heavens Above site  to find out what the Sun is up to.

The picture below had more luck in it. During the afternoon, I'd noticed the clearing sky and thought it would be a great opportunity for sunset and related pictures so I went up Cleeve Hill. The powers that be have dotted the place with quite nice iron benches and I spotted one on the skyline - and a couple of people nearby, zoomed in and click!

The Panasonic TZ20 camera I used doesn't have a viewfinder, just a screen on the back so I had no idea exactly what I'd got until I got home and put it up on the PC.

A lesson I'm taking away from this is to make more use of the "burst" mode on the camera when pointing it at people. This picture was a single "snap" but going for a burst ups your chances of getting a good one.

Picture details
F5.9, 1/100, ISO-100, 504mm(35mm eq) cropped from 4320x3240 down to 4320x2170