Recently I've been determined to figure out how to set my camera to shoot into the sun. I've always admired photographs that take the power of the sun head on and unleash it to wash the whole image in sparkly, golden light. I'm intimidated by the poignancy of the sun, however. Sun flare just has such a primadonna attitude--taking over the image and so over-dramatic. You never know where the second echoing flare is going to end up. As my tastes apparently tend toward a mostly traditional portrait-type photographer, I prefer an overcast day for the pleasant, easy diffused light to flatter my subjects. I just feel safer in its predictability.
Some of my earlier attempts were hurried, and at the end of sessions where my generous subjects were near the end of their patience with me. The beautiful baptism girl was a willing enough subject but I didn't think ahead on how to set my camera and the result wasn't what I was envisioning (she's blurry). I got some interesting images of the family on the right with the setting sun directly behind and all awash in light but I hastily deleted them as they were on the "too artistic" scale with not enough substance. I wish I'd kept some of those pictures just to analyze them better now for how to improve.
This fall had some truly remarkable long slow afternoons of setting sun. I tried to make it fun for both my kids and me to figure out better how to shoot into the sun with deliberate practice. I'll feel more comfortable after another five or ten sessions, but I think our images show that we were having fun. I feel less intimidated by the remarkable power of the sun and ready to embrace the less predictable but so dramatic sun flare.
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