Photo of the Week 114 & 115 – Sunsets

Since I was away in Belgium the previous weekend, this is yet another double post to get caught up. Again, double post means a single theme for both images. Inspired by all the talk of ash clouds leading to nice sunsets, I’ve picked two of my recent favorite sunset/dusk shots for this post.

The first shot was indeed taken while the recent volcanic ash cloud was making a nuisance of itself over Ireland. It was taken from Jackson’s Bridge (located between Maynooth and Kilcock) looking west along the Royal Canal. In the foreground you can see the 14th lock. 13 Locks to the east of here the Royal Canal starts at the old docks in Dublin, and 32 locks to the west it enters the river Shannon.

on Flickr – Full-Size

Camera: Nikon D40

Lens: Nikon DX AFS 18-55mm (D40 kit lens)

Exposure: 1/500 sec

Focal Length: 38mm

Focal Ratio: f/8

ISO: 200

Camera Mode: Full Manual

Processing: This shot was generated by tonemapping the original RAW file with Photomatix Pro, and then tweaking the resulting image with Topaz Adjust 4

The second shot I’ve chosen is a little older, and pre-dates all the ash-cloud excitement. Perhaps unsurprisingly, it’s of a train, in this case an evening Commuter service from Maynooth to Dublin looming into shot out of a spectacular sunset.

on Flickr – Full-Size

Camera: Nikon D40

Lens: Nikon DX AFS 55-200mm

Exposure: 1/400 sec

Focal Length: 120mm

Focal Ratio: f/5

ISO: 800

Camera Mode: Full Manual

Processing: This shot was generated by tonemapping the original RAW file (first converted to 16bit TIFF) with Topaz Adjust 4, and then tweaking the resulting image with Aperture’s Dodge & Burn plugin