Isn't it amazing that even though the sun sets every day, there's never been two sunsets the same.
You can predict the time of the sunset and the location of the sunset on the horizon, but you never can tell beforehand what the light is going to do.
Which is why I never tire of filming sunsets, travelling to various great locations near my home in northeast Wales to see what happens.
However, on this particular occasion filming a sunset wasn't on my to-do list, as my wife Liz and I had snuck over the border into England (we've had our jabs!) and headed up to New Brighton on the northern tip of the Wirral Peninsula, just across the river Mersey from the Port of Liverpool.
We'd had a warning of strong solar activity on Liz's app, and a good chance of seeing the aurora borealis, or northern lights, as darkness fell, which is why we were on the coast looking north out over the Irish Sea and New Brighton beach.
You can see the results of that evening's filming on my New Brighton Aurora Timelapse #1 video.
Anyhow, we arrived in good time, with about forty minutes to go till sunset, and I immediately noticed that the sunset that was developing out to the west was something special, with sun sun sending out golden sunbeams through gaps in the broken clouds just above the far horizon.
So what started out as a planned, relaxed shoot of the sky to the north turned into a mad scramble to set up my camera gear and capture this stunning sunset before those glorious sunbeams (no wonder they have the nickname 'God rays'!) disappeared.
Well I'm certainly glad I made the effort, as the light show continued to sunset and beyond, and we still had time to reset the camera looking north to capture the strengthening aurora as twilight deepened over the Irish Sea.
All in all, quite an evening!
Filename - new brighton sunset timelapse 04
Camera - Canon EOS6DMK2
Lens - 24-105mm zoom @ 105mm
Exposure (start of sequence)- 1/2500 sec @ f/4, ISO100
Exposure (end of sequence) - 1/160 sec @ f/4, ISO100
Filters - 2 stop neutral density graduated filter used to reduce the brightness of the sky relative to the sea.
Location - New Brighton, Wirral Peninsula, England
Music - Anomalous Hedges - The Mini Vandals
This clip - HD 720p, 30fps (4K and 1080p HD formats also available)
Clip duration - 25 seconds
All content copyright © Howard Litherland 2009-2024 unless otherwise stated.