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Assignment: The Fun Assignment - Shoot a Sunrise or Sunset

Don't be bashful! If you want comments, give comments. You don't need to be an expert photographer to express your opinion about the work of others. You don't need to go into great depth. A simple remark about cropping, composition, color, subject matter, etc. can be of just as much help to a budding photographer as an in-depth critique.

For me, shooting sunrises and sunsets has always been as much relaxation therapy as photographic challenge—and I hope it will be the same thing for you. Your assignment for this chapter is to photograph a sunrise or a sunset with an interesting foreground. Use your imagination and your knowledge of your own area to find a shot that is both pretty and representative of where you live—such as photographing a local railroad bridge at sunrise or sunset over the city skyline. Find an interesting foreground subject and then silhouette it against the sky.

I took this photograph while on a weekend shooting trip to Galilee, Rhode Island. I had been wandering around the huge fishing boats all afternoon, and I knew that if I could position the sun behind the rigging of one of the boats, I’d have the shot I was after. The sun only barely broke out of the clouds, but because I had pre-scouted the exact view I wanted, I was able to fire off a dozen shots of the rigging, silhouetted against a pretty sunset sky. Taken with a 70-300mm Nikkor zoom lens at 1/80 sec., f/9, at ISO 200.

Remember to visit www.pwassignments.com after you complete this assignment and share your favorite photo! It’s a community of enthusiastic photographers and a great place to view what other readers have created. You can also post comments, and read encouraging suggestions and feedback.