The sunset is an interesting one. That day (in November) we shot over 200 subjects, and drove some of the greatest mountain roads. We left a country estate at 4.45pm (after they failed to put on a traditional dance show at 4.30pm) and I headed using the satnav for Port D'Andratx, said to have the best sunset in Mallorca - 25 kilometres of hairpin bends, cliffs and driving into the sun - sunset due 5.30 to 6pm. We landed a parking spot, jumped out of the car but I didn't grab my bag, and only had the 900 with 28-105mm on it. We were very lucky, the exact week we were there the sun set perfectly in relation to the lighthouse. It was by now getting cold and there was a strong wind. I got some big scenes, but Shirley had the 18-250mm on A700. I thought there was no chance she could possibly get sharp images - directly into that setting sun, no tripod, hardly able to stand steady with the wind and the falling temperature.
But, Shirley's technique is quite different to mine, she just keeps shooting and shooting - a dozen frames, two dozen, whatever. I wait and wait and shoot one frame, if it misses the mark, I've failed. We forgot to remove our UV filters, and many of Shirley's pix had big flare patches from the sun. Some were OOF or the 18-250mm at 250mm had not delivered, some had a touch a shake despite SSS, but several were really strong. The big sunset is a 100 per cent clip, shows how sharp the 18-250mm can be in adverse conditions, and how huge a sun you can get in a web size clip!
http://www.pbase.com/gemo52/image/10741 ... iginal.jpg for a bigger view - special ACR processing, totally faked colour using WB and Vibrance/Sat/Fill Light controls. My secret recipe.
This is another of the set - some of these made through to Alamy file size. Five minutes later the sun had gone down, we were sitting under a gas space heater outside a cafe having a couple of beers
There must be maybe 20 days in total in the whole year where the sunset at this marina works this well, and we were lucky enough to be there just on time on just the perfect day.
David
