www.rogerspohn.com

Roger Spohn Photography

Landscape, Nature and Architecture

R72-12.jpg

Equinox Sunrise,
Railroad Tracks
Douglas Co., Kansas
ID: R72-12

Image Format: Square

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To emphasize the occurrences of the Vernal and Autumnal Equinoxes, I often take advantage of the east/west directions of the sunrise and sunset by aligning them with some similarly oriented man-made structure. With the help of a detailed topographical map of the area, I identified several sets of railroad tracks closely oriented to the east/west. These particuar tracks provided the best surrounding view, were the straightest and best aligned, but were a few degrees from true east/west. I therefore visited this location for several mornings preceeding and following the actual equinox to catch the sun location at the correct height when positioned above the converging tracks. A light haze shrouds the distant trees and gives a soft quality to the fields. A focal length of 180mm was used with my medium format system, resulting in a slightly compressed perspective. The near ground fell on approximately Zone 2 as the brightest sky was placed on Zone 8. To attempt the capture of this range of illumination, a medium ASA print film was chosen. To achieve the depth of field required, especially with the longer lens, an aperture of f/32 then resulted in a 1/4 second exposure.

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