I spent my day working on my final assignments for school. Locked up staring at my computer screen for hours. Luckily, I had already planned to go out for a drive to see the sunset up on Russian Ridge. By leaving a half hour before golden hour, I got to enjoy sun rays passing through the trees on my way up
Seeing this stretch of road nicely lit in combination with dust that was thrown up by passing cars led me to pull over. The bicyclists showed up as I was leaving, almost missed the shot too because of a car passing close to the same time.
The view from the top facing out towards the North Bay. Since I only brought telephoto lenses, the only way to capture the rays correctly was to do a stitched panoramic.
After sitting on one of the rocks and looking at the sunset, I couldn't let the light go to waist. I set up my tripod for a self-portrait. Taken with 20s timer, taking 9 shots with a .5s interval after the initial one. Of all the shots, I feel like this one really captured me taking in the view. 85mm for a good amount of compression, it was also the only portrait lens I brought with me.
And your cliche sunset photo to end the day.
Location:
Russian Ridge Open Space Preserve