I always wanted to capture this photograph. The best sunset my city can possibly offer. It graces the cover of a coffee table book about Nuremberg by famous local photographer Herbert Liedel, who passed away in 2015. But this image it is hard to get. To find out why continue reading…
The photo spot, not widely known, is kind of hidden on a little hilltop outside the walls of the Old Town. You need a good zoom to capture sun and the silhouette of the castle it in all its glory. And then it happens only twice a year on a few precious days, in February and October, that the sun sets directly behind the towers of the Imperial Castle. And then you have to hope for perfect weather conditions.
Yesterday it came all together. It was a crystal clear and warm late summer day on the Streets of Nuremberg, and I was able to briefly escape the duties of my real life job to head out and find the right spot (I have never been there before), arriving 30 minutes prior to the previsted sunset time.
I was lucky to find only two other fellow photographers who had set up shop (I heard stories about twenty or so shooters standing shoulder to shoulder in front of a battery of tripods). Maybe because the sky was totally clear and thus not all too sexy (you know, a few decorative clouds never hurt to be in the image), and the colors where more or less plain orange.
But I was totally happy to have found the right place and had some interesting talks with the other two photographers, one a professional photographer for the German press agency that carried massive 5 figure $$$$$ 800mm Nikon lens.
I brought my Olympus OM-D E-M1X with the 40-150mm F/2.8 Pro Zoom with the MC-14 tele converter, effectively giving me a range of 420mm full frame equivalent.
First I took some test shots putting the cam on my tripod, but eventually switched to handholding as I was able to shoot into the sun with 1/8000 sec @ f/8 and ISO 200, and there is no way to blurr a shot at that fast of a shutter speed. And it allowed my to climb a little wall for an ever higher vantage point.
It was over way too fast, lasting no more than 5 minutes. Due to the clear sky there was not much of any post sunset afterglow, so we called it a day and left, all happy with our results. Today, the sun would have set slightly left and directly behind the towers. Some consider this the ultimate shot. But what shall I say….after a pretty nice day a bank of clouds moved in just an hour before sunset and ruined the show for those who where up there today hoping to see Nuremberg’s best sunset.
I will be back for the spring session, weather and real life job permitting.
Wish you a great Tuesday!
Marcus
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