photobyjohnbo

Cellpic Sunday – Sunset at Naples

Sunset at Naples.

September 2023

Naples, Florida.

Rule number one: Look behind you. One of the rules I try not to break is to look behind me when I’m out shooting photographs. I learned that when I first started hiking. Sometimes, the view behind us is as spectacular as the view in our hiking direction. On a cruise around the harbor at Naples, Florida, everyone was busy photographing the beautiful sunset on the Gulf of Mexico. So was I… but when I followed my rule to look behind me, I found the spectacular eastern sky to be just as compelling.

About the photo: The sky was so large that I couldn’t encompass the clouds in a single image. I captured three images with my Samsung S23U in Ultra Wide mode and used Adobe Lightroom Classic to create a panoramic view. Apart from the single click to set the Basic controls to “Auto,” I made no exposure or color settings changes.

Sunset at Naples-2
Sunset at Naples.

For comparison, the photo of the view to the west wasn’t as great a composition, but this shot of the sunset was captured about five minutes earlier than the view to the east. I also made more tweaks to this image, as the strong highlights created a washed-out and overly saturated image lacking contrast. You can view both photos in 2K HD on my Flickr site here.

I encourage fellow bloggers to create their own Cellpic Sunday posts. I never have a specific topic for this feature, and the only rules are that the photo must be captured with a cell phone, iPad, or another mobile device… If you have an image from a drone or even a dashcam, that’s also acceptable. The second rule is to link your challenge response to this post or leave a comment here with a link to your post in the comment. Oh, you don’t have to post it on a Sunday.

John Steiner

42 comments

  4. Beautiful! I didn’t know there was a Naples in Florida 😀. And yes, I’ve also learnt that looking behind can give some excellent shots but I often forget to do that. My entry here:

    Springscape

    Reply

  7. That’s a great rule to have, not just for sunsets but so many other scenes too! It’s certainly paid off here – the colours in the clouds and reflection in the sea are beautiful 🙂

    Reply

    • Indeed! I actually learned the lesson while hiking with my camera. On the trail, the perspective is quite different in the opposite direction. 50% of the time, it’s the better perspective. >grin<

      Reply

    • Thanks, Terri! I need to learn more about panoramic photos in my Cellphone camera. A tour guide recently took a photo of Lynn and me in front of a beautiful tree using Lynn’s cell phone. But he used panoramic mode and included the entire tree in the shot. That will be a Cellpic Sunday tip in a few weeks!

      Reply

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