Twilight is defined as being the period between daybreak and sunrise and between sunset and night. To be more exact, when the sun falls below 18 degrees you enter nightfall and when the sun rises to 18 degrees below the horizon, you enter daybreak or dawn. As for how long this lasts, depends on your location and, also, climatic conditions. In general, however, it does so for, approximately, 1 hour.
Since most of us (I am assuming here) consider twilight to take place after sunset and not before sunrise, my aim for, around, one month, was to photograph plants during this period. I would head out an hour before sunset to seek out the image and begin shooting as the sun slipped below the horizon. Often I would go out with a specific image in mind, as the case with Bluebells and Grasses but on other occasions I would, simply, see what I could find. I, quickly, learned that no matter how interesting an image looked through the viewfinder as sunset approached, it’s appearance would change, rapidly, as the light faded. Warm tones would turn blue, gaps through trees would emerge revealing an aperture in which to place the subject and intricate details on flowers would slowly disappear to, eventually, form a silhouette.
I thoroughly enjoyed producing this series of images. It focused me, intensely, and opened my eyes (and imagination) to new possibilities and, although, many more were taken, some, I felt, just didn't work for one reason or another. I have a feeling this project will run and run!
Notes on the photography: I've, purposefully, steered clear of adding technical details to each image as I don't want to detract from the visual. F-stops, shutter speeds and iso's, though important, are secondary to "seeing" the subject and how you, as the photographer, interpret it. But, in order to satisfy curiosity, I used a Nikon D300 and for all, a 200mm f4 Micro.
