One photography assignment was to photograph something during the Golden Hour. The Golden Hour is (roughly) right around sunrise and sunset, when the sun’s light isn’t so harsh. You don’t have to guess when the Golden Hour is for any location, you can look it up on a website.

At first the assignment seemed problematic as the weather forecast was for cloud covers and rain for the next week here in central Texas. But, things change, and so did the weather. I had several opportunities to take advantage of the Golden Hour. I dragged several objects outside, staging them in front of rose bushes and Italian Stone Pine trees, or on the front porch. I lugged around small tables. I turned around, noticed the blooming weeds, photographed the thistles, and got a few bug bites in the process. Not chigger bites, thank goodness, but the ones I got itch anyway.

I tipped over the tripod with my camera attached and it crashed into the concrete floor of the porch. Uh oh. I’ve used it since and it seems okay. I got lucky on that one.

Then I played with the edits some. Here’s my first edit effort.

Next I softened it up a bit.

I like this one for its ghost effect.

I went a little darker for the next one.

And I tried it in black and white, just to see.