The Island in Tisleia

Close to our cabin, there is a small island in the river. We walk past this spot often when we are out with our dog. It makes for a beautiful scene, and I had taken several photos of it. But the photos lacked something. Maybe a sunset would do the trick?

Three years ago, I started using apps to help me with my photography. The most important one is The Photographers Ephemeris. You can find it as a web page online, or as an app on both iPhone and Android. I used this app to find out what time of year the sun set right behind the Island. As luck would have it this was around Christmas, a time of year we usually spend in the cabin. Now all I had to do was to show up at sunset with my camera.

Not all sunsets are beautiful, as I would find out around Christmas the first year. There was heavy clouds every day, and all the sunsets where boring and dull. During the next year, I started using an app called Clear Outside. It is a kind of weather app that shows the cloud density in different hights in the atmosphere. If there is little low and medium clouds but good cloud coverage high up, there is a good chance of a nice sunset.

The next Christmas it was grey and cloudy again, but one day Clear Outside told me there was a good chance of a nice sunset. I showed up with my camera, and as predicted, the sky exploded ni colour. And after two years of trying, I finally got my image!

A few months after I took this picture, a winter storm hit the small island. Two of the front threes blew over, leaving a gaping hole and lying across the river. I am very glad I got to take this picture, before the scene was destroyed by the wind.