Day 9 - Winter Solstice
The Winter Solstice arrives in the Hudson Valley - Nikon Z9 w/26 - 70mm at 26mm, f/11, 1/250 sec, ISO 800
The Winter Solstice arrived here in New York at 4:20 AM. At that point in time, the earth was positioned on its axis so that it was pointing directly away from the sun in our orbit. Today is the shortest day of the year and from here on until the Summer solstice, the days will become longer.
Earth-Sun position during the Winter Solstice (image from web)
Since the sun appears lower in the sky than any other time of the year today, the shadows it casts will be longer than any other time as well. You can see the shadows of the trees cast across a dirt road along Mine Road in Orange County NY appear quite long, even though this shot was captured near mid-day.
Tech Tip: Lighting - For most photography, the general rule of thumb is to have the light source (sun) at your back so that your shadow is pointing at the subject you wish to photograph. This would be the ideal situation when photographing birds, for example. With landscapes, however, it is often preferable to have the sun off the the side of you so that you can capture more definition and shadows in your subject… just one more rule in photography that always applies except when it doesn't!
