All photos in this chapter are © by Joe Konz
In photography, the term "the golden hour" refers to a period of the day that photographers relish -- and exploit -- because of how its dramatic, splayed or patch lighting falls on various objects. The golden hour is usually an hour or so right before or after sunrise or sunset.
Truth be told, I did little -- if none whatsoever -- shooting in the morning golden hour in Garfield Park. I worked many of those years, so I was either in the office or on the way there in the hour after sunrise. All my golden-hour of shooting was in the late afternoon near, at or after sunset.
I was motivated to photograph the scenes above and immediately below on April 6, 2011, by the openings in the clouds that allowed sunbeams to seep through. I haven't come across that situation very often. I was near the railroad tracks on the park's west fringe. Manual High School is in the center and right.
Above: On Oct. 21, 2011, I returned to the sycamore trees and captured this at 6:23 p.m.
Above: On Oct. 21, 2011, a year to the day after the two photos above this one were taken, I made this example of splayed lighting during the golden hour (6:44 p.m. to be exact). I positioned myself to stand so the sun was mostly blocked by the trunk of the tree left of center. I liked how the splayed rays illuminate portions of the grass ... but most of all how they reflect off the recycling drop-off bin on the right. This was taken from the open meadow adjacent to the rear of Garfield Park Arts Center.
Above: I was ecstatic about being able to catch the setting sun in this manner, right next to the trunk of what I came to call "The Tree" in Garfield Park in my latter years of living in Indianapolis. It's located in the park's southwest quadrant, not far from Southern Avenue. High-dynamic range (HDR) software enabled me to cull the detail you see in this image, which was taken at 7:55 p.m. on April 8, 2011. All of the single frames of this photo that I took were extremely dark and barely showed detail in any of the subjects. HDR gave me something to work with.
The golden-hour picture in Garfield Park about which I am most pleased is the first image you see below. I couldn't asked for better conditions -- a purplish sky and "golden" reflection on the Conservatory windows, topped with natural sparkling rays emanating from the lampposts (I did not use a light-sparkling filter enhancement, which some photographers will use to get that effect).
The photo was taken in the Sunken Garden as the sun was preparing to drop below park trees just a few minutes before it dropped below the horizon on Sept. 1, 2008.
The conditions I described above -- the sky color, golden reflection, sparkling lamppost lighting and even the remaining available light that enabled a viewer to appreciate detail of the garden -- were fleeting that night. But they came together at the right time for me; I was at a great right place at the right time. More "golden hour" photos in the park appear below.
Please note that you can click on any photo in this post to view a larger and sharper version of it.
Above is a ground-level picture I took of some blades of grass, using the brilliant golden-hour sky for background -- and for backlight to make this silhouette. It was taken April 6, 2011, in the grassy area west of the railroad tracks not far from Emmerich Manual High School. The shot below was taken the same evening from approximately the same vantage point only about 10 minutes later, at which time the sun was fully below the horizon.
Over the years, I've come across sundry trash items as I did my various shoots. Technically, the shot above of an empty beer can was not in Garfield Park, but it was very close to it. I came across it as I walked home from a park photography outing one evening. The can was situated close to a curb along Allen Avenue just south of Southern Avenue. I particularly like how the flare from the setting sun in the background introduced a secondary element to the composition.
On Aug. 12, 2006, the men in the four photos below played some pickup basketball on the asphalt court next to Burrello Family Center in the hour or so before sundown. I made a point to grab shots both with the sun behind me (first two images below) and as a backlight source for silhouettes (second two photos below). You can hopefully detect the dramatic natural lighting on the players in the first two images. In the second two, I just moved to a position that was facing the sun, using the backboard to prevent the sun from impairing my vision so I could compose, effecting the silhouettes that you see.
It was nearing sundown when I took the above shot (which you'll also find in the arts center chapter), an example of patch natural lighting.
Near sundown two days later, on April 8, 2011, I noticed another batch of heavy cloud cover and returned to this spot with my camera to see what I might be able to get. This time, there was a slight opening for the setting sun to make a brief, partial appearance, which is how I got the photograph above.
The photos above, another example of patch lighting, and the first three below are from Aug. 12, 2006, at a point in the shoot that I was focusing on how the dramatic late evening sun was creating these shadows on trees along the asphalt path behind Burrello Family Center. I really liked the contrast in the shot above and immediately below. I recently processed the second image below through high-dynamic range software for two reasons. One was to illustrate how HDR can pull out detail in dark shaded areas, which was the case on the bottom portion of the tree trunk as captured in the original frame (in the single-frame version, this portion was close to black). But more important to me was to use HDR to help me mute an annoying solar glare in the original frame in the tree knot in the sunny portion just below the first middle branch. HDR muted the glare nicely. The third image below might best illustrate how the sun's selective, or patch, lighting will create special "looks" in the golden hour.
Above and below: Two golden-hour captures from Oct. 21, 2010. In the one below, taken at the fork in the road on Conservatory Drive, notice the random patches of sunlight.
Next up, Chapter 18: The Interurban shelter
Previously in the Garfield Park in Pictures series:
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