Weekly Photo Challenge: The Golden Hour

This week’s photo challenge is The Golden Hour! Their description is this:

In photography, the “golden hour” is the first and last hour of sunlight of the day. Photographers venture out on sunrise hikes or sunset treks to capture a magical shot, due to the quality of the light during that time of day.”

The chances of me ever catching the first hour of sunlight is close to impossible since I love sitting in bed even if I wake up before the sun rises.  Another reason is that ever since I was little, my mom has injected thoughts that make me feel like I live in a horror movie and if I were to go out in those crazy hours, what happens to those morning joggers in Criminal Minds will possibly happen to me.  Well, better to be safe than sorry, right? One day, I’ll gather one or two friends and do the sunrise shots.  For now, the closest I get is capturing the 2nd to 3rd hour after sunrise when we head out to dragonboat festivals/races. Last Sunday, I did not participate but I did wake up early to catch the very first race which my team did their 2km final at 9am.

As we were driving there at 7:30am-ish, the sky had streams of light peaking through the clouds.

Now, if we talk about the sunsets.  That last hour of sunlight before it gets all dark.  Well, I’ve done that before after a hike in Hong Kong last November on Lamma Island.  It possibly had one of the best shooting experiences of my life 🙂

Lamma Island on the docks preparing to get on the ferry

Leaving on the Lamma Island ferry to go back to Central

The Lamma Island scenery from the ferry as the sun disappears behind the mountains…

As much as my morning shot wasn’t very golden, it did have golden streaks which aren’t very apparent in my shot but it does get a bit closer to “The Golden Hour” and having  a special quality of light in those sunsets shot! 🙂

A very special Weekly Photo Challenge this week! Check it out HERE and join in if you have some shots showing The Golden Hour!