Percy Priest Lake Sunset

A recent trip in the RV brought us to Seven Points Campground on the shores of Percy Priest Lake just outside of Nashville, Tennessee. After several days of rain, we were excited to see a dramatic improvement in the weather and took the dogs for an evening walk. What I was not expecting was one of the most gorgeous sunsets I have seen (and we get some stunning ones here in our mountains).

As we stood watching the sunset, other campers drifted out of their campsites and stood along the shore with us. It was a great moment of all of us strangers enjoying the magnificent display of color and light.

I hope I have done justice to the beauty Mother Nature provided us that night.

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Technical Notes

I confess to being underprepared for the moment. While I almost always have a camera with me, I didn’t have anything else. No filters and no tripod. Without that, I had to use a fast shutter speed–1/160th of a second–rather than a nice, slow shutter to draw in the light and color.

The photographs are shot with a variable lens rather than a fixed lens. I had my versatile EF 24-70mm f/2.8L II USM on my Canon 5d Mark III – that is my carrying around lens that I use for everyday shooting. The photos are at 24mm except for the young tree which is at 35mm.

Despite the limitations, I developed these with only a very light touch. No saturation or color enhancements or pushing of contrast or highlights. My goal was to share with you the colors that we saw with the naked eye that night.