Photo of the Week for January 18, 2019
For many Canadians, the season’s typically inclement weather makes seeing the Sun on the date of the winter solstice something of a rare treat. Getting to see its complete arc across the sky—from sunrise to sunset—is rarer still.
Indeed, Edmonton, Alberta, photographer Luca Vanzella had to combine images captured over two consecutive days to create the image presented above. However, as Luca notes, “There is a window of about nine days centred on the winter solstice, when the Sun rises and sets within a tenth of a degree of its most southerly positions.” And though he didn’t get his much hoped for clear day, Luca was able to record the afternoon half the solar path on December 18, and the morning portion on the 19th, for a seamless composite.
Luca used a Canon EOS Rebel 3Ti DSLR camera and a Canon EF 8-15mm f/4L Fisheye USM lens (at 12mm) to obtain a combination of Sun images shot through a solar filter (spaced roughly 15 minutes apart) and unfiltered foreground shots.