From sunrise to sunset, the LB ColorCombo is always ready to brighten your outlook

Here's the third of three parts from Daryl Benson recalling his recent two-week visit to Japan. This time we see two distinctly different but equally impressive images of the two-story Tahoto Pagoda on the tiny island of Miyajima.

"Sunrise and sunset are always favourite times to photograph," says Daryl. "It’s rare, however, that I’ll shoot the exact same location at both of these times. Most subjects are usually positioned to catch either the morning or evening light best. However, on this little island there are not a lot of places to go. After photographing sunrise at the floating Torii Gate, which this island is famous for (see last week's post), I ended up returning to a lookout that had provided a nice view of this pagoda surrounded by cherry trees in full blossom. I had, in fact, photographed this same pagoda at sunset the previous evening as the light was really enriching the pagoda’s colors. By shooting with the aid of my Singh-Ray LB ColorCombo Polarizer, I captured the whole scene snapping with intensity and contrast.

"When I returned the next morning, I wasn’t expecting the pagoda to be nearly as interesting in the late morning light. The sun was getting higher, harsher and had lost most of its early morning warmth. When I got to the lookout it was exactly as I expected, although many of the cherry tree blossoms were glowing from the backlight. There was a fair bit of haze, which was mostly pollution from the nearby city of Hiroshima, just across the bay. I couldn’t see much of the hillside behind the pagoda. I was looking almost directly into the sun, so I didn’t expect much color boost from the ColorCombo Polarizer but I thought it might cut a little bit of haze. So I pulled it out of my pocket and had a look. To my surprise it did both jobs beautifully! It cut through enough haze that I could make out more detail in the background hills and I could see the colors intensify. Polarizers perform their best magic when directed at a 90-degree angle to the light source. But even when shooting 180 degrees from the sun or directly into it, there will still be some surfaces that are at 90 degrees to the light, from your point of view, and will therefore block the polarized light reflections. The color intensifying effect produced by this filter works regardless of the polarization, but it's most pronounced when the polarizer is working at maximum effect.

"I was careful to shade the front of the filter during the morning shoot as the camera was pointing almost directly into the rising sun. The blending of color enhancement and a polarizer in one filter makes this filter a favourite tool. I often carry it in my shirt pocket, pulling it out just to visually check a scene. After more than 25 years of shooting, I understand well enough the concept of how light works. However, I’m surprised often enough that I try to never prejudge anything until I actually see it."

Now that Daryl is back home in Alberta, Canada, we're guessing that he'll soon be posting many more images from his trip to Japan. You can check his impressive website here.