This week 52Frames set the challenge of Golden Hour. This is the hour after sunrise and before sunset where the light is soft and diffused.

I wanted to try and avoid a simple silouhette as we have already looked at that. I searched through some of my photos and the ones most suitable were taken in Africa. In Malawi sunrise and sunset does not alter much over the year, and is around 6 am and 6pm. This provides opportunity for many photos as you are usually about for sunset and often sunrise.

I chose this picture as it seemed to answer the brief. There is enough residual light to make the distant landscape interesting and varied, and I like the trees in the foreground.

I decided to play around with my oil pastels again and this time used them with turpentine to create washes of a sort, and then on their own to produce areas of texture and depth. It has worked better than I thought it would and I am pleased with the finished result.

Sunset from Zomba Plateau in Malawi in oil pastel