Notes To My Mother

If you haven’t heard the term, “god rays”, it refers to those streams of light that emanate from the location of the sun and stream in all directions into and through the scene in front of you. Mostly we see these rays streaming down, but you will find situations where they are streaming in all directions. It all depends on the conditions present in the scene. Kapaa Beach In the image above taken on Kapaa Beach in Kauai, you can see that the rays are shooting up as well as down. The rays are visible because they are lighting up particles in the atmosphere. The light is filtered, that is, the light is interrupted by clouds in portions of the image and that is what gives the rays definition.  Take away the clouds and leave the particles in the sky and you would see what would look like a hazy glow. For an image like this one I recommend you use a tripod, turn off image stabilization, use mirror lockup or shoot in live view, use a hand held remote or your 2 second timer....