Reaching Blue Hour over the Andes

How many times have you been to a famous sunset spot which fills up with crowds of people in anticipation to watch the sun go down, and in a flash the sun and crowds disappear like a flash?

That's where most people make the mistake in my opinion. Staying after sunset and shooting well into the blue hour is when you can capture the most magical landscape shots. Firstly let me explain, you have the golden hour which everyone talks about when the sun is setting and the light is soft. After the golden hour there is another beautiful setting for landscape photography called the blue hour.

Understanding the difference between the different hours

This is the hour when you get rich, deep blues and purple tones just before the stars start to come out and you reach the nautical and astronomical hours which goes way more into astrophotography. (more of that in the upcoming posts). Here are two examples using the River San Pedro as my foreground from the start of blue hour to blue hour and moonlight.

Blue Hour with the foreground lit by moonlight