Capturing the Sun

I have always seen beautiful images of the sun whose rays are captured in the moment streaming through fluffy clouds like long fingers reaching down towards earth. I have seen photographs of the beautiful amber glow of the sun in the sky as it rises and sets. And I have even seen images of the sun in a the far off distance like a ball of fire placed in the sky. I myself, have never really attempted to take pictures of the actual sun except maybe in a sunrise or sunset. So with all of our beautiful sunny weather this past weekend, I was challenged. Just how do you take photographs of the sun? I realized that you can't just photograph the sun itself when it is fully overhead and shining directly at you. I definitely don't recommend attempting this little action, or at least the way I tried it. It not only results in a completely white image no mater how low your ISO and how fast your shutter speed is, but also results in perhaps temporally blinding yourself and falling out into the yard as I did. Luckily only Mr. Squirrel and Mrs. Robin had a little chuckle on my account.

 So, no direct sun photo taking for me. I then moved on to taking photos of the sun through the trees, which I think actually turned out OK.

 I also realized that you can capture the sun indirectly through shadows and bits of light you see in the yard or elsewhere, or in halo form around your children's heads.

 I realize this photo of Emma-Caroline is a little odd with her one eye darkened, but it was how the light was falling on her, so I included it in  this post. However it is that you capture the sun through the lens of your camera, it is fun and an interesting challenge to do so. I would love to hear from you all if you have any photography techniques for capturing the sun. I want to end this little post by saying, "Yippy Skippy" and "Woo Hoo!" I have completed, as of today, 31 days of my 365 project. I am so happy about this little accomplishment I think I deserve a treat! One Starbucks grande Skinny Vanilla Latte with three Splendas coming up!