True blue scenes

Dan Mold shoots the blue hour, proving sunrise and sunset aren't the only times you can capture dramatic landscapes

- Dan Mold

We're willing to bet there isn't a serious landscape photographer in all the land who doesn't love to photograph at sunset. But this jaw-dropping spectacle isn't the be-all and end-all of landscape photography. I've lost count of how many times I've seen fellow photographers pack up once the lion's share of the gorgeous golden light has gone, only to trudge back to their cars during the encore: the blue hour!

Blue hour, commonly referred to as the 'magic' hour, occurs before sunrise and also after sunset. While it's called an 'hour', you tend to only get the best blue colours for about 30 minutes. This incredible phenomenon happens during civil twilight, when the sun is between four and six degrees below the horizon. The longer wavelengths of red light fly into the Earth's atmosphere and out the other side while the shorter blue wavelengths hit the atmosphere and scatter, shrouding the landscape in those distinctive cool hues.

You can calculate when blue hour will occur at a given location with photography planning smartphone apps, such as The Photographer's Ephemeris and PhotoPills, but as with any landscape shoot, it's worth turning up ahead of time so you can prepare your kit and frame a good composition, so you're ready to go well before the main event.

Shooting in the blue hour doesn't require any special equipment, but darker lighting conditions make a tripod a must.