[/caption] Crown Point or best known as The Vista House is one of the best spots along the Columbia River Gorge to take some terrific sunset or sunrise photos. The only thing you need to keep in mind is that you really need to have the perfect cloud cover, which will allow you to take advantage of the color and personality that they will bring. Fall and late Spring are also the best times to photograph from this spot since you can take advantage of the many trees far below. I have very rarely found myself keeping any pictures that I take between November and April since the lighting is somewhat drab and the foliage is limited. Crown Point also allows you to get a 180 degree view of the river below and watch for the clouds to crowd along the gorge on the Washington side. This photo was taken on 5/3/11 at about 6:25pm and the sun was beginning to set just as the clouds were coming in from the west. As you can see, the water level was very high and the foliage was just about to pop. The sun was at about a 90 degree angle and you can see how the upper left corner is overexposed, which helped bring out the personality of the clouds due to the glare from the water below. I was using my Sigma 17-70mm lens and had the CIR-PL and warming filter attached in order to saturate the sky and warm the foliage below. I made sure to use my tripod, bubble level and remote switch since the light was pretty low and I didn’t want any camera shake. I wanted to get the most panoramic photo as possible and ensure that the field of view was large so I set the focal length at 17mm. I just made sure to stand at a place where I didn’t have any unwanted tree limbs in the corners of the photo. The camera was in Program/Normal mode so the aperture was at F-5.7 and the shutter speed at 1/125 second. I had the ISO at 100 and the white balance at -0.7 since the glare was very high and I was worried about too much overexposure.