I shot these two photographs minutes apart while staking out a scenic spot at San Diego’s Lake Murray, a great park just a few minutes from Kongo’s banana tree.  In the photo above the sun had about two minutes before it disappeared below the hills in the background.  At just the right moment, this kayaker paddled into the middle of the sunbeam.  I was using multiple gray filters at a 20mm setting.  ISO was 100 and I set the f-stop for 22.  The shot was 0.3 seconds which is why the paddler is a little blurry but I think it works here.

This is the same scene about 90 seconds later.  The sun is just setting, the paddler is gone, and I pulled out all but a single graduated density filter.  I like the way it kept more blue in the sky.  Still used the lens at a f-22 stop, ISO 100, and shutter speed was 0.4 seconds.

This final shot was taken just before driving home and a bit above the lake.  It was about 10 minutes after the sun had set.  Here I didn’t use any filters, bumped up the ISO to 200, made the shot a little tighter at 50mm, and set the shutter speed at 1/640th of a second.

Travel safe.  Have fun.