annoying red streak

[whit10]

Could someone please tell me what the red streak is in the picture and what i am doing that creates these streaks. Any other comments would be welcome
Nikon D3100
Lens 18-55 F3.5- 5.6
@36 mm s 1/125 F5
ISO 180

[EOBeav]

Sun flare. It happens when you've got a sun ray bouncing around in your lens. The best way to get rid of it is to block it out with a hat or something while you're taking the shot. That can be tough to do in a shot like this, though, if the sun isn't at a significant angle.

This is a nice image, despite the flare. Nice colors in the sky, foreground, and I really like the sun peaking behind just over the horizon. Looks like something Dan Jurak would take.

[PhilLG]

By red streak do you mean the dot below and to the left of the sun? If so that's lens flare. The easiest way to avoid it is with a lens hood assuming you weren't using one already.

Other than that I think your photo looks great. Maybe from my point of view I would have framed it with the horizon around the bottom third to show a bit more of the colour gradient in the sky and maybe a crop to get the horizon level.

Phil

[whit10]

Thank you gentlemen for the information.Hopefully I can now avoid having this happen.