Shooting the Sun

Shooting the sun is a difficult proposition. I've done it a number of times--when it's low in the sky, under mostly cloudy conditions and when there's a halo around it.

During the day of this shoot from a cruise ship on the Pacific Ocean west of Baja California, I watched the sun for a perfect shot. I couldn't look at it too long, but after a while I found those spots in my eyes, an effect that told me to stop. But I didn't.

I just would shoot to the side of it, and keep shooting until it went down.

After playing around with f-stops, exposure compensations and shutter speeds, I came up with these numbers which seemed to give me a good effect (in terms of a clear-cut sun).
ISO 200, 1/1600, f/7.1 and shot at 271 mm with a Tamron 28-300 mm lens.