How would you shoot and what settings

Here is one of my favorite images from apox. 6 years ago. Maybe it isn't anything special but it captured a moment in my life I will never forget, just what photography is all about.

It was taken with an old Sony Mavica P&S and of coarse it was in auto, the only setting it had. Since I have been shooting with my SLR's I haven't done mu night or evening shots. I have tried a few but I don't know if I could duplicate this again if I tried. My question is, if you came apon this scene with your SLR what settings would you set and what point of the image would you pick up for your exposure. Oh and this is shooting hand held because I forgot my tripod
I am asking this as a subject of help not a trivia question

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Looks like your P&S did a decent job of metering the sceen. I would have metered the sky to the upper left of the sun (and above the sailboat) and then opened up a bit (perhaps 1 stop).

I would recommend investing in the book titled, "Exposure." It has some excellent pointers on just what you're talking about. As a relatively new entrant into the world of DSLR but a longtime Point and Shooter, I have run into the same situations: "I wonder how I did that?"
Well this book gives you all the tips that will increase the beauty of your photo opportunities.
I'm sure it's available on Ebay or Amazone.
Tom

metering really depends on what you wanted to accomplish. I would have most likely used spot metering off some relatively flat (light wise) area of the sky to get a nice silhouette. In PP, I'd clone out the swimmer and motorboat, select the sky and adjust levels a little to bring out more reds and oranges (deeper saturation), then I'd straighten the horizon slightly. Bear in mind, I'm more of a sports shooter so I don't tend to go overboard in PP.

Another option would be to meter the foreground and slightly underexpose (to leave some detail) and use a polarizer and/or graduated neutral density filter to add more saturation and better exposure to the sky. It would be a different look than you have there but might be nice too.

Great image, btw, living on Lake Erie, I totally relate to these kind of scenes (at least when the lake isn't frozen)

Sorry, I must not have been getting email notifications on this post. I just decided to look at it to see if anyone responded. Thanks for your input ! This is one of those things that is tough to master in photography. With all the different colors and at night makes it hard to find that right spot. I need to go out and practice this a bit when summer gets here again.
BTW Scott, There is a lot of room for editing the image but I like it with the swimmer. Like I said, it was a special moment in my life that I won't forget and the swimmer and speed boat was part of it. Not anything special to anyone else just me and my wife.
Not a good resolution either, it was shot with a 1.2 MP. So it is just something to keep in my file and memory.

This was shot on Presq Isle , sorry can't spell