Tag: photography

Simply Pretty Sunset

I don’t very often get to sit down and watch a whole sunset. Last night I did. I saw the first blaze of yellow-orange and pulled up a lawn chair and sat there with my camera until the last pink faded to blue-gray.

The sun was still up here, shielded behind a tree.
The sun was still up here, shielded behind a tree.

There was a spot so beautiful that at first I thought it would be a spectacular sunset. The clouds were very interesting, but as sunsets go it was simply pretty. And I figured out something about what makes a sunset dramatic that I had never noticed before.

This was the most brilliant time of the sunset, with color on the most clouds near me.
This was the most brilliant time of the sunset, with color on the most clouds near me.

Now it seems so obvious, but here it is. To have gorgeous color all over the sky, you have to be near enough the edge of the cloud bank—or have enough breaks in the clouds—that the clouds over you are not in shadow.

Note that the blue clouds are in the shadow of the more distant clouds, putting within the near clouds just a narrow band touched with red
The End. Note that the blue clouds are in the shadow of the more distant clouds, putting within the near clouds just a narrow band touched with red.

I rested and watched a pretty sunset where I was. I watched a fabulous sunset . . . for those ten or fifteen miles to my west. I hope someone there saw it and enjoyed it as much as I did.