Making a better sunset.

Sunset photographs are clearly among the most popular in "popular" photography today. And this summer, as I was dreaming of capturing sunset after gorgeous sunset, we for some reason had the most boring, colorless evening times in recent memory. The sky started out blue and ended navy. No pinks, no corals, no purples, reds, oranges, greens, nothing!

So this picture from around the beginning of May was kind of a miracle.



Of course, that's just until I tell you that the image was doctored (if your eagle eye couldn't already tell) by seriously upping the saturation. This was a sunset that had me careening home, racing for my camera, hurtling back to the car, and careening to a good scenic spot. The clouds were amazing (a storm was near), the sun was spreading corpuscular rays (yup, that's what they're called!), and I had a pretty unobstructed view. And alas, this is truly what it looked like:



So, the next time you see a magnificent sunrise or sunset, just remember....there's a chance it didn't really look like that. ;-)

Interesting fact: the sun no longer sets in this spot. You may recall from some distant science lesson that as the earth revolves around the sun, the sun's position in the sky literally changes horizontally. It will eventually travel back as the earth completes its revolution. What's sad is that as the sunsets become more colorful with fall and winter, I won't be able to photograph them in this particular spot. Crazy and sad. Think about that the next time you decide to visit your favorite photographic spot six months later!