Sunsets, finally

For those reading the blog since the beginning you know that there was a lot of lamenting about less than satisfying sunsets for the 25 years we were in Georgia.  Just too darn many trees to see a sunset like the ones we grew up seeing on the high plains of the panhandle of Texas.

We thought our time at the North Rim of the Grand Canyon would recharge our sunset battery cells but we ended up right in the middle of a forest of giant ponderosa pines that pretty much blocked the sun all day.  When we did make it out to the rim at sunset, the sky was so clear that there was no color except in the rocks of the canyon below.  Well, surely our time at Big Bend will fix that.  As it turns out, not so much for the first three months we have been here.  But that is all changed now.

Finally, atmospheric conditions have cooperated for producing some colorful sunsets, and sunrises.  The previous 24 hours were spent driving Cyndee to San Angelo to catch a flight to Atlanta for a visit with the kids.  San Angelo is not that far away but when you throw in some freezing rain, for two hundred miles, it slows you down, closes airports and makes you get a hotel room to wait it out.  But after getting her on a flight the next morning I did some grocery buying and then headed back to Big Bend.  five hours later and within minutes of my destination the underside of a ragged clump of clouds began to glow with the day's last light.  I pulled over to get the camera out of it's bag in the back seat and while outside, looking northeast, I was surprised to see sunset action there too.

The light was changing fast so I grabbed the iPhone.  The phone camera has a tough time handling low light situations but it did alright catching this scene that lasted only seconds.

Turning back to the west and now with an SLR camera:

The clouds were like inverted rivers of lava, set against a baby blue sky.

I got back in the truck and continued my last few miles toward home.  I thought that the sunset was fading but it was just the opposite.  But it had been a long 24 hours and I was not going to stop again, I just held the camera up to the windshield and started pushing the button.  Most of the shots were obscured by bug splats, muddy wiper streaks and weird tilts.  But there were a couple of good ones.  Here's one:

Even with an 18mm wide angle lens it was not near wide enough.  If I had a fish-eye lens this would have been something to see on film.  It was something to see in person.

As an added bonus we both have enjoyed a couple of sunrises on the way to work.  The colors are pretty distinct.

It was really cold, maybe that is why the color was so funky.