A beautiful sunset lifts our spirits at the end of a series of dreary days.
At Iris Arts, we don't include many photos of sunsets in our website galleries. That is not because we don't have a lot of them, but rather because of what they imply for certain people and because sunset photos can easily become cliché.
On the other hand, the color and light is welcome on dreary winter days. Recently, as the pandemic rages and we are staying close to home, a series of rainy days with heavy cloud cover soured our mood. We ventured out anyway. It is a short drive to the sea, and seeing some breaks in the clouds, we went there in hopes of a bit of color at the end of the day.
The clouds were moving quickly, but a break on the western horizon raised our hopes for a colorful sunset. iPhone panorama: © Donald J. Rommes
As we drove, the clouds continued to break—especially to the west. As the sun dipped beneath the lowest of the clouds, it illuminated their underbellies, first with yellow, and then with red. We planted ourselves and our tripod-mounted cameras on the rocky beach and waited,
While waiting for sunset color, Nancy photographs the cloud break and the light bathing the far side of the bay. iPhone panorama by © Donald J. Rommes
Nancy's image of the quickly changing blue and magenta light to the northeast, the break in the clouds, and the mountains of British Columbia in the background. Photo: © Nancy Rommes
Nancy photographed the town of Birch Bay on the far side of the bay as I photographed her with my iPhone in the golden light. A brief few minutes later, the sun turned red as it set into the marine layer.
IPhone photo of the sunset. The edge of the clouds are now catching the reddish light of the setting sun, but will the undersides of the clouds turn red as well? Photo: © Donald J. Rommes
Moments later, I captured this sunset with my high resolution camera. Photo: © Donald J. Rommes
We were very happy with nature's light show at the end of the day. The sunset was not some metaphor for the end, but rather a reward for enduring several days of rain during a pandemic. Our spirits were lifted and we returned home, steeled against the cloudy days forecast for the next week, and ready for the next colorful sunset!.
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