Monday, August 01, 2011

The fire that burns in my soul…

“Red” is the theme for this week’s and I remembered this sunset I shot November of last year.  I had my manual lens on the camera, and by tweaking with f-stop and shutter speed, I was able to capture the red of the sunset.

I love sunsets.  I’ve got a whole folder full of them on my hard drive.

In the winter we get temperature inversions, which trap the air (and pollution and dust) in the valley.  They wreak havoc on your lungs and psyche, but they make for some incredible sunsets.

I don’t specifically remember if these were taken during an inversion, from the lights across the valley it couldn’t have been a really bad one, or maybe just at the beginning of one.  Enough to trap some sunset-enhancing particulates, but not enough to fog the air.  Who knows, but I still like the way they came out.

18 comments:

Alexia said...

Those are fantastic - was the sky really that red?? Astonishing.

Limarea said...

That's really a beautiful sunset! :)

Gilly said...

Love the sunsets - but wouldn't fancy the inversions! And you do need some decent hills westwards to make a good pic!

Little Nell said...

Glorious sunsets. Like you I collect them. We get some beauties here in Lanzarote, but none as red as yours. My little Canon Ixus pocket camera has a sunset setting thank goodness.

Bob Scotney said...

Nature at its beautiful best. Splendid sunsets.

21 Wits said...

Absolutely awesome Max, what a very stunning sky.....I don't really get to see that around here...or maybe I've missed it...I'll have to really watch out for this...nicely red in the most lovely of ways! This could make me begin to like red!

Max Sartin said...

Alexia - I fudged it a little bit by manually speeding up the shutter, so it wasn't quite that red to the naked eye, but they haven't been "photoshopped" at all.
Limar - Thanks. I was lucky to be in the right place at the right time, with all the right equipment. Including my tripod.
Gilly - Yup, those inversions are nothing to envy, that's for sure. In the top and bottom pictures, you can see the silhouette of the Oquirrh Mountains on the opposite side of the valley and the middle picture is looking out over the city with the Great Salt Lake in the background.
Little Nell - A sunset setting? Good thing to have because left to itself the camera usually washes out the sunset trying to adjust for the dark landscape below it. I just looked up Lanzarote, if I got the right one, you're on an island off the coast of Africa? Cool. Someday, I'd love to make it to Africa.
Bob - Thanks. Nature is pretty amazing at what she can conjure up.

Max Sartin said...

Karen - Thanks. I haven't seen a sunset that red here very often, takes the perfect combination of clouds, particulates and me being there. Glad it helped you gain a little more appreciation for red.

A Paperback Writer Photos said...

Sigh.
Your sunsets are always so gorgeous. And I've never, ever been able to photograph one even reasonably well.....
Beautiful.

Max Sartin said...

Writer - Thanks. We'll have to go sunset photographing sometime and see if we can get your camera to capture it.

Anonymous said...

Hard to get a wicked red sunset like that one to translate to a photograph! Great shots, Max.

Max Sartin said...

Titanium - Thanks. It took some playing around with the shutter speed, but that's another thing that's nice about digital photography: I can look at the results right away, don't have to guess and hope for the best.

young-eclectic-encounters said...

In spite of the inversions I sure miss the beauty caused by the mountains especailly the sunsets. I remember the sunsets in the winter that would turn the whole valley pink. Sigh wish I could witness that here.
Johnina :D

Max Sartin said...

YEE - I agree. Snow covered mountains are beautiful. And this year they are still looking plush and green. Very unusual for August.

Aeria said...

These are just gorgeous!!

Carmi said...

That is some seriously otherworldly color...I can't stop looking at this series of pictures. Lovely!

In a way it's kinda sad that we get such great color because of air pollution. Southwestern Ontario has a similar affliction - namely, pollution from the Ohio Valley floats our way, then gets stuck in seasonal inversions that give us some spectacular atmospheric light shows. I'm gonna guess it's a worthwhile tradeoff for some :)

Max Sartin said...

I'd gladly give up the amazing sunsets for cleaner air. Even after the valley is scoured by a good storm, we get some nice ones. Not quite as nice, but close.

PJ said...

Simply stunning! I called my teenage son upstairs to look at them. His jaw dropped and all he could say was "Wow! Just wow, Mom. Thatʻs cool."