Sunsetting

More sunset shots tonight. I've lived in Florida, place of the beautiful sunsets for nearly 15 years and never taken a photo of one that I can remember. My view is a littel blocked here, but as my goal is to shoot from the yard, mostly, I feel I can use the things that are in the way for now. I will soon go to a place where the view should be unobstructed for the most part. But it's just a short drive, well there are a few places actually.

Anyway...my suprise tonight is the realization of how fast God paints the sky. I can't believe the tremendous variations within seconds to minutes. Photographing the sunset is like trying to photograph a moving train. It's not to be captured, just frames of it. Using the vivid setting on the camera, I get something between what my eyes see and what they don't. The colors tonight reminded me of the colors I saw during the total solar eclipse in Aruba that I was privleged to get to go see in 1997, I believe. The colors were not of this world. Brilliance isn't adequate to describe the magentas and gold rays beaming out of the mountains and craters on the moon that let the sun show some of its secrets to me. And whoever else was paying attention to that part. There are a lot of things to think about seeing in 3 minutes of a once-in-a-lifetime experience.

But then every sunset is a once-in-a-lifetime experience, I also realized tonight. I'll never see this one again. Chances are I will remember the photos, not the whole painting as it moved from one look to the next. I'm glad that now the sunsets call me outside, now that the sunflowers are drying in the closet. Getting ready to fee the birds again. But not from a bag from publix, from the earth in the yard that we share everyday. I'm sad to see the sunflowers not in the yard, but their departure enabled me to hear the sunset. What will I hear next I wonder?

-3c