One of nature’s most beautiful phenomena, they occur daily. Of course, we don’t get to see the beautiful colours every day; atmospheric conditions don’t always permit. The intense red and orange hues of the sky at sunrise and sunset are mainly caused by scattering of sunlight by dust particles, soot particles, other solid aerosols, and liquid aerosols in the Earth’s atmosphere. Sunrise colors are typically less brilliant and less intense than sunset colors, since there are generally fewer particles and aerosols in the morning air than in the evening air. Sunrise color intensities can however exceed sunset’s intensities when there are nighttime fires, volcanic eruptions or emissions, or dust storms to the east of the viewer. A number of eruptions in recent times, such as those of Mount Pinatubo in 1991 and Krakatoa in 1883, have been sufficiently large to produce remarkable sunsets and sunrises all over the world.
Today, I’m posting some sunrises and sunsets that I’ve been able to photograph at a variety of locations.
Photographed at Covehead Beach, Prince Edward Island in the autumn of 2009. It’s good to have a few clouds; the lighter areas reflect the colours of the sunrise, the darker areas complement the bright colours. Too many clouds on the other hand: no visible sunrise!
Brilliant start to the day in Westbank, British Columbia. Photographed from the home of our friends, Hank and Bev Bryce overlooking Green Bay, Lake Okanagan.
Arizona is renowned for its brilliant sunrises. I captured this scene while horseback riding with my son, Jon and his partner Nadja at a ranch near Cave Creek, north of Phoenix in April 2009.
A sunset photographed close to home, in Canmore, Alberta. A winter scene, featuring the Bow River in the foreground and Canmore’s landmark, the Three Sisters in the background. Light clouds contributed nicely to the beauty of the sky and if you look closely there’s a crescent moon adding a little interest to the picture.
A very serene image, a man fishing at sunset from this wharf at Telegraph Cove, British Columbia. I particularly like the clouds in this shot, the red tones blending with the more sombre shades of grey.
Another beautiful Arizona sunset. This photograph was taken at the Saguaro National Park, near Tucson. We were visiting the park with our daughter, Jaime and her husband, Andrew in the autumn of 2008.
I arose early on a crisp October morning in 2009 to get this picture of Fredericton, New Brunswick across the St. John River. As a student at UNB in Fredericton 40 years ago, I can remember the old bridge that once rested on these pylons.
A more recent picture, taken earlier this year in January. It was taken in Banff National Park on a very cold morning. Rolande’s nieces, Marie-Josee and Nadine endured the low temperatures with me and we all got some very pleasing shots. The sunrise shots were a bonus; we actually went to this location to get morning pictures of Castle Mountain!
At the risk of overdoing this theme, I’ll end this post here. I have many more sunrise and sunset shots; I’ll save them for a later post. Stay tuned.
Viewed your photo’s they are great real .
Dave