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The Requisite Sunset
3 October 2022
It's been a while since we've shared a sunset with you. You haven't complained, of course. We understand. Baby pictures, sunsets, nudes, those were the most popular subjects at the custom color lab that employed my friends in the 1970s.
The Requisite Sunset. Olympus E-PL1 with Lensbaby Twist 60 at f8, 1/125 second and ISO 640. Processed in Adobe Camera Raw.
And if you peeked at the camera roll of this generation's phones, you'd probably see mostly baby pictures, sunsets and nudes, too. The eyes weary.
No one can resist taking baby pictures (particularly of first borns). Sunsets, despite being universally disappointing phone captures, still demand the attempt. And one can never have enough nudes, apparently.
But it is sunsets that concern us here.
With a real camera, you can never have enough of those either. And with an image editor, you can relive at length what passed in the blink of an eye.
While it is happening, a sunset seems unchanging. Come back in a minute and you'll appreciate the illusion. It is constantly changing and you can't go back a few seconds for a better shot.
We, however, can go back to January for this one, which we've been saving for one of those days when we can barely get our shoes on before some emergency or other inconvenience rips us away from the keyboard.
Usually when we save something that long, we discard it. If it was any good (one might say, "compelling"), we would have published it already.
But this was among the last good sunsets we saw this year.
There was the summer fog, yes, but there's also been a daily attack on our picture window by flocks of small birds.
At first we tried to keep up with them, hosing down the window daily. But there's a drought, too, to consider. And our daily washings, even with soap and vinegar mixed in warm water, were not complete successes.
So we prayed for rain.
And none came. Hence the drought. Not even the fog helped as far as window cleaning goes.
But we did get on the ladder again last Friday and gave it the old college try. That helped a little even if it wasn't a complete success. We'll be able to shoot the sunsets that enthrall us every fall and winter anyway.
Meanwhile, this should hold you.