Since it’s been about a year, I decided to break this new batch of sunsets off into their own category. I think it’s appropriate to highlight that very rarely do we see any sort of cloud cover – not even the little wispies (cirrus clouds I think…), but when we do, oh boy do we.
This is the same direction as the other shot above just shifted further south (if you could pan down you’d see Summerlin spawned out beneath the mountains here). Again, usually it’s clear and a million, but sometimes we get blessed with these wonderful views.
This is a panoramic view from our balcony (that’s our neighbor’s little alcove overhang in the top right). We’ve got an “easy rocker” out there where it is wonderful to sit in the evening and enjoy the views as they change throughout the 60-or-so minute sunset. We have a south facing view though this is canted west, so you see the sun setting off in the distance. You can tell this is a mid-summer timeframe shot based on where the sun is in comparison to Mt. Charleston.
This is looking the opposite direction, so back towards the southeast. You can make out a rainbow and just barely the hints of another one. These happen when it’s raining off in the distance, but often it won’t actually hit the ground, a meteorological effect called Virga. This also happens with snow (the technical team is sublimation) and still provides that fresh rain or crisp snow smell, but we stay dry. Desert life!
So, as the sun sets the light from it is refracted through the atmosphere. The sharper (more acute) the angle, the thicker the atmosphere the sunlight is penetrating. This causes the red shift in coloring and, since the clouds are about a mile above the earth’s surface, they catch different degrees of shifting than we would. This causes the sky to be dark (as the sun is already set), but incredibly bright reflections on the still-setting sun (this is also something called “Twilight”, where the sun is set but you’re still seeing it’s light). Amazing.
I was lucky enough to snag a pretty good lens for my camera while I was vacationing in Tokyo. That’s a pretty good story for another day. Anyway, it’s a 18-200 VR lens (with Nikkor glass), so it takes very good shots. Not as low aperture as a prime (I don’t have enough money to afford a 200/1.8 prime anyway…), but in these relatively bright shots (especially landscape) the f5.6 works great and produces the non-digital zoom that you see above. My mountain peaks are a little fuzzy, but that’s what you get with this amateur photographer :D.