Watching God Paint: Two Moments of an Alabama Sunset

If you've followed my photography for any length of time, you probably know that a lot of my favorite photographs weren't necessarily planned.

I'll head out with a general idea of what I want to photograph, but more often than not, something catches my attention along the way. Sometimes it's as simple as turning around and seeing something I hadn't noticed before.

Sunsets and sunrises are a little different.

When I'm heading out specifically to photograph a sunset, I usually have a destination in mind. The same goes for sunrises, although I'll admit that getting out of bed early enough for those can sometimes be a challenge!

On this particular day, I'd been photographing DeSoto Falls and Little River Canyon in northeastern Alabama. Rather than head home, I decided to finish the day at Brow Park in Mentone.

Brow Park isn't what most people would picture when they hear the word "park." There are a couple of picnic tables, but the real attraction is the view overlooking the valley. People gather there in the evenings for one simple reason: to watch the sun go down.

And that's exactly why I was there.

A Front-Row Seat to the Sunset

I set up my camera on a tripod, connected it to the Sony app on my phone, and settled in on the tailgate of my truck.

Using the app lets me control the camera without touching it, helping avoid any movement that might affect the photographs. Sometimes I'll even use burst mode to capture a series of images as the light changes.

And change it does.

Over the course of that sunset, I captured somewhere around 5,000 photographs. Yes, you read that correctly. Five thousand!

Of course, that doesn't mean I came home with 5,000 keepers. Most of those images were simply different moments as the clouds shifted, the colors deepened, and the sun slowly worked its way toward the horizon.

That's part of the process. I go through the photographs afterward, looking for the combinations of light, clouds, and color that stand out.

Two of those moments became Golden Horizon and Dusk's Embrace.

In Golden Horizon, the sun is still relatively high above the distant ridgeline. The upper sky holds onto its blue tones while brilliant gold and yellow light spread through the clouds below.

It's that wonderful transition when daylight begins giving way to evening, but the sky hasn't quite decided which colors it wants to wear.

A little later, the scene had changed.

In Dusk's Embrace, the sun is nearly below the ridgeline. The blues have darkened, the oranges and reds have become richer, and the clouds have taken on a completely different appearance.

Same location. Same sunset. Two very different photographs.

And that's one of the things I love about photographing sunsets.

Watching God Paint

There's something fascinating about watching the sky transform as the day comes to an end.

The familiar blues gradually give way to yellows, oranges, and reds before the darker shades of evening take over. Whether I'm watching the sun disappear behind the mountains or sink below the horizon along the coast, I never get tired of it.

It's like getting to watch God paint in real time.

Of course, not every sunset turns out the way I hope. Sometimes the clouds don't cooperate, the colors never really develop, or the weather has other plans.

That's just part of landscape photography.

But when everything comes together, there's nothing quite like sitting back and watching the sky put on a show.

And on this particular evening at Brow Park, I was fortunate enough to capture two of my favorite moments from that show.

Sometimes photography is about exploring and discovering something unexpected.

Other times, it's about knowing where you want to be, setting up your camera, and letting nature do the rest.

Available as Fine Art

Golden Horizon and Dusk's Embrace are available as fine art photography prints through Bama Price Photography, in the The Sun Rises & The Sun Sets collection.

Explore the collection at www.bamaprice.com.