I made it to Minot for a day trip (I thought about making a Day Tripper reference, with Sir Paul playing in Fargo, but decided against it) and found myself nearing Wilton as the sunset approached. That’s a good thing, because I wanted an excuse to stop and take a photo of this old barn before it’s torn down…and this time of year puts it right in line with the setting sun.
I’ve been sentimental about this particular barn because it was one of my first photographic subjects when I decided to get a Canon 7D. I took a friend up to this barn and he let me use his new 7D for a test drive, and before long I revisited it with one of my own. As you can see, the barn was in far better shape back then, with a stone addition off to one side. Even in this photo you can see age beginning to take its toll.
There’s a lot of this sunset that I missed, but I wanted to get my two little towheads back to town and tucked into bed so they will wake up in time for church tomorrow. I was groaning as I looked over at that blazing red sun and all the colors it was splashing across the sky, but I pressed on – knowing that I already had a variety of killer sunset photos in the bag.
Boy, it sure feels great to get out again.
Pun intended. This was taken below Double Ditch recently as I took my sweetie and our little guys on a little adventure. On the one hand the clouds didn’t really light up with sunset colors the way I wanted, but on the other hand they were quite dramatic. I had a cool foreground and the colors of the waning sunset reflected brilliantly off the water. Not bad, after all. This is one of those that looked better at home than it did through the viewfinder.
One thing we’ve been short of lately is photogenic clouds. Ironically, those dry, hot August days haven’t been really conducive for great summer sunsets. In order for the sun to really provide a dramatic sunset, it needs some clouds to bounce its light, create shadows, and fill the sky with color. The other night we got just that kind of clouds.
The wispy tendrils of these clouds were of a type I haven’t seen in a while, so I was excited to bolt out to one of my frequent photo haunts to put them into perspective. Of course I used one of my favorite foreground features: an old windmill.
Now we have too many clouds to do much of a sunset photo at all, but the light rain is also a welcome sight. I didn’t get to chase sunsets much at all for most of this summer, and plan to do a lot more now that I’ve got the opportunity, so when the rainy days pass by I’m sure more shots like this will appear.
After a total blast of an evening last night, I decided to toss the family into the truck and head to Double Ditch, where we spent the waning hours skipping stones and getting our feet muddy. One goal was that elusive sunset photo, something I used to take a couple times a week back when the kids were so little and schedules were more flexible. I got it tonight…sorta.