I missed a beautiful sunset last week. I didn’t miss it exactly, but it was over my shoulder and behind me while I was driving home. Short of pulling off the road or crashing my car – I settled for stealing a few glances where I could get them. The next evening provided similar weather conditions and I was hoping for an equally spectacular vista. This time I’d take to a hill by my house, camera in hand, and wait for just the right moment. I took a few pictures and kept one that I thought provided the universe at least an adequate representation. After all, the job of a photographer at sunset is mostly just not to F*** it up.
I went home and reviewed my handy work – overall satisfied with the output. Good, but not great. It wasn’t until I went out to Instagram to compare my efforts that I realized I took exactly the same picture as dozens of others. I’d tried to be clever and frame the picture with trees in the foreground to give it depth. Well that and I couldn’t get the trees out of the shot without standing in the middle of a busy street. The thought of dying for one’s craft most certainly doesn’t apply here. The result is a bit of a cliche picture, but it’s a start. I guess I’ll just have to watch a few hundred more sunsets and keep trying…