Heat Wave
Sunset Over Flanders Bay
Temple Avenue Beach. July 16, 2024. Photograph by Jim Lennon.
People asked me how I get these photos and my standard answer is I show up at the right time. No manipulation no retouching, no 35mm camera, taken with my phone with no filters or adjustments applied. Oh yeah, one more thing… Find a good spot!
Please click on the image to enlarge.
Editor’s Note:
When we lived in the City, I noticed that the most intense and beautiful sunsets occurred following the hottest, most humid days, when the pollution index was high. We speculated that the combination of the heat and the pollutants did “something” that altered the color of the suns rays as it passed through the atmosphere.
This morning, I asked Jim if he thought that had any effect on spectacular sunset. He answered that at the end of the day, because the sun is at an oblique angle to the Earth, it travels through a lot more of the Earth’s atmosphere, which holds a lot of moisture and dust that filters out the blue rays and leave a yellow to orange cast on the clouds. You don’t really see it in the middle of the day because the suns rays are traveling through a lot less of the Earth’s atmosphere. If it is a hot and humid day, it will be a little more yellowish during the day, but you will see a lot more of that yellowish color at the end of the day. The blue rays are shorter than the other colors. A process called “Rayleigh scattering” filters out the blue light and lets the longer red light rays through. Yes, heat does have a lot to do with it because it keeps more of the dust particles airborne and along with the moisture in the atmosphere, it allows more of the the filtering effect.
I knew Jim would know!! And there we have it.