Sunset

Sunsets are an evanescent part of life. They come, linger a moment, and then are gone. I guess you can parse your basic sunsets into all sorts of curious categories. I go for the coastal, deep blue water, or inland categorizations. Others might go for romantic, colorful, or dramatic. Don’t let my preference for coastal stuff hamper you from making up your own.

For me, there is nothing like a sunset on the beach as the tide ebbs and flows – the sun glances off the water and small tidal pools. Some of my favorite memories are of the sudden, and I do mean sudden, drops of the sun below the horizon you get in the tropics. As the sky darkens, the phosphorescent sea life lights up the wake of your ship, and you watch the flying fish in the wavelets. The other curious tropical item about sunsets is the Green Flash – that sudden flash of greenish light flickers just as the sun dips below the horizon. It’s not a daily phenomenon, and I know sailors who’d watch every evening in the hope of seeing it.
If you have a favored type of sunset, you can probably go on at length about sorting and specifying things.

A bit of advice: don’t let your camera, your mouth, or your urge to categorize stand in the way of loving the moment.