*** Mini-Challenge #703: Sunsets ***

This week's challenge is about sunsets (and sunrises too). Sunsets and sunrises can be really beautiful, even stunning, at the right time in the right place.

If you can, try to make your photos more interesting than just the sky by itself. Try to add some foreground interest, or maybe a silhouette.

Close-ups of the sun itself are also welcome.

Examples will follow.

This challenge will end on Wednesday, July 6th, at 16:00 (4pm) GMT.

Challenge Rules:

The host gives you a topic and you post up to three images that fit. Remember, it's all about fun, sharing, and learning. Any picture you have taken in person is eligible, regardless of the time taken, camera, or post-processing used. The host chooses the winners and honourable mentions and posts those in a new thread. The host's decision is final. The winner of this challenge then hosts the next challenge, judges the winner of that one, and so on it goes. The winner of this challenge will have 48 hours to post the next challenge. If that doesn't happen, 2nd place will have 24 hours to do so, then it's up to 3rd place.

Submission Posting Guidelines:

Post each one of your three submissions in its own reply to this post. Give each post a unique Subject, please. It is best to embed an image in its post rather than linking to somewhere else. Feel free to post photos "for exhibition only" if you want to share more than three, or won't be available to host the next challenge. Try to preserve the EXIF please, so we can see which camera, lens, and settings were used.

Comment Posting Guidelines:

Feel free to post comments on the images or ask for comments. Don't hesitate to click on the green "Like" thumb on the top right of the post, so we know which images were most popular. Likes are appreciated as much as constructive criticism is. The host can make up his or her own mind without being influenced by that. I wish you all "good luck" and let's see some interesting pics.

Recent Mini-Challenges:

702: Living Things - Other than Human

701: Not of this Earth

700: Nostalgia - Your Early Digital Camera Pictures

699: Picture of a Picture

698: Happy Faces

697: Music

696: Birds

695: Nature

694: Boats

693: Metal

692: There's "nothing" to shoot!

691: Favourites

690: Nostalgia

689: Winter

688: Travel/Vacation

687: Festive Lights

686: Animals

685: Plants

684: Night Scenes

683: Small machines (for work and leisure)

682: Autumn

681: Wabi-Sabi

680: Landscapes

679: One Dominant Color

678: Planes, Trains and Automobiles

677: Chocolate

676: Amusement ride

675: One lone flower

674: Food and/or Drink

673: The Road Less Traveled

672: Trees in Nature

671: Waterfalls

670: Mountains

669: Not Your Best Work

668: Speed

667: Round, or nearly round

666: Awakening of Spring

I’ll start things off. Badwater, Death Valley National Park, California

Pacific Ocean, Pistol River State Park, Oregon

When we lived on the Southern Oregon Coast when I first retired, we had wonderful sunsets over the Pacific from our back porch.

Beautiful trio Richard, all strong contenders.

A couple of local scenes

From my back deck

From a local ferrry

Don

I've posted a couple of these before, but not the others...

Len's submissions:

Catahoula Lake sunset pano

This was a nine (?) image panorama. It was a challenge to keep adjusting exposure as the light faded while I took the shots. Never mind the mosquitos... 

Kincade Lake sunset

Shot through a 10-stop ND filter, long exposure

El Capitan sunrise

Mightly el Capitan in the Guadalupe Mountains, Texas. This is just the tip-top of the mountain. It was a fairly hazy morning so it was a challenge to get a blue sky. For a sense of scale, it's about a thousand foot vertical rise from the brown mesa-like exposed cliff to the peak.

Exhibition-only (non-entry) images:

Grandview Vista after sunset

The view southward from the Grandview Vista on Rich Mountain, Arkansas. Part of the Talimena Scenic Drive.

Still water before sunset

A long exposure shot just before the sun set, through a 10-stop ND filter, of Lake "B" at the Beauregard Wildlife Management Area.

Sunset over Buhlow Lake

This is a small lake in town. There's a little airport on the other side (the lights to the right). I would've liked to have included more water, but there was a few branches / plants intruding on the lower edge that I had to crop off. I didn't notice them while shooting.

Mississippi River sunset

Looking westward from our B&B deck in Natchez, MS, across the Mighty Mississippi, over Vidalia, LA toward the sunset. In retrospect the tree should be less in the frame but too late now (15 years later). 

Davis Mountains sunrise

The lonely moon hangs in the sky over the west Texas Davis Mountains before sunrise.

Excellent entries Don.

Well done Len.

Amazing pano....

Great set of photos Len, both entries and exhibitions.

Apparently I have propensity for sunsets with silhouetted trees.

Beautiful trio.

Jethro B-UK wrote:

Well done Len.

Amazing pano....

Thanks! If I recall, it was hand-held. Given the mosquitos I didn't want to take the time to setup and take down a tripod!

The_WB wrote:

Just before sunrise this morning.

Not on topic, but still a nice picture. Take out of my loft window this morning.

Looks on-topic to me!

> This week's challenge is about sunsets (and sunrises too).

Len Philpot wrote:

The_WB wrote:

Just before sunrise this morning.

Not on topic, but still a nice picture. Take out of my loft window this morning.

Looks on-topic to me!

> This week's challenge is about sunsets (and sunrises too).

Yes, it is on topic.

THIS MINI CHALLENGE CLOSES IN A FEW HOURS.

LAST CHANCE.

THIS MC IS NOW CLOSED.

Thanks to all who entered.

I will have the results up tomorrow morning if not today.