Two of the more popular things to photograph are sunsets and sunrises. The colours are fleeting and lovely, and if done right, they can create quite a romantic mood.

The light is best for about an hour around sunset and again around sunrise. The sun’s rays passing through the earth’s atmosphere take on the gold, red, purple and cool blue hues that you don’t see at other times of the day, and those colours change moment by moment.

In fact, the best times of the day for most photographs is well before noon and again after dinner when the sun is at an angle in the sky. Around mid-day, the light is harsh and you’re better off heading to the shadows to get the shot.

This photo was taken this summer at Crescent Beach in Surrey, BC. It’s the first sunset I’ve photographed for years. Like a lot of photographers, when I started, I shot every sunrise and sunset I could, and I ended up with albums full of colourful shots. However, after a while they all started looking the same to me, and I lost interest in taking that kind of photo.

Lately I’ve been noticing sunsets and sunrises again, and I’ve made a point of getting out earlier and staying out later to play with my camera. That’s much easier in the winter, but there are fewer clear skies to take advantage of here on the wet coast at that time of year. In some ways that’s good – perhaps I won’t be overwhelmed with pretty sunset photos this time around.

What I’m trying here is to show some depth in the photo with the sunset, a foreground object (the boat) and something in the middle (the cloud). Not sure if it works right for me, but it’s a start.

There is a bit of memory lane in the photo too. The boat reminds me of the Cal 20 sailboat I had when I lived on Vancouver Island. It was a small, but rugged little boat that took my ex and I around the gulf islands for a few years back when.

It can be fun to remember those times.