Galloping Radiance across a Morning Sky
Over time, I have watched with great interest how color and light interact with each other during the day’s grand moments of sunrise and sunset. Though the sun obviously assumes center stage on the horizon for both dramatic events, its opening and closing acts tend to play out quite differently.
To me, the most profound of all differences between sunrise and sunset may be the moods that each event inspires in our minds.
Sunset often exudes an aura of contentment and relaxation that can prompt reflective thoughts for a day well spent. In contrast, first light is less about grace and more about unrestrained vigor, exhilaration and opportunity.
Rather than dousing the sky and sea with delightful pastels like that of a typical sunset, at dawn this day-star often resorts to cloaking the seascape with steely hues of burnt oranges and reds.
The serious nature of such tints seems to coincide with morning’s resolve to do battle with the realm of nightfall, for the magnificence of dawn does not rest until it has stormed the air and set-free the azure from its nemesis darkness.
Once the sun’s light overpowers the firmament, it gallops across the sky and moves at breathtaking speed to banish the last remaining shadows of darkness from memory. The sheer power of this moment is something to behold.
Any clouds on the eastern horizon that make an attempt to harbor shades of blackness upon their western faces soon relent their futile efforts as the sun’s brilliance floods the sky and exposes their dark, puffy countenance as harmless.
The same holds true for brine-stained ledges and kelp-laced tidal pools. Try as they might to retain their pre-dawn forms as black silhouettes against the rush of light, they are always thwarted by the flood tide of dawn’s effulgence.
Even the beams shining forth from nearby lighthouses, though beacons ablaze just moments prior to the break of dawn, find the intensity of their lights weakened by the minute until the sun finally melds their gleams into morning’s radiance.
In the end, a sunrise – even one that lacks all semblance of warmth, remains ever symbolic.
For sunrise is much like the days of our youth – optimistic, determined, full of promise and rushing ahead toward life’s boundless possibilities – traits that should never grow dim in our hearts and minds no matter our age!
You live in a littoral wonderland, Bob—literally and figuratively!
Thanks for sharing these beautiful photos. Now that I spend my winters living on the Gulf of Mexico, these photos remind me of the wonderful life that I have in Maine! Nice work! Kathleen
Spectacular sunrise shots Bob. You were up early for these! I love the sunrise as it brings me hope for God’s new day. Chuck and I spend the winter on Isle of Palms SC, and I, and my Golden Retriever, SUNRISE, are out on that beach every morning greeting and photographing that sunrise.
Bob, thank you so much for sharing these. They are a reminder of what a beautiful world we live in. We must take good care of it.
Wow, absolutely gorgeous!
Bob;
The photos are gorgeous, but the words………. Oh, the words!
Your prose is as awesome as the pictures.
Thanks!
Al Smith
yes, the prose is as captivating as the pics.
thanks.
Bob – “AUSGESEICHNET! A German superlative for which there is no English equivalent – it means something that is echelons above fantastic! Pix and prose, the finest, I suppose! National Geographic will be beating on you doors any day now!
Jim and Marianne Soule(volunteer lighthouse keepers in Pemaquid)
Napa, CA and New Habor, ME
OKAY, BOB, I FIGURED IT OUT. IN ONE OF YOUR WALKS ALONG OUR BEACHES, YOU SAW A BOTTLE PROTRUDING OUT OF THE SAND. WHEN YOU PICKED IT UP AND RUBBED IT OFF, POOF!! A GENIE APPEARED, GRINNED AND OUT OF GRATITUDE, HANDED YOU A MAGIC CAMERA AND SO, THE LOCAL PHOTOGRAPHER LEGEND WAS BORN! PICTURES (NO, PORTRAITS) LIKE THOSE REMIND ME OF WHY I AM HERE AND GRATEFUL TO LIVE IN THE MOST BEAUTIFUL GOD GIVEN NATURAL BEAUTY OF MAINE. THANKS FOR REMINDING ME, ESPECIALLY THIS TIME OF YEAR WHEN I AM INSIDE SO MUCH HELPING MY FELLOW TAXPAYERS, “RENDER UNTO CEASAR”.
Ann-Marie and Bob,
Another group of fantastic shots……love the cloud reflection!!!!!
Best always,
Lynn
Thanks again, Bob…You are so amazing! No one writes like you do…nor can your photos be topped:Greetings from Lewes, Ruth
Beautiful. Thank you.