Central Valley Winter Sunset Clouds. © Copyright 2021 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.
Sunset clouds above a Central Valley winter pond.
Recently, as we approached the end of 2021, I revisited some photographs from around New Years day of 2020, the last New Year’s of the Before Times. As is our tradition, a group of us met to spend a couple of days photographing winter subjects, pausing to raise a toast to the New Year following a few hours of early morning photographing on the first day of the new year. If you are focused on your New Year’s Eve party plan, it may be difficult to understand, but I can’t imagine anything better than greeting the literal dawn of the new year in a wild place, accompanied by friends.
We have met on New Year’s Day for a few years, but more recently some of us have expanded our celebration to begin the day before. So we were out there photographing on New Year’s Eve Day, right into the twilight hours. Sunsets can be exactly what you expect them to be, but sometimes they toss something unexpected and remarkable your direction. That was the case on this evening, when a combination of the passing tail edge of a weather front, still air, and a very colorful sky combined to create a rather remarkable set of conditions. It was one of those moments when it almost feels like I just have to point the camera and push the shutter button. (OK, there’s a bit more to it than that, but at least the primary subject is plainly obvious.)
G Dan Mitchell is a California photographer and visual opportunist. His book, “California’s Fall Color: A Photographer’s Guide to Autumn in the Sierra” is available from Heyday Books, Amazon, and directly from G Dan Mitchell.
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Happy Old Year!
I think that is the best way to spend New Year’s Eve, New Year’s Day, Christmas morning, Easter sunrise, solstice snd equinox, etc…enjoying God’s creation. This photograph is stunning!! Thank you for posting!! This unique and breathtaking scene lasted only a few moments, yet it is preserved for others to partake. Photography truly changed our quality of life. I think about how people in the old days could only look at paintings and even then most did not even have this opportunity. Also I’m thinking about how the scene is repeated differently each morning and there may be no one to even see it, yet it happens! Amazing! Happy “waning’ year!