Coming into Orlando on a flight from Charlotte yesterday, we arrived over north Florida just at sunset,  just as tired of my Kindle book and opened the window shade, and just as the plane dropped through cloud cover to show the horizon. We were still 20,000 feet up, and the lakes of north Florida stretched out below us toward a blazing sunset. There was still enough moisture in the air to produce strong radiating rays when seen from above. As it would happen I had my little Canon SD100HS in my vest pocket where I generally carry it while traveling, and I had it out in a second for a few shots out the window. Shooting through the layers of plastic that make up an airliner’s windows is always a challenge. They are never clean and they offer their own color bias and distortions. Still, I continued to shoot as the plane dropped down toward the 10,000 foot limit for electronic equipment. The light of the sunset was so powerful it robbed the ground of much color. I did try an HDR treatment but there was just nothing there in the file to bring up.  The effect is still still striking.

Canon SD100HS. 1) 85mm equivalent field of view, f5 @ 1/320th @ ISO 100. 2) 65mm equivalent, f4 @ 1/320th @ ISO 125. 3) 114mm equivalent, f5.9 @ 1/500th @ ISO 200. Program. –1/3EV exposure compensation.

Processed in Lightroom for Intensity and Sharpness.

And for the Sunday thought. Sunsets hold a special place in our perception of beauty…they seem to speak to something in nearly all human beings. The day ends in fire along the horizon, and we pause, no matter how much we have left to do…dinner and whatever the evening holds…to take it in. It is something deep in the spiritual in us, I think, this response to the sunset. Something that transcends personality, and demonstrates the ways in which we are all kin.

Here we see it from a unique height across the flat plain of North Florida, dotted with lakes. A different angle…but one that only, for me, intensifies the effect. The sun goes down in a moment of awe that demands a moment of silence, a moment of attention…that prepares us for the night, and signals the hope of dawn. For me, it is the signature of the creator on the story of the day.