Almost seems like you can go out almost any evening and find a nice sunset photo around here 🙂

Some geese flying north….south….they seemed to be as confused as we are about what the weather’s going to be.

Just one photo in this post, but I think this one can stand on its own.  It was taken at the end of the girl’s cross country race yesterday as one of the last girls came through.  I shot three frames, but liked this one best because you can see her pony tail 🙂  It was cloudy for most of the meet, but the sun would poke through from time to time, projecting those cool light beams.  For me, the photo is SO much more interesting because of the runner, no matter how small she is in the frame.

Sue and I spent a few days at SML this past weekend.  There was supposed to be a hot air balloon festival of sorts, they were going to launch the balloons at 8:00pm on Saturday night, after it got dark.  Should have made for some interesting photos as the burners fired in the dark.  But, it was called off because of rain and threatening weather in the afternoon.  Turned out that the weather would have been fine by 8pm, but certainly didn’t look like it earlier in the day.  I did get to photograph a really nice sunset Saturday evening though….maybe better than a bunch of hot air balloons flying around!

First up, a photo from Friday morning before we left.  I had to make a trip to Charlottesville early on Friday, so caught this one on the way.

Sunrise over a grassy field.

And this was Friday night’s sunset.  Not too bad, but Saturday night’s was better….

Sunset over Smith Mountain Lake.

They were offering, for $5, tethered hot air balloon rides on Friday evening.  Not very exciting for pictures, but the lines were quite long for the rides.

Tethered hot air balloon rides.

The next two are from Portside.  We hung out there for a while and had a beer.  We should have eaten lunch there, it looked a LOT better than what we’d eaten earlier for lunch.  These two photos are pushing the HDR thing a little bit….maybe a little bit too much…..

Old boat at Portside, Smith Mountain Lake.

Portside Bar and Grill, Smith Mountain Lake, Virginia

Okay, we’re getting closer to the sunset.  This was Saturday afternoon….impending rain.  Can’t really blame them for canceling the hot air balloon thing.

Clouds over Smith Mountain Lake Virginia.

Another version, in black and white….

Clouds over Smith Mountain Lake, Virginia in black and white

And the sunset.  No color enhancement needed.  It is slightly underexposed which punches the colors a bit, but that’s it.  The whole sky to the west was this pinkish orangeish purplish color.

Sunset over Smith Mountain Lake Virginia

A few minutes after the one above…

Sunset over Smith Mountain Lake Virginia.

Last one before it got dark…

Sunset and Clouds over Smith Mountain Lake Virginia

 

I’m having a hard time narrowing down the pictures, so there are quite a few….

This is how it started….

Sunset, Clouds, Landscape, orange, sky

…then went to this, and that’s when I realized it was going to be especially good.  I hopped on the four-wheeler so I could cover more ground, and hopefully find better foregrounds.  It’s always nice to have something meaningful in front of the sunset.

Sunset, Clouds, Landscape, Sky, Orange

I had a little trouble with the cow in the middle in the photo below.  She kept wanting to eat.  I had to keep yelling to get her to keep her head up 🙂

Sunset, Clouds, Landscape, Sky, Orange, Cow, Silhouette

The pictures don’t really do the clouds justice.

Sunset, Clouds, Landscape, Sky, Orange, Jet, contrail

I turned around and saw this….

Sunset, Clouds, Landscape, Sky, Orange, Silo, Barn

Sunset, Clouds, Landscape, Sky, Jet, contrail, moom

Sunset, Clouds, Landscape, Sky, Orange, Jet, contrail

Sunset, Clouds, Landscape, Sky, Orange, Jet, contrail

Back on the four-wheeler to look for a different foreground…

Sunset, Clouds, Landscape, Sky, Orange, Jet, contrail, tree

Sunset, Clouds, Landscape, Sky, Orange

Sunset, Clouds, Landscape, Sky, Orange, Jet, contrail

….and then it was gone….

Sunset, Clouds, Landscape, Sky