Sunset

As a photographer I strongly dislike photographs of sunsets.  I realize this sounds incredibly snobbish, but I've never once seen a photograph of a sunset taken by anyone - myself included - and thought, "yeah, that's as good as the real thing."  It's like capturing a bunch of fireflies in a jar and hoping they stay as amazing through the nighttime - it just never turns out the way you imagined. 

But tonight I broke my "never photograph a sunset" rule.  It started because I was walking back into my house around 9:30 and I was incredibly confused by this intense weird light that was flooding through my windows.  I thought maybe a car's headlights were beaming straight through my blinds.  When I looked out my window I saw this...

 

I had to explore further...

 I ran inside to get my camera.  I couldn't put it down.  I have no idea what the recipe is for a perfect sunset, but somehow - tonight - everything fell into place.  Every cloud had a purpose.  I couldn't put my camera down.

 

And even then...even with everything falling into place, these pictures pale in comparison to what I witnessed.  As I look at these pictures I wish I would have never taken them...because what is in my mind is much more amazing.  Much more beautiful.  It's like I tried to catch ten fireflies and they are already wilting in a jar next to me.   I wish I could bottle the real thing up and send you each a piece of it.  I wish I had a way to share this with those I love and miss.  I hope that as the same sun sets on your part of the world tonight, that you will see something equally amazing so we can imagine we've shared it together.