Black Land, Bright Sky

Photo #370: Black Land Bright SkyLocation Taken: St. John’s, Newfoundland
Time Taken: July 2012

There are some interesting lighting effects right before the sun rises and right after it sets. The sky is still bright, as the air is higher up and is still in sunlight. But the land is dark.

One fun thing I do to entertain myself while driving at such times is to watch the clouds slowly change color. Say it’s sunrise, and the sky starts switching to blue in the east. The clouds are dark and blend in to the sky. A bit later, the sky lights up enough for the dark clouds to be visible. The sunlight is hitting the upper atmosphere, but hasn’t reached the cloud layer yet. Then, the clouds start to brighten into a glorious pink color. It becomes brilliant against the underside of the cloud, still dark. And then, slowly but surely, the sun rises above the horizon, and the light filters through the cloud and the entire thing is pink, a lighter pink than before but still pink. It will whiten as the sun rises higher in the sky.

At night, the opposite happens. The clouds fade from white to the oranges and pinks of sunset, then to dark streaks against the setting sun. The land turns dark, and the only light aside from the sky and artificial sources is anything that reflects the sky. Those show brilliant against the black land.

  

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