The Difference Between A Summer Morning And A Summer Sunset

The Difference Between A Summer Morning And A Summer Sunset
Ruby Beach, Olympic National Park, Washington

I’ve hammered this in to my National Parks Traveler readers as well as you, I know, but visiting a place more than once, during different times of the day, during different seasons, and/or under different weather conditions can really make a difference in what you see through your camera’s viewfinder.

The first shot was taken around 8:30 a.m. PST. I was just too tired to get up to get a sunrise and I already knew that coastal sunrises along the Olympic Peninsula – at least when staring out in the direction of the sea – are lovely, but not dramatic (at least, not during the time I was there). Sunsets, on the other hand, are spectacular and I’d already gotten sunset shots on two different days at Kalaloch Beach, so I wanted to get a sunset image or two (or a bunch) at a beach with some interesting topography to it. I’d captured images of the actual sunset, and the tide was coming in, so I decided to hike back up the trail to the parking lot. I’d gotten up two-thirds of the way, turned around, and saw the sky an incredible pink-orange color, so I dropped everything and handheld the camera for this shot, taken almost exactly 12 hours later, at 8:32 P.M. PST. That tall piece of rock you see is called Abbey Island.