Lens-Artists Photo Challenge #284: Day and Night

Published on by Yinglan

Happy Sunday! Sophia of Photographias is hosting this week’s Lens-Artists Photo Challenge. In her post, she showed photos that illustrated the cycle of day and night. I’m not an avid night photographer because of my astigmatism, which renders me partially blind in the night hours, but I do hope to show a similar progression of the photos I took on my road trip.

I absolutely love a good sunrise and a sunrise chaser if I’m able. I think I’m a sunrise chaser because I’m not able to witness a sunrise from where I live. There is a wall of mountain to my east, always blocking the view of sunrise and by the time the sun rises over the mountains, all the colors from the sunrise is gone. The colors – the ever-changing colors – is the reason I love a good sunrise.

I got to see a sunrise on the first day of my Christmas road trip when I couldn’t sleep and decided to begin the journey at 5 AM. The sky began to lighten at around 7 AM and as the night turned into day, colors began to dance across the sky. First, it was purple before shades of pink took over and then, gradually, the pink turned to shades of red and then orange and then yellow. I only wish I had stopped in the middle of the road and snapped a photo with my DSLR but any moment now, a car could come.

This was around 10 AM on one of the shortest days of the year. I was in Grand Canyon, admiring the light on the sandstones. I now wonder how this would look in the summer. Would the harsh 8000-feet-elevation UV rays make the canyons look washed out? It makes me glad I took this trip in the winter as opposed to the summer. I feel I tend to have to make more adjustments to my summer photos than my winter photos.

This was around 3:30 PM – about 90 minutes from sunset – near Sunset Point, Bryce Canyon. The setting sun is casting its light on the orange rocks, creating a wonderful contrast of highlights and shadows.

Finally, this was around 6:15 PM on Christmas. The sun has gone down and the streets were quiet as everyone is at home having Christmas meals. Meanwhile, there were travelers like me seeking somewhere to sit and have a piping hot meal on this cold night as opposed to returning to the motel and nuking a frozen entree in the microwave.

Thankfully, there were a few restaurants that were open and crowded as they were, I was able to grab a hot meal at the bar counter.

34 thoughts on “Lens-Artists Photo Challenge #284: Day and Night”

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    I absolutely love this blog post on Lens-Artists Photo Challenge #284: Day and Night! The photos are stunning and capture the beauty of both moments perfectly. It’s incredible how the photographer has managed to evoke such different moods in each shot. Well done!
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  5. A couple of my favorite southwest locations: Grand Canyon and Bryce Canyon. Lovely! I too suffer from astigmatism with horrible night vision. I recently had cataract surgery which improved things considerably. I’ll still avoid night driving, but if in a pinch, I’ll be ok.

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