Black Lace #02304

The Story

Here is a dreamy Spring sunset sky in blue and pink with a maze of bare tree silhouettes in black in front of it. Such a random display of branches easily gave the title of Black Lace. This one isn’t a flashy sunset image with fiery colors, this was the deep and rich kind of sunset that comes only for a moment before the light goes for good.

The sky carried beautiful colors that evening but combined with the tree silhouette it was remarkable. The light was losing rapidly and I shot a sequence of several images as the colors changed and deepened. This last shot is the one that gave the most vibrancy. The light was almost completely gone, so this was a long exposure to get enough light into the lens to make an image. Although there is no pattern, the random beauty in the spread of bare branches seemed nearly as intricate and fine as black lace.

Mother Nature gives mankind sunsets and sunrises as nature’s own theater. Through the sky above us, they’re actually a wonderful gift to everyone and no two are ever the same. Some of the plain Jane variety simply come and go without much effect, barely twitching the Awe Meter scale. Others have such jaw-dropping dynamic impact they remain in memory…or make a person want to get out their camera. This Spring sunset sky in silhouette was one like that.

This is one of the oldest images I’ve done, shot on slide film back in the nineties yet still very popular since then. In fact, this image is still in the art show booth. I do enjoy creating these unique natural sunsets with bare trees and every one is different. Other examples you might enjoy are Purple Veil #13127 and Dream Of The Sky #13310.

Location: Clearfield, Clearfield County, Pennsylvania. Image and text © Andrew Dierks.