Lake Jordan sunset

I made a trip to the shores of Jordan Lake in the early evening, hopeful that the clouds would continue to be interesting and perhaps contribute to sunset color. I staked out a position near the exposed roots of this tree, and used it to block most of the still intense sun, which was staring me in the face. The young fellow on the left seemed to be skipping a rock on the water surface. The jet contrail balanced the shapes of the tree branches.

Satisfied that I had at least one good vantage point for sunset shots, I explored a swampy area behind me, which gave virtually perfect reflections and made this composition possible:

The shot above was converted to black and white, then given a differential toning of the shadows and highlights. Reclining nude?

Back to my chosen tree as the sun neared the horizon and the clouds swirled in the high altitude winds.

I caught a bird flying into a scene that I set up, but did not have time to alter camera settings to freeze the rapid motion. Had I prepared for the possibility, a pop of flash might have turned the anonymous silhouette into an identifiable species. I'm still glad for the movement it adds to the scene, though, and I think some amount of blur is appropriate to the mood. The paintbrush sky was amazing.

In this broader view, you can see that the orange tones were concentrated in a narrow band, contrasting with the blue that persisted.

The sun's last gasp may have elicited a gasp from me!

[Canon DSLRs and various lenses, all manual exposure settings]

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