Craig Stocks Arts Blog

One of the most fascinating places near us is the Vasquez Rocks Natural Area, about 20 minutes from our apartment. You may not know the name of the location, but I’m sure you’ve seen it in numerous movies and TV shows such as Star Trek and The Flintstones. The area of uplifted rocks was shaped by movement along the San Andreas Fault.

We had been there before and decided to go check it out at sunset the other day. There was a storm system moving in and I hoped that we’d get some dramatic skys. The dramatic skys never materialized, but the warm yellow late afternoon did a great job of making the reddish colored rocks really pop with color. That’s one of the reasons landscape photographers love sunrise and sunset times of day. The warm red-yellow light streaking low across the landscape is nicely contrasted by the blue light from the sky illuminating the shadows. The low angle of light brings out the texture and creates the very dramatic color combinations that give a photo a lot of depth.

This picture violates one of my rules for sunset photography, but I decided to post it anyway. My rule? Even though most of my landscape photos are taken at sunset, I try to avoid photos that are just about the sunset. I try to approach sunset (or sunrise) as a time for photography rather than the subject. But this glowing cloud was so extraordinary that I couldn’t resist. Believe it or not, this is really what it looked like. In fact, I had to cut back a little on the intensity of the orange cloud so that it would retain the details in its texture.

One of the best ways to avoid “just another sunset” photo is to include interesting and recognizable foreground elements. In fact, I normally include a scenic foreground that would be an interesting photo even without a sunset behind it. That way, the subject of the photo is the landscape, not the sunset. The colors in the sky then become the added spice rather than the main course.

This photo was taken right outside of our apartment. I couldn’t help but notice the sunset as I was walking back from the mailbox, so I quickly grabbed my camera. There wasn’t a foreground element per se, but I really liked the undulating shape of the hills at the bottom of the frame. That and the trees on the left create nice framing elements and give the photo an abstract feel. I see the photo as being about the colors, textures and shapes and not just a sunset.