Approaching The Solstice

The Winter Solstice is on December 21, six weeks away. Today, Saturday, is the day before we shift back to Pacific Standard Time. Tomorrow, we set our clocks back, essentially gaining a free hour of sleep. Until tomorrow, getting out before sunrise would be considered a hardship, but today, I'm well rested and watching the sunrise, ready for action. 

There's an old saying: "Red skies in morning, Sailors take warning. Red skies at night, Sailor's delight." Today's forecast calls for dry conditions, and I suspect the atmospheric moisture allowed the red wavelengths to pass through, tinting the skies pink. Being a late riser, I seldom see the change in morning colors, so I was totally enchanted by this visual change in palette. Since I normally leave my white balance setting at "Cloudy", the photos I took had a definite tint. Not warm, as you might expect, but more of a pastel nature. These three photos were not color corrected, but the exposure was adjusted to give a more pleasing image.

The pink, shadowless lighting of dawn is less noticeable to the eye, but the camera records the colors with a high degree of accuracy. The world is truly pink at this time of the morning, but the objective recording of the digital camera shows the colors as they really are.

Looking back at the images, I find the pink tint a little unnatural. Perhaps this is because it doesn't square with the warmth we all associate with sunset. I suspect that the the difference in tint can be attributed to the amount of moisture in the air, most of which would probably burn off during the warmth provided by a day full of sunlight. I'm sure the difference could be explained scientifically, but for now, I just remember what I saw, and how the photos eventually turned out.