Photographers refer to the time immediately preceding sunset — and just after sunrise — as golden hour. This is because, most of the year, the sun often casts a golden glow from its perch just above the horizon.
In the winter though, the sun is much closer to the horizon all day long than it is the rest of the year. I think that must be why the time before sunset is often a soft orange this time of year, rather than gold.1
Post-sunset light can also be quite soft and warm, in the winter especially.
On our way back from Bosque del Apache last month, my friend and I decided to stop at Bernardo.2 We’d seen not a single snow goose at BDA that day, but Bernardo more than made up for that. The snow geese would every so often rise up in a large group, fly around for a couple of minutes while loudly squawking, then settle back down again.
We saw that happen three times within the 30-40 minutes we were there. Only during the third time did they land in the pond in front of us and, within a single minute, the pond was plunged into shadow.3
The view above, of the Sandia foothills, is remarkably similar to the first photo but was taken a couple of weeks earlier.
Last, in honor of St. Valentine’s Day, another late-afternoon shot of the foothills, this one with fencing wire gone wrong right, in the shape of a heart.
My own observation, at least here in New Mexico, is that morning light tends to be more yellow than evening light (all year), which leans more toward orange. Does it appear that way to any of the rest of you?
The Ladd S. Gordon State Waterfowl Complex, to be precise.
New Mexico is an extraordinarily small state socially (although physically, it’s the fifth largest). I’ve long known that I have to be on good behavior at all times because, even in remote areas, it’s likely I’ll run into someone I know. When I arrived home that day, I saw a text from another friend who’d been at Bernardo at exactly the same time I was. That’s how small New Mexico is (Bernardo is over 60 miles away from my house).
The colors of New Mexico, especially in the Sandia, are utterly magical. Thanks Lisa, for sharing your profoundly beautiful photography with your subscirbers.