Early April sunset

 

The setting sun was a giant ball of orange Wednesday as it neared the horizon about 8:10 p.m. or so. I came upon it in Garfield Park in Indianapolis, just as the sphere was dipping below the tree line. And ... I had my PowerShot G12 in hand. I know ... flashback to February,  right?

It's been only a month a half since "The Tree" silhouette experience, but instead of being in the southwest part of the sky, the sun was almost due west. Those trees were doing a good job concealing the bright star, and I was having no luck maneuvering for a better vantage point to get more of the orb itself. It sank fast, much to my consternation. So I sprinted west to the railroad tracks, hoping to get away from the foliage and position myself for a clear shot. It wasn't to be. By the time I could get across the tracks, the sun had already dipped below the trees. But there was still this bright orange skylight and, thankfully, a few nicely textured clouds to give it some decoration.

Those are the Manual High School football stadium lights you see on the right in the photo above. After grabbing a few frames of those, I put the camera flat on the ground, tilted my articulating LCD screen up toward me to compose the shot, then pointed the lens toward the sky. It got me the shot of the grass blades, Photo No. 2, immediately below this text. I grabbed several frames of that shot as well, including a few using the G12's in-camera high-dynamic range (HDR) feature.

Photo No. 3, below the grass blades, is of the amber rays aflame just below Manual High School. 

On the walk home, while re-crossing the tracks, I looked south and noticed the white light at the rail signal street crossing along Southern Avenue and decided to see what I could get in a composition. I got low again, rested the G12 on the iron rail and took the Photo No. 4 below, again using the HDR feature.