Light - Favorite Sun

The famous astronomer and writer, Carl Sagan wrote in his book  Pale Blue Dot: A Vision of the Human Future in Space (1994),

It is sometimes said that scientists are unromantic, that their passion to figure out robs the world of beauty and mystery. But is it not stirring to understand how the world actually works — that white light is made of colors, that color is the way we perceive the wavelengths of light, that transparent air reflects light, that in so doing it discriminates among the waves, and that the sky is blue for the same reason that the sunset is red? It does no harm to the romance of the sunset to know a little bit about it.

We are creatures of the light, that is unless you are a vampire.  Light comes in many forms that are visible by the human eye and much more that is not.  In our wandering about the planet, we sometimes hear (or say):

'Oooh, what a beautiful sunrise' or 'look at the colors in that sunset.'

Why is it that the light is so beautiful around first thing in the morning or around sunset?  I could give you a detailed physics explanation, but suffice it to say there are three effects that dominate:

• The angle of the sun relative to your position on Earth.
• The distance that light travels through the Earth's atmosphere.
• The bending of the light from the sun as it enters the atmosphere.

These effects combine to give light the quality we observe.  Painters and photographers have called the time around these times of day the golden hour.  An hour before sunset and an hour after sunrise.  (Of course, some really interesting stuff does happen before and after those times.)

Light is as important as the subject in a photograph (in fact, it could be the subject).  Learning to see the light is something that you should do everyday.  I would suggest two ways to do this:  The first is to walk around with (or without) your camera and view everything with an eye to taking a picture.  See the light, colors, and forms that are available to you.  The second is to visit museums and look at art and photography in order to see how others used light to create such wonderful images.  In fact, photo sharing sites such as Flickr can provide wonderful examples that can be accessed from your computer.