Where then, does anyone get off trying to name the world's most beautiful sunsets?
Naturally, we turned to the experts: world travelers, artists and adventurers who have not only bid farewell to the sun on every corner of the globe, but have appreciated the metaphorical, spiritual and, yes, visual beauty of nature's original fireworks display. We asked them to describe the most beautiful sunset they've ever seen.
I was lucky enough to meet Discovery Travel and Living host Ian Wright (Globe Trekker) a few days back here in Singapore. He came to my bar with his wife..to my delight i approached and introduced myself to them and told Ian that i was a big fan of him, his works and his show. It was not long till his wife bid goodbye as she was off to a salon treatment that she booked earlier near Arab St. Ian was so warm that he invited me to sit down with him for company and chat. Believe you me but i learned quite a lot in that small conversation we had over a mug of Tiger beer and two rounds of Singapore Sling which i made specially for him. We exchange views about things and stuffs about culture, arts and of course photography. Knowing him as a esteemed traveler and artist (yes folks, Ian paints) I asked about what makes a beautiful sunset? and these is what he shared:
First--what makes a beautiful sunset? For many people, according to Ian, the beach is usually involved. "Top sunsets on my list would have to include the beach in Seminyak, Bali, and sitting in sand on the Mahoe Bay on Virgin Gorda in the BVI, sharing the event with my wife--and not a person in sight."
Ian has also seen some beautiful sunsets in Africa, Scotland and Canada, but his most memorable sundown occurred in Sicily, Italy. "We stopped for the night in Noto, in Siracusa, on our way to Marzamemi," he says. "10 kilometers from the hotel, the entire countryside is dominated by waving fields of wheat [with] ancient palazzo and villas and the ocean ringing the horizon. The view and the sunset were so dramatic we stopped the car and walked to a hilltop to watch it. The setting sun that night cast the most beautiful light I have ever seen in my life. Nothing has ever matched it."
He also added; beautiful sunset over the Valley of the Moon in Chile's Atacama Desert. "In the winter, at around 6:30 p.m., the sky gives rise to a rainbow of watercolor reds, oranges and purples. A warm hue illuminates million-year-old mountain ranges. They jet out from sand dunes like the spine of some prehistoric reptile. Millennia of desert winds have sculpted stones and sand formations and the colors dance in the early evening light. Jupiter beams brightly in the sky, as a patchwork of celestial stars start to sparkle."
Me, being an entry-level shutterbug has learned the hard way, it's nigh on impossible to capture the beauty of the setting sun. Unless you're Lora Drasner, who spent years perfecting the art of sunset photography. In her book "Sunsets", she presents dozens of beautifully captured sundowns, most taken during a three-year yachting trip around the world. (please check it out and read it on-line on ebooks.com)
What's the secret to photographing the sun's last daily moments? Start with a good camera (oh btw, Lora is a Canon user) and a powerful lens that's focused on something other than the sun. "Even if it's a cloud or the red sky," says Drasner. "This allows you to get a beautiful photo without sun spots."
And what's Drasner own choice for the world's most beautiful sunset?
Tahiti, where she witnessed her first Green Flash (a rare meteorological phenomenon that occurs when the sun's blue and green rays remain in the atmosphere longer than the yellow) *thanks Wikipedia* "It was not only a flash," describes Drasner in her book, "but it glowed green for several seconds, and sight gives a euphoric feeling afterwards."
One needn't be sitting on the beach or floating in the South Pacific to behold a beautiful sunset. Cities too, can serve as backdrops for breathtaking moments. At least according to Tony Wheeler. The founder of Lonely Planet didn't name an exotic beach or a faraway mountaintop. Rather, Wheeler appreciates what's close to home.
"I've had great desert sunsets and great beach sunsets," he says, "but one of my favorites is regular and mundane: from the roof of my office in the industrial Melbourne suburb of Footscray. The cranes and containers of Docklands can look like a Jeffrey Smart painting on acid while the setting sun fast-forwards a kaleidoscope of mirrored reflections off the city skyscrapers."
The sun's nightly retreat has long stood for the peaceful end of a long life. (Just ask anyone who's watched a new bride dance with her father to the tune of "Sunrise, Sunset.") But our thoughts needn't turn somber as the day's last rays give way to night. For Peter Greenberg, CBS News' travel editor and a reporter for The Early Show, sunset is a "celebration of things to come."
"No matter where you are," says Greenberg, "you're in for a special treat. When the sun sets, you are bathed in a magic, almost reflective light--reflective not just in a scientific way, but in deep emotional one." After all, just as the sun sets every night, so it will rise--"allowing you once again to relive your innocence, your youth and your freedom."
And that after all, may be the true definition of beauty..
Sunset shoot, will be number 1 on my to-do list on my next day-off :D
(Ian and Me, taken from my Blackbery 9700 (**'twas nice to meet you mate, catch you again here in Singapore**)
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