The Anatomy of a Sunset: Washington, NC - June 25, 2019 | Eastern North Carolina Now

Tuesday, June 25, 2019, and this was the high point of the day ... at least it was for me.

    Sunsets are a natural phenomenon, and always a process where one can estimate that the evening will produce a magnificent sunset, but, one can never be altogether sure until it either happens, or the light of the day unceremoniously just turns dark. This Tuesday, June 25, 2019 was quite different.

    Almost every day that I am not cooped inside at about an hour before sunset, I examine the clouds to determine if that night will be that sunset that makes a difference; the one where the images will be spectacular; the sunset where I fully feel that my time has been perfectly spent. The evening of June 25, 2019 was exactly that sunset.

    Once again, I choose my favorite Beaufort County Sunset muse - the Pamlico River trestle and Washington's harbor.

The walk along the tracks manifested the possibility that light would command the horizon, the water and the sky at some point this sunset evening: Above. Looking back down the tracks just traveled by my footsteps show the sky's possibility with so much cloud structure in all directions: Below.     photos by Stan Deatherage     Click image to enlarge.

    The promise of light and sky and clouds coming together at the precise time to paint a majestic canvas was all around; however...

What appeared to be a promising sunset evening quickly devolved into a darkened sky, too dark for a proper sunset, when the sun near the horizon was completely blocked by a bank of distant clouds. With some open sky and many cloud formations: cirrus, cirrostratus, stratus, small unassuming cumulus, just to name a few, ready to catch fire, I turned increasingly pessimistic: Above. You can see much of this potential in these images, but with the sun hidden there is little chance for the skyworks of a grand sunset: Below.     photos by Stan Deatherage     Click image to enlarge.


As mentioned, the cloud structure was in place there, but so was the absent sun: Above and below.     photos by Stan Deatherage     Click image to enlarge.

    Remarkably, even with the wide cloud bank remaining at the horizon, the promise of a fantastic light show miraculously resumed. I was both completely shocked and overwhelming impressed at the same time. Remarkably, the sun never showed itself again.


The well structured clouds, with sun still well hidden, began to cast a purplish glow in a few of the clouds: Above. And suddenly, with the sun still hidden, the skyworks began unabated: Below.     photos by Stan Deatherage     Click image to enlarge.


If you consider any of these images interesting enough to be worthy to become a part of your expression of what constitutes captured natural beauty, please feel free to contact me for high resolution prints - signed and numbered in a very limited addition, I submit this collection of prints here , plus our contact information can be found there to purchase these prints, and below as well:

Contact Information to Purchase Prints:

Lynn Deatherage; sales representative -   phone: (252) 944-3952  •  email: lynn.deatherage@yahoo.com  •  or message me here on BCN