Superstition Mountains and Orange Sunsets

Just about every day I drive by the Superstition Mountains on my way into work, and then again on my way home. I can also see them from my neighborhood, even though I probably live 30 miles away from them. To just about everybody that lives here in central Arizona, the Superstition Mountains are just another common site, like living in New York City and not giving a second thought to the Statue of Liberty! But, I know that to a lot of people around the world, the Superstition Mountains are quite a fascination. To me, they are quite beautiful. I've done a fair amount of hiking back into the range, and am always stunned by the beauty, ruggedness, and amazing fields of cactus. And, no, I haven't stumbled upon the Lost Dutchman's Goldmine. But, this was before I started taking digital photographs.

So, now I almost always pay attention to them, especially when the sun is going up or down, and when there is some kind of cloud cover. I haven't gone a long way out of my way, but there are a few places I will pull over and take pictures of them when I think there might be something special. Above is a sample picture I took this afternoon on the way home that I really like. I especially like the little yellow flowers in the foreground, even though I don't know what they are called.

Through out the day we had beautiful, mostly cloudy skys - the kind that get me real excited! But, by the time I got home around 6pm, they were mostly gone. I went out anyway, and took a few of the 'orange' kind of shots that we get here so often. Here is a sample of tonight's sunset. And, since this is about as bad a sunset as we get here, it's not really too bad. I like to shoot these at about -1 EV, which helps the sun to not be too over exposed, and helps the higher parts of the sky look nice and purple.