The Night I've Been Waiting For!

Sometimes the sky is absolutely amazing. What God has designed is beyond all possible comprehension.

As I have been working my way through my sunset collection, and trying to get at least some of them uploaded to my Picasa Web Albums, I've been approaching this particular night of July 21, 2008 (Yes, I know - that IS more that a year ago!) with great excitement. It was indeed a very magical night. I was shooting this night with the Fujifilm FinePix S8000fd, since I did not have the Canon Rebel-xsi yet. But, that is actually part of this story.

You will recognize the cactus in these photos, as I have photographed it literally thousands of times because it is probably about 500 yards from my house - quick and easy to walk to. By my count, on that night I took 102 photos! That in itself indicates that it was probably a pretty good night. Since there are so many pictures from that night, I'm going to try something new -- I've created a short movie from some of them, along with some credits at the end, giving credit where credit is due!! Here is how the night progressed:




The final picture in the video is a special one to me. Shortly after taking these, I noticed that the theme for Circuit City's Photo Contest of the Month for August, was "Sunrises and Sunsets." It hit me right between the eyes that I should try entering one of my photos. Of course, I wouldn't stand a chance, but I should give it a try any way.

At that time, my sunset collection consisted of about 8,000 photos. The rules of the contest allowed for each person to enter only one picture. So, I proceeded to go over each and every photo in my collection several times. Whew! Once I narrowed the search to about 500 pictures, I asked my wife and granddaughter for their input. Of course, they refused to even look until I further reduced the number of candidates. So, I put some more sweat into it, and got the number of choices down to about 70. Then I turned it over to them. They fussed and fumed for a while, and further narrowed the selection down to about a dozen. And then it was back to me again.

I looked at their choices, and although I liked them (after all, it was I who put them in the list of 70), I just couldn't pick one of their dozen as my one favorite. I wanted to pick a shot that I both liked myself, and one that I thought the judges might like. So, I thanked my wife and granddaughter for their efforts, and returned to the list of 500, and picked the one that is at the end of the video above.

To complete the story, and to be real careful to give credit where it is really due, the photo I entered into Circuit City's contest took first place in the August contest. The result was that I won the Canon Rebel-xsi camera from them. The irony in this is, that before I received the camera from them, Circuit City announced that they were closing all their Arizona stores. And after that, they announced the closure of all their stores. But, I am very happy to say that the camera did arrive, I'm very thankful for it, and I really enjoy it.

Now, as for the credit that is due, I have said it before and always will, that God puts the beauty in the sunsets. He has simply given me the great love for that beauty, and the ability to push the shutter button. I also think that He must have helped me select which photo to submit to the contest. Mind you, my wife and granddaughter were slightly disappointed that I hadn't picked one of their choices. However, since the photo that I selected actually won, they have gotten over their disappointment.

Again, here is the wining photo:



Thank You, Lord!!

And you can see more photos from this night in my July 2008 web album. Just know that I haven't finished uploading all the pictures from night that I want to. So, more will be coming.