Evening Light on the Granite Coast

Are those colors real?

Many people have never seen a sunrise or sunset. Especially for them, this photo must be disorienting; the colors are fleeting and intense. And here I was surrounded by pink. I had come to photograph sunset on the Maine coast. In Maine, sunset often fades—quickly. Most people photograph sunrise here, not sunset, where the Atlantic lights up in color. My previous spots had been unencouraging. Still, landscape teachers preach persistence, and I held onto that.

Then the land spoke. Five to ten minutes before sundown, faint streaks of wild color appeared, gradually stretching until they filled the horizon. I had never seen such color across the western sky. In the photo you can just make out two people on the beach looking west—they saw it too. Just the two of us and the land witnessed it; a kin. A friend of mine in Brunswick, a hundred miles away, later told me he had caught part of the same display—a ripple that reached beyond where I stood.

I love this image because the sun seems to burst with color as it sinks below the horizon. Wonder took hold of me—nature holding me in its presence, and this was one of those moments—its beauty overwhelming, its presence alive. Even in an age of bright screens and constant distraction I simply stood there in awe on this stone beach. And for those who ask if the colors are real, my answer is simple: yes. Nature. Brilliance. The earth gives…