Merry Christmas everyone!  For those who are paying attention… today is Monday, not Sunday.  I’d love to say I just took the holiday off from doing Picture of the Week – as I in fact did – but in truth I just plain forgot what day it was yesterday!  But, better late than never I suppose!  In any case, I hope you all had a nice Christmas, as we did.

This week’s Picture of the Week is the last one of the year, and second to the last of my fall colors series, and it’s fitting that the last PotW post of this year, and the first post of next year, will be centered on light.  As I’ve mentioned many times on this blog, photography is all about light – “Follow the light”, as I my good friend Bill Lea always says – and this week’s images are a good example of how really nice light can make a scene. 

I’ve had the pleasure of photographing numerous sunrises and sunsets this year, and there is a real temptation to leave as soon as the color is gone, or not start shooting until the color starts, but the real magic happens on either side of that. In fact, none of the images today were taken on days where there was amazing color in the sky for sunrise / set.  Most of them were taken on pretty clear mornings that you’d give up on if you were only hoping for a colorful splash in the sky.  What was lacking in terms of colorful clouds, though, was more than made up for by gorgeous light as the sun was rising / setting.  These are the scenes you hope for when you show up a little early, or stay a little later.

Well today may be the last Picture of the Week, but it’s not the last post of the year! Later this week I’ll be sharing my 5 favorite images of 2022, which is always my favorite post of the year.

See you then!

–Dan Thompson