Sunset Dreaming
Morning is my second favourite time of day. I’m usually up by about 05:30. The first thing that I do is look out of the front windows of our house to see what’s going on in the sky. The sunrise a few mornings ago displayed itself as a beautifully muted array of pastels. Here’s the wide-angle shot from our front yard:
If you’re wondering about my favourite time of the day, it’s when I sit down in my favourite chair, with my favourite beer, my favourite brand of cheap cigars, a bit of favourite reading material and pet my favourite (only) dog, Sheba. I can feel the stresses of the day evaporating like a cool misty haze around me.
A minute or so later, I got this image with a mid-telephoto setting:
Man, I love those colours. It’s too bad that, here in the tropics, sunrises and sunsets fly past so quickly. In general, they last about ten or fifteen minutes at the most. That’s because the sun (and moon) are rising and falling straight up or down, not at an angle as in temperate zones. You have to get your camera out and be ready. I have missed fantastic sunset shots by being only one minute too late.
Yesterday, I showed you an image of this same Notodoris Minor Nudibranch. This image was taken at Planet Rock with flash:
The one from yesterday was captured by available light at about 30 metres. You can compare the difference.
Here’s our old favourite the Spinecheek Anemonefish (Premnas biaculatus) also at Planet Rock:
I’ve been concentrating very much on getting good specimen shots. I’m trying to get a publisher for a coffee table book called The Fishy Families of Madang. Anything for a buck.
On the way back from Blueblood last Sunday on Felmara, Mike Cassell’s boat, I caught our friend Frauke Meeuw dreaming in the sunset light:

It is redundant to say that happiness is a state of mind.
So, I won’t say it.
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I’m jealous…
I remember panicking and bursting into the fastest run when I saw sunsets or sunrises like this and I had no camera with me. When I got my camera out of my room really excitet to get some “You don’t know what you’re missing” – pictures for my friends it was “tudak”.
I now use the above as my desktop wallpaper. Thank you!
Don’t be jealous; save some money and come to visit.
That mad rush for the camera has happened to me many times. I understand the frustration. By the time you get there a few mintues later, it’s all over.
It always brightens my day when someone tells me that they’re staring at one of my images as they work. It is my plan for World Domination!
Ah, World Domination – what a beautiful plan!
Whoa, really outstanding sunrise shot….damn you, MadDog, how am I going to keep any image of yours on my desktop for more than a day if you keep posting new stuff like this???
The Anemonefish is simply outstanding…National Geo quality….best of luck on your book…with images like this, you’ve got to find a publisher….
Wow… now you dominate Steve Goodheart as well… only 7,123,842,237 more people to go for World Domination!
I don’t think that I would make a good dominator. I’m too submissive. Just ask my wife.
Steve, I’ll start marking two out of three images with “NOT FOR STEVE’S DESKTOP”. Would that help? I’ll still be just as flattered.
Being in the publishing business, do you have any advice for me as to how to find a publisher? It’s a daunting task when you’re trying to break in with your first book. I can’t imagine it would be any harder to move to Hollywood to “become an actor”.
One down. I’m counting on the domino effect.