Sometimes you need to slow down and watch the sunrise and sunset.   I’m so privileged to live in the Sacramento Valley where there’s an opportunity to see the beauty of great sunrises and sunsets.  Add the mountains in background, flooded rice fields and waterfowl and you have the recipe for unbelievable splendor.  Throw in a full moon and WOW!

Some of the recent evenings in my home area of Grimes have produced spectacular sunsets. The other evening I had the surreal experience on standing on the edge of a flooded rice field that was full of waterfowl activity as the sunset brilliantly lit up the sky and the colors reflected on the water.  Photographing this magnificence was a very special moment.  The evening was filled with sounds of waterfowl.  I’m not sure what they were saying, but I like to think they were thanking the rice growers and water managers for making this habitat available.

I kept thinking that no one is going to believe this moment, but fortunately the camera did an excellent job of capturing the colors of the evening.   This quote from musician Carlos Santana says why I will be back in the Sacramento Valley chasing the sunrise and sunset, “There’s never one sunrise the same or one sunset the same.”