© Brad Mangas
Spending time watching the daylight slide away is one of the true pleasure of being alive. The time to relax, to unwind and let your thoughts slowly slip into the land of dreams.
Sometimes when I make a plan to photograph a specific area or at least be in a specific area, if I’m lucky, I will get to my destination ahead of time. Photographers have a tendency to get sidetracked on every sight that seems to have potential to photograph and trust me, there’s lots of them. But this particular evening I had given myself extra time to make the anticipated detours and arrived at my destination with a few minutes to relax and enjoy the diminishing sun. There was no plan for a direct sunset shot but of a group of long sloping hills casting the ever long classic Flint Hill shadows across the land. This was accomplished and took place directly to the left of this image.
Happy with the results and with the sun now too low to produce long shadows but washing the entire land with complete shadows my attention moved to what only moments before had not even sparked a thought. The light was hitting a group of tallgrass directly in front of me and the tops of the distant hills. The tallgrass came alive as if a spot light had been directed on it with the remaining land for hundreds of yards fading in the shadows.
For the next minute or two this was the scene to enjoy. A scene that only moments before held nothing special, no unique qualities of light. But those few minutes the magic of light was given and then as with the surrounding prairie was washed in the shadow of the coming darkness.
Another reminder I should always be aware of my surroundings. A scene can change in seconds with just the introduction of light and shadow.
