Patience After the Setting Sun...

     Florence, Alabama and the surrounding Shoals area is blessed with diverse local beauty that is easy to access. There are places to bike, swim, hike, kayak...all outside and close by. On this particular evening colder weather was moving in to the area, like dropping into the teens, and I am just not a fan of cold weather. The kids and I explore often and found this quiet little rock bar with an amazing view of the Old Railroad bridge and O'Neal bridge. We've since been to this spot a few times. The clouds in the sky were promising a great sunset and my kids were off on an adventure of their own.  I asked my husband David to take me back. You never know...you just never know what the sky will do until you are there in the moment. Sometimes you simply get the experience of being outdoors with someone you love, which is fabulous in itself,  and then sometimes you get this...a phenomenal and rare view of a familiar location.

     The water had receded even further than a few days earlier, more than I'd ever seen it, and we were able to walk quite a ways out. The colors in the sky and reflections in the water had changed from the blues with white clouds to beautiful yellows and oranges with a mixture of blue and white. I took photos of that too...those photos will be for another day, I took a whole series of keepers on this evening. I set my tripod up in a few different locations. Here I attempted to frame up the bridge, the docs, and the rocks below with the incredible sky.

     The sun set, the canon fired, and we were cold. I told David to hold on for just a little bit longer...the sky is still going to turn, it's not finished yet. We waited, I felt guilty for making him wait, knowing we still had to walk back to our vehicle on the trail, in the cold, possibly in the dark, knowing he was ready to make the hike back...and then the pinks and purples began to appear. They lasted only a few minutes, but a few minutes was all that was needed to capture this photo with my hubs along with this weeks highlighted image of the incredible sky over O'neal and the Railroad Bridge.

     The TVA trail...it goes from the Old Railroad bridge all the way to Wilson dam. You can bike it, hike side trails, walk/run it. This view is from one of the side trail and the closest access is the Old Railroad Bridge parking lot. Adventure awaits...views like this await and it doesn't require walking very far to experience them. Love the Shoals!!!

Taken with a Canon 5D iii and 24mm L lens on a tripod. ISO 100, f/20, 4.0 second shutter.