Sunsets are perhaps what I love to photograph best.
One can easily see why. The setting of the sun is a natural highlight of a day’s cycle. Sunsets embrace seemingly familiar landmarks in an exciting new light. And, unlike many of the landmarks themselves, sunsets are simply beautiful and a pleasure to watch – as well as to photograph. There you have it.
So devoted am I to sunsets that, before embarking on yet another trip, I usually check for scenic sunset spots at the destination. The main trick is to avoid the obvious tourist traps. Take Santorini’s Oia, for example. Presented as the “World’s Best Sunset”, it offers little as far as the “best” experience is concerned – on top bundling it rather unpleasantly with crowds of similarly fooled fellow tourists. If I were them, I’d check Santorini’s Ammoudi village downhill from Oia instead – or indeed the Pyrgos village offering a spectacular sunset view over both of banana-shaped island’s two ends. You would kill two birds with one stone: avoid the crowds and enjoy a Santorini sunset more breath-taking than Oia will ever dream of.
In short, if you are serious about sunsets, it is important to choose the shooting spot carefully.
Somebody asked the other day what my most spectacular sunset of all time was. Hmmm. Memories came flooding in as I recalled scene after scene of majestic, multicolour light displays. It would be impossible to choose one “best” sunset, so many great ones there have been. After some more thinking, however, I managed to select a quarter of a hundred – twenty five perfect sunset moments I will never forget.
See for yourselves why.
RIVER VIEWS
Located on the Ebro River in Zaragoza, Spain, Catedral-Basílica de Nuestra Señora del Pilar (Basilica-Cathedral of Our Lady of the Pillar) is reputed as the first ever church dedicated to Virgin Mary (image: October 2009)
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The River Daugava (Russian: Западная Двинa, Belarussian: Заходняя Дзвіна) rises in the Valdai Hills in Russia and makes a journey of over one thousand kilometres before discharging into the Baltic Sea in Riga, Latvia (image: January 2009)
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The Douro River forms part of the national border between Spain and Portugal and enters the Atlantic Ocean in Porto, Portugal (image: June 2007)
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Ever wondered about that river flowing under the famous Ponte Vecchio and Santa Trìnita bridges? Notorious for its irregular flows sometimes resulting in major floods, the Arno River in Florence, Italy, is central Italy’s most important after the Tiber (image: July 2010)
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PANORAMAS AND SKYLINE
Fes, Morocco, is the country’s former capital whose Medina in Fes el Bali is believed to be the world’s largest contiguous car-free urban area (image: September 2007)
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Some recent additions to the panorama of Tbilisi, Georgia, have been less popular than others: the gleaming new Peace Bridge was quickly re-branded as “Always Ultra” thanks to the perceived similarities with a certain sanitary towel (image: July 2010)
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New Belgrade (Serbian: Novi Beograd) in Belgrade, Serbia, has recently become the city’s new financial centre and its fastest developing area where many businesses have moved to – despite continuing to score low with less business-minded visitors (image: September 2009)
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Designed by architect Ivan Straus, the UNIS Twin Towers in Sarajevo, Bosnia & Herzegovina, were badly damaged in the war of the early 1990s but have been fully restored since (image: August 2009)
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JUST SKIES
The Golden Horn (Turkish: Haliç or Altın Boynuz) is a historic inlet of the Bosphorus dividing the city of Istanbul, Turkey, on the European side (image: July 2010)
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Parc Güell in Barcelona, Spain, provides a spectacular view over the city’s major landmarks – including the TV tower Torre de Collserola – and is a popular sunset watching spot (image: January 2010)
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Perfectly spotless skies in Trakai, Lithuania, are most unusual during the winter – as are five simultaneous sunset-coloured trails from passing aeroplanes (image: January 2009)
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The so-called hotel zone (Spanish: zona hotelera) in Cancun, Mexico, lines a 25km long barrier island; connected to the mainland on both sides, it encloses a large lagoon (image: October 2010)
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FAMOUS LANDMARKS
The first ever person to cross the Brooklyn Bridge in New York City, USA, was Emily Warren Roebling – the wife of the original architect’s son – on 24 May 1883 (image: May 2010)
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When Chelsea Bridge in London, UK, was painted red and white in the 1970s, a number of Chelsea F.C. fans complained about the “Arsenal colours”; blue has since been added to the palette (image: January 2010)
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Belém Tower (Torre de Belém) in Lisbon, Portugal, was originally built on an islet in the Tagus River but is now nearly touching the shore thanks to the slowly shifting shoreline (image: January 2008)
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The Long Bien Bridge (Cầu Long Biên) in Hanoi, Vietnam, was repeatedly damaged during the Vietnam War and is today only used by light traffic and pedestrians (image: January 2011)
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MIDDLE OF NOWHERE
Unknown to most foreigners, the island of Evia (Εύβοια), Greece, is in fact the country’s second largest – both in area and population – after the much more frequented Crete (image: September 2008)
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Albania’s best air links are with Italy – the country where many Albanians work and whose language is the most spoken foreign language in Albania (image: March 2010)
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The eruption of Eyjafjallajökull volcano, Iceland, in April 2010 caused major melting of the covering glacier and flooding of the surrounding areas (image: May 2010)
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Never heard of it? The Mytikas village (Μύτικας), Greece – where time sometimes seems to have stopped altogether – lies in the Western part of the country on the Ionian Sea (image: October 2008)
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OVER THE SEA
The Western side of the Koh Samui (เกาะสมุย) island, Thailand, may lose to its Eastern counterpart on the partying front – but wins hands down with its stunning over-the-water sunsets (image: April 2007)
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Lining the coastal areas of Latvia and Estonia, the Gulf of Riga is part of the Baltic Sea (image: June 2006)
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You will not believe it, but the Rio-Antirio bridge (Γέφυρα Ρίου-Αντιρρίου) near Nafpaktos (Ναύπακτος), Greece, is the world’s longest multi-span cable bridge (image: November 2008)
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Nowhere else does a 6am awakening pay off as much as in Tulum, Mexico – and yes, this is strictly speaking a sunRISE, not a sunSET(image: October 2010)
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Installed in 1997, the “Umbrellas” on the seafront of Thessaloniki, Greece, are among the most famous works of Greek artist Georgios Zongolopoulos (image: March 2008)
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That Thessaloniki sunset is perhaps the closest I will ever get to perfection. I still keep hearing from the locals along the lines of “I have seen your sunset pictures on Flickr. I remember that day. Was it March 2008?”
Truly unforgettable moments.
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