brimstone crimson sky
alight with fiery anger
who torched the horizon
remains a secret that turned to ashes
brimstone crimson sky
delightful flames burn
my shadow away
As we walked out of the kitchen door, we were greeted with a sky that was alight, it looked like a massive fire burning on the horizon. A mixture of crimson and brimstone, reds, yellow, purples, pinks, a mix and mashing of colour. To my half-colourblind eyes, the world is rather monotone. (I have deuteranomaly - red/green colourblindness.) Normally, I do not do landscape or sky photographs with my camera. I mainly use my 50mm and 300mm lenses, both of these do not do landscape or sky photographs in any sense of the word. But sometimes my 18-70mm lens can take some nice photographs of the sky.
When I saw the burning sky, I ran outside with this lens and tried my best. I set the camera so that it took photographs a little bit underexposed. The palm trees illustrate this, being completely dark. But the end product was suburb, in my opinion. I minimally edited the photographs, so what is represented here is how the sky actually looked.
These short moments in life are what we all yearn for. As soon as we walked away, the sky changed colour and the fiery moment was over. A short fleeting moment. If we did not walk out of the kitchen, we would not have glimpsed it. It was less than 10 minutes, continually changing, until it was over. Gone forever. A fleeting moment captured, poetry, as one might say. Some poets believe that poems are entities like the wind, in a moment of unrest, a wind might blow a poem toward and against you. This fleeting moment was just like the fleeting poems. It was there, and as soon as it was there, it was gone.
I hope that you enjoy this series of photographs of the sky that was set alight by the sun on the horizon.
The Burning Sky (and Aphorisms)
Life is made up of fleeting moments, only captured by those who take the time to look.
The act of looking, the brief second's attention we pay to change in life, is all that it takes to appreciate what so many take for granted.
The taste of wine is fleeting, the taste of food is fleeting, all our sensory experiences are fleeting. Our memory can only retain so many fleeting memories, yet we cram our minds full of non-sensical inconsequential things that take our attention away from the fleeting moments of pleasure.
It takes hours on hours to satisfy the desire for instant gratification, yet it takes but a second to appreciate the fleeting moment that will never be again.
We fill our minds with endless content that does not affect us and will be of no use in the near future. Yet the fleeting moment that can change your outlook on life, waiting outside to be uncovered, revealed, is left hidden because of our desire to satisfy our curiosity with what we already know.
Often, the fleeting moment challenges our conceptions, the beauty of the flower, the smell of herbs, the taste of wine, and so many other things. It challenges our current way of being in the world. Yet we prefer to see endless content that only confirms what we already know because the thought of challenge, the thought of change, scares most of us.
A fleeting moment can have a lasting effect on your life.
Hours on hours spent looking at others can lead to nothing happening in your life.
Challenge, contest, friction, conversation, heat, debate, dialogue, all of which ask us to be open, open to change.
Conformity, security, sameness, silo-thinking, all ask us to forget and disregard differences.
Difference drives the conversation forward. Sameness stifles meaningful discussion to be mere echoing.
We are so used to hearing our own voice telling our own stories that we forget to listen to others and their stories, which might be totally different to our own.
Postscriptum, or In the Fleeting Moment
We are stuck in the fleeting moment of the present. Perpetual fleeting. When we sleep, we are not aware of the fleeting present, we cease to exist. But when we are awake, the fleeting moment takes over. We are perpetually in a state of transience. Perpetually impermanence.
In any case, I hope that you liked this rather philosophical photography post. I hope that you enjoyed the burning sky with me. Below is a short video of the moment we captured as well.
For now, happy photographing and keep safe.
Enjoy the fleeting moment of the present.
All of the photographs are my own, taken with my Nikon D300 and 18-70mm lens. The musings, thoughts, and aphorisms are my own, albeit inspired by the wine that I drank while writing this post.
