Golden Hour Photography – Week 4

^{Golden hour, sunrise and sunset designed with Canva}

Waves are crashing, I'm waiting for you
Called you a few times but you never knew
If all of the times, memories played back
Oh I just wished for you to call back
Oh ooh oh, waiting for you
Oh ooh oh, if only you knew
Oh ooh oh, this is how it feels
Tell me when it would be the day
If only you knew
If only you knew
If only you knew
If only you knew
This is my, my GoldenHour
Nobody knows where she will go

These are the words of the song "GoldenHour" by Aydreeyn & AetherWolfe.

So often I’ve sat at the ocean, staring out over the waves, watching the sunrise or sunset, wondering what the day would bring. If only we knew what the golden hour would bring for us.

For this contest, I share two of my golden hours with you, one at sunrise and one at sunset.

My first photo captures the golden hour of sunrise.

Near a small country town in South Africa, Colesberg, you will find the Gariep Dam. It is located along the Orange River, which separates the provinces of the Free State and the Eastern Cape of South Africa. The Gariep Dam's wall measures 914 meters in length and 88 meters in height. It is a man-made dam that holds +/- 5,340,000 megaliters of water behind the wall and has a surface area of 370 square kilometers. It is huge and the biggest dam in South Africa.

Traveling from the Eastern Cape to the Gauteng province, there are two routes you can take. The first is over the dam wall, and the second is all along the outskirts of the dam. For us, a highlight when driving to and fro from our holiday home is a drive on the dam’s wall. In all the years we’ve been traveling this route, it has never failed to amaze us. From almost no water because of drought to times when the floodgates had to be opened because of severe rain and the Orange River flooding its banks in several places,

On this specific morning, we were traveling back from our holiday and the golden hour was spectacular. As far as the eye could see the world was colored red.

^{Sunrise over Gariep Dam, South Africa}

What happened is that because the sun is low in the sky, the light must travel farther through the atmosphere. Because of this, the particles scatter most of the shorter wavelength, the blue light. The amount of clouds in the sky also contributes to less blue light, resulting in a true golden hour of red and yellow.

We could not help but stop the car, get out, and wait for the sun to rise and the red and yellow glow to lift. It was a mesmerizing moment and one we will not easily forget.

The second photo captures the golden hour of sunset.

This photo was taken at our home in Krugersdorp, near Johannesburg.

^{Sunset on Valentine's Day, 14 Feb 2020}

The uniqueness of this photo is the fact that the sun was setting on the western side of our house, but it colored the sky on the eastern side of our home. It was totally amazing. Running from one balcony to the next, it was as if we had experienced sunrise and sunset at the same time.

It left us speechless.

This normally happens when there are a lot of clouds in the sky, yet there was only one single big cloud and a few smaller scattered ones.

What makes it special is not only what happens in nature but also the fact that earlier that day a decision was made to switch off the machines that were keeping my niece alive. This, on Valentine’s Day, Friday, February 14, 2020.

I’ve learned not to ask questions but to appreciate and enjoy the beauty of nature and the message it brings.

All images are my own and were taken with my iPhone.

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