Into Your Fire

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Into Your Fire

I’ve been trying to get better at sunset shots. I’ve probably shot a couple thousand frames from March or this year until now. I’ve driven places, planned, not planned, tried just about every lens I have access and I’ve got maybe half a dozen killer images to show. So instead of driving last night, I shot this out my bedroom window. Good thing, because the girls are with me this weekend and I couldn’t have driven anywhere to shoot this without two very grumpy sleep deprived girls the next day. I’ll be watching the skies for the next several months and trying to grab the best sunsets I can from my window.

One thing I’ve been noticing is that my favorite and best shots come from the blue hour (wikipedia; Flickr pool; Google+; 500px). This is the time of morning/night where the sun is not visible, the sky is blue and the colors turn fantastic.

Soundtrack for this image is Mark Knopfler’s “Smooching” from the soundtrack to the great 1980s movie Local Hero. I won’t link to the Wikipedia page for the movie, because the ending is so nicely done.

Apple Music:

Spotify:

The chord progression is delicious and Knopfler’s playing is the embodiment of precise, super technical finger picking, yet full of emotion. Nerd note: fans of 1980s tenor sax might recognize the late great Michael Brecker weaving some really nice playing around 2:43. I bought the soundtrack for this song and it was a staple on all my college era mix tapes. This track shows where Dire Straits was going pre-Brothers in Arms. A lot All of my breakups during the 1980s featured this song as a soundtrack. Something about the chorus turnaround chords kills me every time I hear them.

My introduction to the film was via Gregory’s Girl which was also directed by Bill Forsyth (Wikipedia; IMDb). Even if you don’t like the song, see Local Hero because Burt Lancaster is fantastic. Plus, Scottish accents galore.

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Daily affirmation: Show up.