A moment in time. That’s what Krista Stevens focuses on in this week’s WordPress Challenge theme. The term she used is evanescent. The definition: Soon passing out of sight, memory, or existence, quickly fading or disappearing. You can read her entire challenge post here. The first thing that came to my mind was that fleeting time around sunrise and sunset. Photographers know it as the “golden hour”, but truly the light changes so quickly that at any given instant, the image changes, sometimes imperceptibly, sometimes greatly.  Take, for example, my opening photo. This shot was moments after sunrise. The lighting at that particular moment featured those warm yellows and oranges normally associated with autumn. If I didn’t know that I captured this image in late April in northern Minnesota, I’d have guessed it was captured in the fall.

I’m told that the earth turns at around 700 miles per hour. Given that, we can deduce that the sun won’t be in any one specific position for very long. Cloud patterns being what they are, every day provides a different view. The aircraft in the image above is also a reflection of time, a time long past when aircraft like it were in their prime. Yes, this bird is still flying, unlike so many of her generation. The gallery of images below features sunrises and sunsets frozen in time. That specific instant took but a moment to pass, but my camera captured it and translated it to digital bits. How long will it last in that format? Only time will tell. Click on an image below to enlarge it and to scroll through the gallery.

Turtle River State Park, ND

Phoenix, AZ

Outer Banks, North Carolina.

Missouri River, ND

Buckeye, AZ

Red River at Fargo, ND

Ixtapa, MX

Bismarck, ND

Breezy Point, MN

*Red River at Fargo, ND

John Steiner