Mt. Rainier at Sunset

This was actually 'second sunset' - there was an earlier false sunset from cloud shadows

Mt. Rainier at sunset with anti crepuscular rays (cloud shadows)

I hurried to get to my favorite viewpoint for Mt. Rainier last night, so that I could get set up for sunset photographs. However, when I got there, it looked like sunset had come early—half the mountain was already in shadow!

A glance behind showed that the sun had ‘set’ behind a deck of clouds in the west. So I got some shots of ‘last light’ and assumed I’d have to pack up early and head home. Here’s one of those early shots—well, actually three photos (left, right, center) taken as the ‘first sunset’ was nearly done. I have done some haze removal in image processing software to bring out the rays, and it also shows some smoke from fires in Eastern Washington.

I was busy changing lenses that evening - here’s a shot with a wide-angle lens, also with haze removal to show the rays.

Shot with 35mm lens to get a wider view.

I took an even wider shot to show the edge of the cloud deck that was behind me, obscuring the not-yet-set sun. This is the last edge of the ‘first sunset’ from the cloud deck.

Those last two shots, at 35mm and 20mm, respectively, show the quality of the wide-angle zoom lens I use on the Fuji 100S II camera. It’s one of the best wide-angles I’ve ever used.