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The Symphony of Nature’s Gradients
We are a city that celebrates fog, mist, clouds, and the marine layer. For a big part of the year, both sunrise and sunset are hidden from our view, obscured by the gray layer that greets us daily. However, during the months of September and October, we experience what we call the city’s “Indian summer.” This period is characterized by clearer skies and warmer days, which make sunrises and sunsets particularly colorful and filled with gradients.
These gradients have greeted me every day since I returned from my long photography-focused trip. Since returning, I’ve been less enthusiastic about picking up my camera and going for a walk. Instead, I’ve settled into a routine: waking up super early, heading to the gym, and returning to the apartment an hour later to make my coffee.
It’s around this time that the sky starts to change colors, forming beautiful gradients. The same dramatic display in the sky repeats itself at the end of the day, with different hues and varying gradients. These daily colorful displays, these gradients, chronicle the passage of seasons, especially here in San Francisco.
Even though I’m not so keen on going out for photography, I’ve been capturing these gradients. I’ve been using a Leica M11 with a Leica Macro-Elmar-M 90 mm f/4 lens to capture these images—most of them are right out of the camera, with slight adjustments to the black point. I love how the camera renders the colors of nature’s gradients.
What exactly are gradients, and why do they happen?
During sunrise and sunset, the sky often displays gradients of warm colors like orange, pink, and red near the horizon, gradually transitioning to the typical blue of higher altitudes. During twilight—the period before sunrise and after sunset—a gradient of colors emerges, ranging from a deep blue to various shades of purple, depending on the time of the year and location.
Gradients occur due to a combination of Rayleigh and Mie scattering and the Earth’s curvature. The angle at which sunlight penetrates the atmosphere and interacts with various particles creates these gradients. During San Francisco’s Indian Summer, the sun follows a more oblique trajectory, leading to increased light scattering, resulting in the pronounced gradients we see in the skies over the city and Northern California.
These sky gradients symbolize the changing rhythms of the seasons and the Earth’s journey around the Sun. To me, gradients are like the planet’s clock face, silently but effectively marking time.
I cherish these mornings and evenings. I’m fortunate to live near San Francisco Bay, offering me an unobstructed view. It’s the perfect vantage point to truly experience the changing rhythms of our planet. Almost every day, after returning from the gym, I stand outside my apartment with my cup of coffee, admiring this beautiful canvas unfolding before my eyes. And when the day ends, I grab my favorite sparkling water and savor the view one last time. It’s a peaceful bookend to the day.
September 29, 2023. San Francisco
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Very nice but I’m going to keep my 15 ProMax since it is more camera that I am photographer…
Thanks for sharing.
Most photographers don’t realize it. I think you have received the photographic nirvana.