CoNtRaSt, HARMONY, & balance &

This photo was taken by my friend Garett Garcia on my iPhone 6.  We were golfing out at the Sand Hollow golf course at dusk when he took this, and it was while we were driving in a golf cart. Thus, it was a complete accident how it turned out.  However, that is how many of the beautiful pictures come to be.

The contrast does many things here.  The soft and subtle green grass evolves into an intensity of reds, yellows, and oranges.  This gradually fades to a slight pink hue and finally into that deep sky blue.  Psychologically, this image has toyed with my mind and emotions.  I feel very calm looking at the picture overall, as most individuals see a sunset as romantic or soothing (which can be very cultural as well depending on one's context of life).  This sense of security and calmness comes from the social meaning of a sunset, which most people group together in saying that the "twilight" of life is the most sublime, and where one enjoys themselves the most.
Yet, my eyes always drift to the focal point of the sun.  It's an explosion.  It catches me off guard the longer I study it.  The soft salmon pinks between the navy mountains and the white clouds shows the contrast of space the best.  It makes it feel as though the sun is a worm hole, sucking the earth into it, and that space between the mountains and clouds makes it seem as if the sucking is at an extremely fast pace; what an excellent play on space this is.  The contrast between the texture of the grass and rock formation covering the sun, compared with the seemingly silky, smooth sky really hits home physically.  If I were to place my hand on the sky and clouds, it would definitely feel like a type of soft fabric, i.e. silk, velvet, or felt.  Contrasting that is the almost 'carpety' feel of the grass, which gives another dimension of contrast in the position of these two elements.  The catalyst of the 'pop' of light that makes the light rays is the rock formation.  The rough shape acts as a covering for the light to make a splash.

The aforementioned light rays act as the "balance beams."  To me, it is as if the earth is somehow suspended from these lines of light, holding onto the light and keeping the earth in tact and appropriately aligned.  At first, I thought that without the sun and beams of light in the picture, it would have felt more in balance. Yet, that is just what we are accustomed to.  Seeing patterns of the horizon being a line, or a harmony of dark and light.  Somehow the sun pulls away from that normality, and disrupts the expectation of a smooth transition enough to make it perfectly balance each of the sides of the picture.  This has everything to do with the orientation.  Without the effect of the rays, and the perfectly assembled perspective that the clouds bring would not have the zoom-zoom Mazda effect.  Lastly, the social perspective of a cowboy or desperado beating the odds comes to mind.  This cultural aspect gives one a sense of winning, or overcoming.