Right Place, Right Time

Two days ago I went out in search of a new place on the Mighty to get some sunset shots. I planned to find a spot with the old river bridge and the new river bridge in the foreground, with a beautiful Delta sunset in the background. As the sun was rapidly approaching the horizon and I still had not found this "spot" I pictured in my head, I took off driving down the levee to find just ANY spot that had a view of the sun and the river. As I approached a curve in the levee, I noticed a little spur off to my left where I could see an opening and sunlight on the trees. As I got closer, I realized that this was a place we used to frequent (at night) in high school. It's just North of Warfield Point Park on the levee. It was always called the "Pretty Place." I never knew why it was called the "Pretty Place"; it was just a turn off of the main levee that went a couple hundred yards and ended at a locked gate... nothing spectacular. Well, the clock was ticking and I drove my truck up to the locked gate, grabbed my camera, hopped over the gate (disregarding all "Danger" and "No Trespassing" signs, of course), and walked down the gravel road leading to the river bank. After a brief walk, I got down to the base of the levee and finally realized the origin of the name for this high school Friday night haunt. The view was amazing. I spent about an hour walking up and down this road taking pics from various angles and perspectives. Several shots turned out great.

Now, though, I will explain the title of this post.

A huge factor in taking good sunset pictures is being in the right place at the right time. Gorgeous sunsets in the Delta are so common that we all take them for granted. People that don't live here are always amazed when they see pictures of Delta sunsets, or even better, when they see them in person. I was so excited about my newfound spot off the levee that I went back to the exact same spot the very next day. This is what I saw. Whoever owned the place that I was blatantly trespassing on had come and dumped gravel and dirt in huge piles along the road and spilled diesel everywhere. I couldn't believe it. If I had waited just one more day, I wouldn't have gotten to see the great view from the day before.

Situations such as this really put things in perspective for me. Take the initiative, don't procrastinate, get out, go and do every chance you get. You never know what it will look like tomorrow. And don't ever assume that there will even be a tomorrow.