I can finally tell the sun is setting just a little later every day. For me, the darkness of winter is worse than the cold. I’m glad the light is moving in the right direction again.

I’ve noticed the sun setting along the railroad tracks at the corner of Fair Oaks and Thurber avenues before, and wished I had my camera. It happened to be in the car when I drove by today.

Some photographers say you should bring your camera with you everywhere you go. I guess this proves their point.

The best sunset I saw on my last camping trip.

When it’s too hot to take pictures during the day, wait until the sun goes down, and point your camera up.

I suppose a beautiful sunset is some consolation for the smaller amount of daylight hours. Welcome to the season of darkness.

After watching them for a while, I gave my eyes a rest and continued hiking. While I walked through the woods, another one appeared. This time directly overhead, framed beautifully by the bare branches.

Back out into the clearing, and the sun dogs made another appearance. This time there was a better hint of the arc on the left side.

When I was camping last week, I wasn’t on the right side of the lake for watching the sun set. But the sky still offered some beautiful scenes during that time of day.

It makes me think a person should pay closer attention to the sky at dusk, even if you can’t see the sun brilliantly setting.

Some trees always seem to be reaching higher. Over the years they continue to strive for heights not yet attained. They wait patiently through cold winters, and resume their hard work again in spring — always keeping their focus on that goal of growing bigger.

The next time I think giving up would be easy but not the best choice, I’m going to remember this tree.

I believe this is the first time I’ve ever taken pictures of a sunset during the winter. I guess the lesson is, you’re not going to get good photos if you don’t get out there.