The Accidental Sunset or "An Accident Going Somewhere To Happen"

Accidental sunset. (Click picture for larger view)

"Confidence is the illusion born of accidental success." ~ unknown

This was an accident. Well. Not really an accidental sunset; I expected the sunset, but driving down a long, flat stretch of Midwestern prairie after ten or twelve hours of the same, was becoming monotonous. I decided to take some pictures. Yes, while I was driving. No I do not talk on the cell phone while driving but I do take pictures and try not to over steer so as not to get that adrenaline, accident causing yell of "OOOOOOHHHHHH" from the front passenger seat. That is where my mom is asleep as I take this. Most of the time I have to balance the camera on the steering wheel, try to aim at something, click and hope for the best. No flash; learned that the hard way.

Anyway, the sun was bright in my eyes as it set and slightly to the south of the highway. The flat Illinois plains with scattered trees was a great backdrop and as long as my camera faced forward and only slightly to the left, the focus would be pretty good. Another tidbit; don't bother with pictures out of a side window, with no flash there is just too much motion blur. I snapped off about twenty five pictures, not really paying attention to the composition; I was trying to keep an eighteen wheeler from running over our van at the same time. About eight of them were pretty good. Here, though a bridge managed to get in the way. I almost chucked it but, the sun was just settling behind the concrete structure and those elongated rays seemed to emanate from behind and the halo was really pretty great. Of course the foreground was too dark, but this gave the ordinary overpass bridge a mysterious feeling. I kept it.

So there, now you know. I often point in a general direction, through a window with bug spatterings; let the camera focus and click the shutter. I deal with the "delete" button later. On occasion something spectacular will pop up when I least expect it!

Submission for PhotoFriday topic "accidental". (end of post)